Before he became ‘The Rock,’ Dwayne Johnson was a failed football player with seven bucks in his pocket.
How did he go from a penniless jabroni to the most electrifying man in entertainment?
This is the Evolution of Dwayne Johnson.
Before he fought Steve Austin, scorpions, and skyscrapers,
Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson was fighting for his life during
The Early Years.
On May 2, 1972, Dwayne Douglas Johnson
was born into a wrestling dynasty. His Samoan grandfather
competed as the 'High Chief' Peter Maivia, while his father,
'Soul Man' Rocky Johnson, was one-half of WWE’s first
Black tag team champions.
Dwayne, or 'Dewey' as his mom called him, spent much of his youth
on the road as a result of his dad’s career.
His family moved at least 13 times as they struggled to make ends meet,
And as a result of the instability, Dwayne found himself in constant
hot water as a teen, like taking part in a theft ring
hitting up luxury stores, and getting expelled from high school
after his first and last real fight.
After being evicted from their Hawaii apartment when
Dwayne was just 14, his mother Ata attempted suicide.
She walked out into the middle of highway traffic,
but luckily her son was there to pull her to safety.
After the incident, Dwayne was determined to provide a better life for his family,
and he figured the best way to do that was to get big and strong
and play football in the NFL.
Fortunately for him, that never quite worked out
because for Dwayne Johnson, fate had
A Different Plan.
Johnson received a football scholarship
to the University of Miami, but his dreams of NFL glory were shattered
when a knee injury placed him on the sidelines.
Dwayne was passed over for the draft, and had to settle for
the Canadian Football League, where he made a measly $250 a week.
He was forced to share a two-bedroom apartment
with three other players, eating ramen noodles and sleeping on
a filthy mattress he found ditched outside a pay-by-the-hour motel.
At the age of 23, Dwayne was cut from the team, and returned home with only seven dollars in his pocket,
a figure that would stick with him for life, and inspire the name of
his later business venture, Seven Bucks Productions.
Instead of spending the rest of his life as a down-on-his-luck jabroni,
Johnson decided to follow in his family tradition of pro wrestling,
and while his father was initially reluctant, the ‘Soul Man’ agreed
as long as he could personally show his son the ropes.
After his training was complete, Dwayne was scouted by WWE.
and in 1996, he debuted on TV a happy-go-lucky good guy named ‘Rocky Maivia,’ a combination of his father and grandfather’s ring names.
A smiling, cheerful babyface might have gone over well in the ‘80s,
but the ‘90s crowds demanded a little more attitude.
They chanted ‘Rocky sucks’ and ‘die, Rocky, die,’
"In arenas across the country, I heard chants of 'Rocky sucks.'"
[Crowd chants 'Rocky Sucks']
"Well Rocky Maivia is a lot of things, but 'sucks' isn't one of them."
So he took their hatred and turned it into the arrogant
heel character that made him a megastar.
Not only was he a stellar in-ring athlete, but his charismatic promos
and nack for coining catchphrases skyrocketed him to the top
of WWE during their greatest boom period.
After conquering the world of pro wrestling, the Rock was eager
to share his talent with an even bigger audience, but in his first
forays in Hollywood, the Brahma Bull was a
Box Office Bomb.
The Rock first dipped his toes into acting during his original WWE run,
hosting 'SNL' on the eve of WrestleMania 2000,
playing his father on an episode of ‘That ‘70s Show,’
and an intergalactic gladiator who suplexed Seven of Nine on ‘Star Trek.’
His first major movie role was in ‘The Mummy Returns,’
where he played the villainous Scorpion King.
Things were looking great for 'the Great One.'
He was paid $5 million for a ‘Scorpion King’ spinoff,
but his next few action movies, like ‘Walking Tall,’ ‘Doom,’
and ‘The Rundown’ failed to set the box office on fire,
and by the late 2000s, he was stuck in a string of cheesy family films.
Playing the Tooth Fairy was probably the last straw,
'There's got to be a way to postpone this like, like jury duty.'
'I'm sure up here you have fairy duty.'
so Rock had a meeting with his agents and said
"I want you to make me Will Smith, only bigger."
They couldn’t smell what the Rock was cooking,
so he snagged some new representation, who landed him
a career-making role in ‘Fast Five.’ After the shake-up, Johnson’s career
took off like a lightning bolt, but he never forgot his roots.
The same year his presence helped revitalize the ‘Fast and the Furious’
franchise, the Rock returned to the ring for a dream match
against John Cena at WrestleMania 28.
The bout was billed as 'once in a lifetime,'
so naturally, they had a rematch the very next year,
and not only did the Rock lose his WWE title,
he suffered a brutal groin injury during the match,
forcing him to bump back shooting his starring role in ‘Hercules’
by two months, costing the production millions.
That’s why, even though he’s not officially retired,
I wouldn’t expect to see him back in the squared circle anytime soon.
At this point, he can’t risk derailing a billion-dollar blockbuster,
and Johnson is the highest-paid, highest-grossing actor in all of Hollywood, after all,
whose global fame has solidified his status as
The People's Champ.
After ‘San Andreas’ established Johnson as a solo star
who could carry his own franchise, his team-ups with Kevin Hart
provided him with the perfect comedic foil,
'Hey, get the f*ck out of the way.'
'Oh, I don't walk,. Oh, I'm so big.
Drive me, I'm the Rock. I'm the biggest box office movie star.'
'That's f*cked up.'
and his hit HBO show ‘Ballers’ brought him back to the small screen,
the entire entertainment industry smells what the Rock is cooking.
Today, Johnson makes so many movies that even his duds
like ‘Baywatch’ are completely forgotten among massive hits
like ‘Jumanji,’ but in between filming movies,
surprising his fans, and clangin’ and bangin’ in the Iron Paradise,
Dwayne still finds time to spend with his partner Lauren Hashian
and his three daughters Simone,
Jasmine, and Tiana Gia.
The Rock’s charisma, dedication, and boundless energy has made Dwayne Johnson one of Hollywood’s few remaining megastars,
someone who can sell you a movie ticket just by having their name
on the poster. From the Smackdown Hotel to the Hollywood Walk of Fame,
Dwayne Johnson has overcome hardship and heartbreak to truly earn the title of “The Great One.”