Before rumours would swirl that Dwayne Johnson would run for president
in 2020
Before Dwayne Johnson would be Hollywoods top film grossing actor in 2013 and be named
the highest paid actor in history from 2017 to 2018, earning himself a whopping 124 million
bucks
Before The Rock would take over the WWF and WWE, becoming one of the greatest wrestlers
of all time
Before Dwayne Johnson would have over 100 IMDB Film and TV Credits
Dwayne The Rock Johnson has proven to the world he’s a man of many talents.
After a devastating injury that would crush his dreams of being an NFL superstar, to becoming
the face of the WWE, before ultimately becoming one of the biggest stars in Hollywood, The
Rock, as many of you know him, had his fair share of trial and tribulations growing up.
Being evicted from his house in his teenage years, which would lead to him committing
theft and ending up in handcuffs on multiple occasions, Dwayne Johnson has lived quite
the life, and we’re here to tell you guys all about it.
What's going on guys?
My name is Jarred Bronstein and welcome back to Before They Were Famous.
This is an updated video, as a lot has changed since the last time we covered The Rock, but
be sure to keep sending in your requests in the comments down below.
Today’s trivia question is, which movie was the Rock credited for doing his own stunts
in?
You guys gotta let me know, the answer will come toward the end of this video, but let's
got on with this show.
Dwayne Douglas Johnson was born on May 2nd, 1972 in Hayward, California.
The only child to Rocky Johnson, a professional, wrestler and Ata Maivia, who was the daughter
of a pro wrestler and a wrestling promoter.
So it’s safe to say wrestling was in this man’s blood.
Johnson is of Canadian and Samoan descent, with his father hailing from Nova Scotia,
Canada and his mother’s side coming from Samoa, although his mother was actually born
in Hawaii.
Growing up Dwayne would move around, spending most of his youth watching his father fight
ring side.
For a brief period he’d live with his mother’s family in New Zealand attending Richmond Road
Primary School in Grey Lynn, before he’d return to the US with his parents.
Upon his return, The Rock, as many of you know him, would attend Montclaire Elementary
School in Charlotte, North Carolina
Dwayne and his family would once again relocate, this time to Hamden, Connecticut, where he
would attend Shepherd Glen Elementary and Hamden Middle School.
Dwayne would attend 4 different high schools by the age of 16, President William McKinley
High in Hawaii, Glencliff and McGavock High in Nashville, Tennessee and finally, Freedom
High School in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.
According to his instagram caption, his moves were due to evictions and a lil trouble with
the law.
While in Hawaii, Dwayne, who was 14 at the time, remembered when he came home with his
mom to find a padlock on the door and an eviction notice.
“My mom starts bawling.
She just started crying and breaking down.
‘Where are we going to live?
What are we going to do?’”
A week prior, his mother’s car was repossessed.
Unfortunately the incident would have Dwayne turn to robbery, joining a theft ring that
would go after stores located in the very wealthy neighbourhood of Hawaii, Waikiki to
help try and support his family.
His criminal ways would land him in the custody of police, but it would also be the shift
in the mans life.
He told the Hollywood Reporter “It was about, ‘What can I control with these two hands?
The only thing I could do was train and build my body.
The successful men I knew were men who built their bodies.”
While attending Freedom High in Bethlehem, Johnson was recruited by the school’s football
coach while using the teacher’s bathroom.
“A teacher comes in.
His name is Jody Cwik (SWICK).
Tough guy.
He says, ‘Hey, you can’t be in here.’
I kind of pause, look over my shoulder and say, ‘Okay, I’ll leave when I’m done.’
And I continue to wash my hands.
He looked at me, didn’t say a word, but he was fuming.”
Johnson goes on to explain that night he felt bad about his actions and decided to apologize
to his future coach.
“He shook my hand.
I’ll never forget that shake he wouldn’t let it go and he said, ‘I want you to do
something for me.
… I want you to come out and play football for me.’
And I went out, and I played football for Jody Cwik (SWICK).
