Dwayne Johnson
Dwayne Douglas Johnson (born May 2, 1972), also known by his ring name The Rock, is an American-Canadian[1] actor, producer, businessman, retired professional wrestler,[8] and former professional football player.[1] He was a professional wrestler for the World Wrestling Federation (WWF, now WWE) for eight years prior to pursuing an acting career. His films have grossed over $3.5 billion in North America and over $10.5 billion worldwide,[9] making him one of the highest-grossing box-office stars of all time.[10]
Johnson was a college football player for the University of Miami, with whom he won a national championship in 1991. He initially aspired for a professional career in football and entered the 1995 NFL Draft, but he went undrafted. As a result, Johnson signed with the Calgary Stampeders of the Canadian Football League (CFL), but was cut from the team in the middle of his first season. Shortly after, he began training as a professional wrestler.[11]
In 1996, Johnson secured a contract with the WWF and was promoted as the first third-generation wrestler in the company's history, as he is the son of Rocky Johnson and grandson of Peter Maivia. He rose to prominence after developing a charismatic persona of a boastful trash-talking wrestler named The Rock. He subsequently won his first WWF Championship in 1998 and helped usher the WWF into the "Attitude Era", a boom period in the company's business in the latter 1990s and early 2000s which still hold professional wrestling records for television ratings.[12] In 2004, he left the WWE to pursue an acting career and went on a seven-year hiatus before returning in 2011 as a part-time performer until 2013, before wholly retiring in 2019.
Considered to be one of the greatest professional wrestlers and biggest draws of all-time,[13][14] The Rock headlined the most-bought professional wrestling pay-per-view event ever, WrestleMania XXVIII, and was featured in among the most watched episodes of WWE's television shows, WWE Raw and WWE SmackDown.[15][16] He has won several championships, being a two-time Intercontinental Champion, a five-time tag team champion, and a ten-time world champion.[17] He was also a Royal Rumble match winner and WWE's sixth Triple Crown champion.
Johnson had his first acting role in The Mummy Returns (2001), and played his first lead role in The Scorpion King (2002). He has since starred in numerous successful films, including The Game Plan (2007), Get Smart (2008), Race to Witch Mountain (2009), Tooth Fairy (2010), Journey 2: The Mysterious Island (2012), G.I. Joe: Retaliation (2013), Hercules (2014), San Andreas (2015), Central Intelligence (2016), Moana (2016), Rampage (2018), and Skyscraper (2018). Johnson's most successful box office role has been Luke Hobbs in The Fast Saga films. He first appeared as the character in Fast Five (2011) and helped catapult the film series into one of the top-grossing movie franchises in history.[18] He starred in the sequels, Fast & Furious 6 (2013), Furious 7 (2015), and The Fate of the Furious (2017), as well as the spin-off film Hobbs & Shaw (2019).[19] Another notable franchise starring Johnson is Jumanji, and he has appeared in Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle (2017) and its sequel Jumanji: The Next Level (2019).
Johnson starred in the HBO series Ballers, on which he was also a producer, starting in 2015. The show ran for five seasons and was ranked as HBO's most watched comedy in six years.[20] He has also attained success as a television host, author, and producer.[21][22] In 2000, he released an autobiography titled The Rock Says... which debuted at number one on The New York Times Best Seller list.[23][24] In 2012, he founded the entertainment production company Seven Bucks Productions, which has since produced several films.[25] Consistently ranked among the world's highest paid actors,[26] Johnson made the Time 100 Most Influential People in the World list in both 2016 and 2019
Early life
Dwayne Douglas Johnson was born on May 2, 1972,[29] in Hayward, California,[30] to Ata Johnson (née Maivia; born 1948)[31] and former professional wrestler Rocky Johnson (born Wayde Douglas Bowles; 1944–2020).[32][33] Growing up, Johnson briefly lived in New Zealand with his mother's family,[34] where he attended Richmond Road Primary School in Grey Lynn before returning to the United States.[34] He then attended Montclaire Elementary School in Charlotte, North Carolina before moving to Hamden, Connecticut, where he spent a couple of years at Shepherd Glen Elementary School and Hamden Middle School.[35][36] Johnson spent his high school years at President William McKinley High School in Honolulu, Hawaii, Glencliff High School and McGavock High School in Nashville, Tennessee, and Freedom High School in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.[37] He was arrested multiple times for fighting, theft, and check fraud before the age of 17.[38] Johnson also began playing sports, joining his high schools' gridiron football, track and field and wrestling teams.[32]
