very wrong. rodney grew up in a country-like town where skateboarding was very mellow and htere was nothing to skate, so naturally he began skating flatland. this isnt a rumor and is true. he is the firs tperson to invent almost all the basic flip tricks. however, he did not invent the ollie as many think. the ollie was invented by alan gelfand in 1978 and the first person to take an ollie down stairs and up curbs was mark gonzales.
back on topic, yes rodney mullen is sick, but hes the model posers (as much as id hate to use the word) warship. but you really cannot compare him to other skateboarders. he has his own style of skateboarding and very few can get as tech as him. daewon song is very close though, although not as tech, he goes far bigger. rodney mullen never was much into stairs and huge handrails he keeps it mellow. i have never seen a video of him doing huge gaps or whatever (and ive seen ALOT of skateboard videos. anyways thats my views.