Dwayne Johnson shares journey of becoming ‘the Rock’
Dwayne Johnson revealed his initial name was Rocky Maivia before he became ‘The Rock’
Dwayne Johnson has shared the journey of his “rookie” year before he became famous as “The Rock”.
He also revealed that initially his name was Rocky Maivia and the renowned star considered starting his career in MMA.
During a conversation with host Joe Rogan on The Joe Rogan Experience, Dwayne talked about his MMA career at PRIDE.
Taking to Instagram on Tuesday, the Black Adam star captioned the clip, “Chopping it up with @joerogan about the summer of ‘97 before I became “The Rock”, my name was “Rocky Maivia” - I just tore a ligament in my knee and my @wwe career was completely failing as a rookie babyface. I started to consider a career in MMA with a new started fighting company, called PRIDE in Japan — where the athletes were making some pretty big money.”
He added, “I thought I could take a year or so to commit to my MMA training and maybe I’d have shot. Maybe I’d make some real money. At the end of that summer of ‘97 I was rehabbing my injured knee and got the call from Vince McMahon that wound up changing my life — he said I’m gonna bring you back BUT you’re gonna become a heel, join the Nation of Domination and call yourself The Rock.”
Dwayne further penned, “Thank God I got that call, because my career as an MMA fighter in PRIDE would’ve lasted all of 3 minutes because those guys would’ve knocked my lungs loose and sent my jaw across the pacific. But the lesson of all this that I did learn, is that the most powerful thing you can be is yourself.”