He was our head football coach, and he became a father figure to me and mentor.”
At 16 Johnson was already 6’4, 225lbs and it seemed like his growth wouldn’t stop
there.
As he began to crush it on the football field, all aspects of his life seemed to start turning
for the better.
He credits coach Cwik (SWICK) for a lot of his success.
At 18 years old, Johnson would be offered a full scholarship to the Miami University
to play football for the Gators, but it wouldn’t come easy.
Johnson would get offers from Penn State, UCLA, Clemson, and Florida State to name a
few, but wouldn't get the offer he would eventually accept until he personally called Miami U’s
recruiting coordinator and sold himself.
The day after he called, he would be given his full ride.
With his eyes set on becoming an NFL star, he would even go as far as using steroids
when he was 18 in hopes of it making him better, but according to him, nothing happened.
Although it seemed everything was coming up roses for Dwayne, during his freshman year
he would suffer his first of many serious injuries, a dislocated shoulder that would
lead to his first depression spell.
"I didn't know what it was.
I didn't know why I didn't want to do anything.
I had never experienced anything like that.”
Following the injury, Johnson would drop out of school and go to Tampa Bay to live with
his parents.
Sitting, with a shoulder in a sling, throwing himself a pitty party, it seemed like Johnson
really hit rock bottom.
That all changed when he got a call from his coach saying “get your ass in a car and
come back right now”.
Dwayne did just that, but wouldnt see much playing time there after, because a man by
the name of Warren Sapp, who has since been inducted to the NFL hall of fame.
Johnson would go on to have multiple knee injuries throughout his college career, but
would still win a national championship title with the team in 1991, totalling 78 tackles
and 4 sacks over his career.
After realizing his playing time has declined, Dwayne had more of a focus on his academics,
and would make sure his grades were good enough to allow him to graduate from his criminology
and physiology program, which he did in 1995.
After not getting drafted to the NFL, Johnson wasn’t ready to give up on his dream.
In 95 he would sign to the CFL’s Calgary Stampeders practice squad, making 250 bucks
a week, but it would be just 2 months before he would be cut from the team.
The idea that his dreams of making the NFL were now officially just a dream, Dwayne would
head back to Tampa to once again live with his parents.
After going through a second depression spell, that would even cause him to break up with
his future ex wife and manager, Dany Garcia, Johnson decided he was going to follow the
footsteps of his father and grandfather and become a wrestler.
His farther, reluctant at first, would eventually agree to train his son, and Johnson would
decide on the name Rocky Maivia, in honour of both his dad and grandfather.
Johnson’s grandfather, Peter Maivia was a professional wrestler and part of the famous
Anoai family, which Roman Reigns and Rikishi are also a part of.
Johnson would get his WWF tryout thanks to help from a former WWF executive and wrestler,
Pat Patterson.
He would get his WWF contract after a short time wrestling in Jerry Lawlers USWA, where
he would wrestle under the names Flex Cavana and Pidlaoan Rock.
In his 1996 WWF tryout, Johnson would defeat Brooklyn Brawler, but lose to Chris Candido
and then Owen Hart.
Regardless, his wrestling, looks and charismatic ways were enough to get him signed.
On November 17th, 1996 Johnson would make his WWF debut at the Survivor Series Pay Per
View in Madison Square Garden.
Now as many of you know, this would be the start of a very long and successful wrestling
career for The Rock.
Now you’re probably wondering how he got the name The Rock?
Well over a few months of wresting with the name Rocky Maivia, and being the clean cut
pretty boy, the fans got sick of him.
So much so, they would chant things like die, rocky die and rocky sucks.
Johnson would eventually turn heel, as they call it in the world of wrestling entertainment,
meaning he went from the good guy to the bad guy.
This would happen after he’d return from a knee injury, losing a championship fight
to Owen Hart on April 28th, 1997.
In August of 1997 Johnson would return, this time lashing out at the crowd booing him and
referring to himself in third person as The Rock.