Johnson is half-Black and half-Samoan. His father was a Black Canadian, from Nova Scotia,[39] and part of the first Black tag team champions in WWE history along with Tony Atlas.[40][41] His mother is Samoan and the daughter of Peter Maivia, who was also a pro wrestler.[42] Maivia's wife, Lia, was the first female pro wrestling promoter, taking over Polynesian Pacific Pro Wrestling after her husband's death in 1982, until 1988.[43][44] Through his grandfather Maivia, Johnson is considered a non-blood relative to the Anoa'i wrestling family.[45][46][47][48][49] In 2008, Johnson inducted his father and grandfather into the WWE Hall of Fame.[50]
Football career
Johnson was a promising football prospect and received offers from many Division I collegiate programs. He decided on a full scholarship from the University of Miami where he mostly played defensive tackle. In 1991, he was on the Miami Hurricanes' national championship team.[51][32] After suffering a number of injuries, he was later replaced in the starting lineup by future Pro Football Hall of Famer Warren Sapp.[52]
After Johnson graduated in 1995 with a Bachelor of General Studies in criminology and physiology,[53] he signed with the Calgary Stampeders of the Canadian Football League as a linebacker. He was assigned to the practice roster but was cut two months into the season.[32][54][55]
Professional wrestling career
Early career (1996)
After his football career, Johnson decided to pursue a career as a professional wrestler.[32] Veteran wrestler Pat Patterson got Johnson several tryout matches with the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) in 1996. Under his real name, he defeated The Brooklyn Brawler at a house show on March 10.[56] and lost matches to Chris Candido and Owen Hart.[34] After wrestling at Jerry Lawler's United States Wrestling Association as Flex Kavana and winning the USWA World Tag Team Championship twice with Bart Sawyer in the summer of 1996, Johnson signed a WWF contract. He received additional training from Tom Prichard, alongside Achim Albrecht and Mark Henry.[6][34]
World Wrestling Federation/Entertainment
Debut and Intercontinental Champion (1996–1997)
Johnson made his WWF debut as Rocky Maivia, a combination of his father and grandfather's ring names, although his real name was acknowledged by the announcers.[57] He was initially reluctant to take this ring name but was persuaded by Vince McMahon and Jim Ross.[44][58] He was given the nickname "The Blue Chipper" and his lineage was played to on TV, where he was hyped as the WWF's first third-generation wrestler.[4] Maivia, a clean-cut face character, was pushed heavily from the start despite his wrestling inexperience. He debuted on Monday Night Raw as a member of Marc Mero's entourage on November 4, 1996.[59] His first match came at Survivor Series, on November 17, in an eight-man elimination tag match; he was the sole survivor and eliminated the final two members of the opposing team, Crush and Goldust.[60] On February 13, 1997, he won the Intercontinental Championship from Hunter Hearst Helmsley on Monday Night Raw.[61][62][63] Maivia then successfully defended the title against Helmsley at In Your House 13: Final Four. He had his first WrestleMania match at WrestleMania 13 where he was victorious in his Intercontinental Championship defense against The Sultan. WWF fans started to reject his character and push from the company.[64] He defeated Bret Hart by disqualification in a title defense on the March 31 episode of Raw is War.[65] Behind the scenes, Hart mentored Johnson for his first year in WWF[66] and refused to be booked to take the title from him.[67] On April 20, at In Your House 14: Revenge of the 'Taker, he lost to Savio Vega by countout but retained the title. Audiences became increasingly hostile toward Maivia, with chants of "die, Rocky, die" and "Rocky sucks" being heard during his matches.[3][44]
The Nation of Domination (1997–1998)
After losing the Intercontinental Championship to Owen Hart on the April 28, 1997 episode of Raw Is War[68] and suffering a legitimate knee injury in a match against Mankind,[3] Maivia returned in August 1997 and turned heel for the first time in his career by lashing out at fans who had been booing him and joining Faarooq, D'Lo Brown and Kama in the stable called the Nation of Domination.[69] He then refused to acknowledge the Rocky Maivia name, instead referring to himself in the third person as The Rock, though he would still be billed as "The Rock" Rocky Maivia until 1998. The Rock would then regularly insult the audience, WWF performers, and interviewers in his promos.[69]