But before his return he would marry his on and off girlfriend, Dany Garia, who he met
while playing football at Miami U.
She would also go on to be the Rock’s manager, which the man needed, because around this
time he had a lot going on.
The Rock would go on to build quite a name for himself in the WWF, with fans eventually
growing to love him and his cocky, arrogant charismatic ways.
Kinda like how I’m hoping you guys will grow to like me.
We’ll see, it’s been less than a month.
Anyway, in 1999 The Rock would have his acting debut on That 70’s show, playing his own
father in the episode titled That Wrestling Show.
Just over a year later, he’d act in an episode of Star trek, as an alien that pretty much
still looked like him.
These small TV roles and his wild success in the WWF would lead Johnson to host his
first Saturday Night Live in 2000, a gig that the Rock himself would credit for the reasoning
he started receiving Hollywood movie offers.
But before The Rock would hit the big screen he’d release his autobiography, The Rock
Says, which would debut #1 on the New York Times Best Seller and stay at top the charts
for weeks.
In 2001 The Rock would land a role in the movie The Mummy Returns, and just two months
after it’s release, On August 14th, 2001 Johnson and Dany would welcome tot he world
their only child together, Simone Johnson.
Like I said, busy guy.
All this would be going down while he was still crushing it in the wrestling world.
Dwayne The Rock Johnson would go on to become a legend in the wrestling world, wining the
WWE Championship 8 times, the WWF Tag team championship 5 times, the WWF intercontinental
championship 2 times, and many other accomplishments that you guys can look up because we’ll
be here all day.
Bottom line, he was an incredible wrestler and a fan favourite.
However his transition to the film and tv industry wasn’t so easy.
Johnson would get his first lead role in The Scorpion King, a spin off of the The Mummy
series.
Although it didn’t get the best reviews it still made more than double what it cost
the film to produce, so I’d say success.
His lead role would then lead to other films such as The Rundown, Walking Tall, a supporting
role in Be Cool and Grid Iron Gang to name a few.
While The Rock’s hollywood stock started to rise, he would start to take a step back
from the world of wrestling before eventually retiring, temporarily.
In 2007 Johnson would split from his manager and wife, Dany Garcia, although they still
remain great friends with Dany still managing Johnson’s career.
Johnson would go on to marry Lauren Hashian, who he met in 2006 while shooting The Game
Play.
The two would go on to have two daughters, born in 2015 and 2018.
It seems the movie that really helped Dwayne Johnson become the hollywood sensation he
is today, was Fast Five, which is the fifth installation of the Fast and the Furious franchise.
This role would help Johnson star in Fast and Furious 6, as well as Pain and Gain and
Snitch.
In 2012, Johnson would start his production company, Seven Bucks Productions and In 2013
Forbes would name Johnson the top grossing actor, with his films bringing in an estimated
1.3 billion worldwide.
As many of you now know, Dwayne The Rock Johnson would go on to star in movies such as Baywatch,
Jumanji and get his own Fast and the Furious spin off.
Of course, he’d also star in the HBO hit Ballers and would also go on to have a partnership
with Under Armour, who he would release gym bags, tank tops, t shirts, headphones, you
name, his brand is on it.
Johnson also has a youtube channel, where he’s featured a ton of stars, most notably
good friend and youtube star Lilly Singh.
At the time of this recording The Rock has over 4 million youtube subscribers, just under
150 million instagram followers, and of course, a shit load of money.
We did a Rich Life on the Rock as well so be sure to check that out.
This was a long video so I gotta wrap it up with the answer to our question.
For our trivia question I asked, which movie was Dwayne Johnson credited doing his own
stunts for?
As many of you know, his stunt double who’s actually his cousin but could pass as his
twin, Tanoai (TAN O WHY) Reed, does all of The Rocks stunts.
But in the movie Snitch, which came out in 2013, The Rock was given his first and only
Stunt credit to date.
Aright guys, I'm wrapping up this video here, My name is Jarred Bronstein.
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