At D-Generation X: In Your House, Stone Cold Steve Austin defeated The Rock in under six minutes to retain the Intercontinental Championship.[70] The next night on Raw Is War, Austin was ordered by Mr. McMahon to defend the title in a rematch, but forfeited it to The Rock instead, handing him the title belt before hitting him with the Stone Cold Stunner.[71][72] The Rock feuded with Austin and Ken Shamrock through the end of 1997 and beginning of 1998.[73][74] On January 19, 1998, at Royal Rumble, The Rock defeated Shamrock by disqualification to retain the Intercontinental title. Later that night, he entered the Royal Rumble match and lasted until the final two before he was eliminated by Stone Cold Steve Austin. On March 29, at WrestleMania XIV, he defeated Shamrock by disqualification once again to retain the title. The next night, on Raw is War, The Rock debuted a new Intercontinental Championship design and would later overthrow Faarooq as leader of the Nation of Domination to spark a feud between the two. He then successfully defended the Intercontinental title against Faarooq at Over the Edge: In Your House on May 31. The stable would then refer to themselves as simply "The Nation".[75]
The Rock and The Nation then feuded with Triple H and D-Generation X, with the two stable leaders first meeting in the quarter-final of the 1998 King of the Ring tournament, which The Rock won. At King of the Ring, The Rock defeated Dan Severn in the semi-final match and lost to rival Ken Shamrock in the final. The Rock then resumed his feud with Triple H, as the two had a two out of three falls match at Fully Loaded: In Your House for the Intercontinental title, which The Rock retained in controversial fashion.[76] This led to a ladder match at SummerSlam, where The Rock lost the title.[77]
The Rock saw a big uptick in fan support during this time, causing him to be booked in a feud with fellow Nation members Mark Henry and D'Lo Brown, turning babyface in the process. Henry defeated him at Judgment Day: In Your House, after interference from Brown, effectively breaking up the stable.[78][79]
WWF Champion and rise to superstardom (1998–2000)
The Rock was then entered into the "Deadly Game" tournament for the vacant WWF Championship. The finals occurred at Survivor Series, where The Rock defeated Vince McMahon's associate, Mankind, to win his first WWF Championship.[80][80][81] A "double turn" then occurred as The Rock turned heel again after allying with Vince and Shane McMahon as the crown jewel of their stable, The Corporation, after the McMahons betrayed Mankind.[80][82] On December 13, 1998, at the pay-per-view named after him, Rock Bottom: In Your House, The Rock had a rematch with Mankind for the WWF Championship. Mankind appeared to win the match when The Rock passed out to the Mandible Claw submission move, but Vince McMahon ruled that since The Rock did not tap out, he retained his title.[82][83]
The Rock continued to feud with Mankind over the WWF Championship, which was traded back and forth between them. First, in the main event of the January 4, 1999 episode of Raw Is War, Mankind defeated The Rock after interference from Stone Cold Steve Austin.[84] Then, in an "I Quit" match at Royal Rumble on January 24, The Rock regained the title in a brutal “I Quit” match, a type of match that only ends if one of the combatants says “I Quit”. This match went horribly wrong as at the end of the match The Rock hit Mankind in the head with a steel chair eleven times instead of the scripted five- five shots already being a risky amount (most wrestling matches in the Attitude Era involving steel chairs had at most 2 or 3 shots to the head)[85]. After the 5th shot, Mankind was still at ringside instead of being two-thirds up the entrance ramp where he was supposed to be, and after the eleventh shot which knocked a bloodied Mankind out, a recording of Mankind saying "I Quit" from an earlier interview was played over the PA system.[86][87] On January 31, during an episode of Sunday Night Heat, The Rock and Mankind participated in an Empty Arena match, a match that took place in an arena with 22,000 empty seats where any part of the facility could be used to contest the match. After 20 minutes of chaotic brawling in the ring, the stands, a kitchen, the catering area, an office, the arena corridors and finally a basement loading area, Mankind pinned The Rock using a forklift truck to win the WWF title.[88] This match was referred to as "Halftime Heat" as it was televised during halftime of that year's Super Bowl.[89] The two faced off again, at St. Valentine's Day Massacre: In Your House, in a Last Man Standing match which ended in a draw, meaning Mankind retained the title. Their feud ended on the February 15 Raw Is War, when The Rock won his third WWF Championship in a Ladder Match after Big Show interfered on his behalf.[90][91] The Rock then lost the WWF Championship to Stone Cold Steve Austin at WrestleMania XV.[92]
The Rock's popularity continued to grow and audiences still cheered for him even though he was a heel. He then lost the title rematch against Stone Cold Steve Austin at Backlash: In Your House[93] after he was betrayed by Shane McMahon, turning him face again and starting a feud with Triple H, The Undertaker and The Corporate Ministry. On April 29, 1999, WWF aired the pilot episode of SmackDown!, a term derived from one of The Rock's catchphrases. In the episode, The Rock continued his feud with The Corporate Ministry. This led to a match with Triple H, at Over the Edge, which The Rock won,[94] and a match for the WWF Championship against The Undertaker, at King of the Ring, which The Rock lost.[95] The Rock then lost a number one contender's match to Triple H, at Fully Loaded, after interference from "Mr. Ass" Billy Gunn.[96] The Rock then defeated Gunn in a Kiss My Ass match at SummerSlam
Shortly after SummerSlam, The Rock began teaming with former opponent Mankind and the two became known as The Rock 'n' Sock Connection.[98] They became WWF Tag Team Champions for the first time after defeating The Undertaker and Big Show for the titles on the August 30, 1999 episode of Raw is War.[99][100] The two performed a number of critically acclaimed comedic skits together, including one called "This Is Your Life", which saw Mankind bring parody versions of people from The Rock's past on television, such as his high school girlfriend and his high school football coach, only to have The Rock insult them. The segment earned an 8.4 Nielsen rating, one of the highest ratings ever for a Raw segment.[101] The two lost the titles back to Undertaker and Big Show on the September 7, 1999 episode of SmackDown! and won them back from them on the September 20, 1999 episode of Raw is War.[102][103] Rock and Mankind then lost the titles to The New Age Outlaws on the very next episode SmackDown!.[104] Rock and Mankind would win the tag titles for the third and final time after beating the New Age Outlaws on the October 12, 1999 episode of SmackDown! before losing the titles to The Holly Cousins on the October 18, 1999 episode of Raw is War.[105][106]
At Royal Rumble, on January 23, 2000, The Rock entered the Royal Rumble match and was one of the final two remaining, along with Big Show; In an attempt at a "false finish", Big Show intended to throw The Rock over the top rope in a running powerslam-like position, before The Rock countered the move on the ring apron, sending Big Show to the floor before re-entering the ring as the winner.[107] However, The Rock's feet accidentally hit the floor during the reversal attempt although those watching the event on TV did not see that. This was played up in the storyline as Big Show provided additional video footage showing this fact, and claimed to be the rightful winner. The Rock's number one contendership for the WWF Championship was then put on the line against Big Show at No Way Out, which Big Show won after Shane McMahon interfered.[108] The Rock then defeated Big Show, on the March 13 episode of Raw Is War, to regain the right to face the WWF Champion, Triple H, at WrestleMania 2000 in a Fatal Four-way elimination match, also including Big Show and Mick Foley.[109][110] Each wrestler had a McMahon in his corner: Triple H had his wife, Stephanie, Foley had Linda, The Rock had Vince and Big Show had Shane.[110][111] The Rock lasted until the final two but was eliminated by then-reigning champion Triple H after Vince betrayed him by hitting him with a chair.[111][112]
Record-breaking world champion (2000–2002)
In the following weeks, The Rock continued his feud with Triple H and eventually won his fourth WWF Championship, which he won on April 30, at Backlash, after Stone Cold Steve Austin intervened on his behalf.[113][114] The following night on Raw, he successfully defended his title against Shane McMahon in a Steel Cage match. On May 21, at Judgment Day, The Rock faced Triple H in an Iron Man match with Shawn Michaels as the special guest referee.[115] With the score tied at five falls each, and with seconds left on the time limit, The Rock was disqualified when The Undertaker attacked Triple H, thus giving Triple H the 6–5 win and the title.[115][116] The Rock won the WWF Championship for a fifth time at King of the Ring on June 25 by scoring the winning pin in a six-man tag team match, teaming with Kane and The Undertaker against Shane McMahon, Triple H and Vince McMahon, whom he pinned.[117][118] The Rock successfully defended the championship against Chris Benoit, on July 23, at Fully Loaded. The next month, he successfully defended his title against Kurt Angle and Triple H at SummerSlam. The Rock had another successful title defense against Benoit, Kane and The Undertaker, on September 24, at Unforgiven.[119]
The Rock then lost the WWF Championship to Kurt Angle, at No Mercy, in October.[120] The next month, The Rock feuded with Rikishi and defeated him at Survivor Series.[121] The Rock wrestled a six-man Hell in a Cell match for the WWF Championship, at Armageddon, which Angle won to retain the title.[122] On the December 18 episode of Raw, The Rock won the WWF Tag Team Championship with The Undertaker, defeating Edge and Christian, before losing it back to them the next night at a SmackDown! taping.[123] In 2001, The Rock continued to feud with Angle over the WWF Championship, culminating at No Way Out in February, where he pinned Angle to win the WWF Championship for a sixth time.[124][125] The Rock then feuded with the Royal Rumble winner, Stone Cold Steve Austin, whom he lost the title to at WrestleMania X-Seven after Austin allied with Vince McMahon, who interfered on his behalf.[126] On the next night's Raw Is War, during a steel cage title rematch, Triple H attacked The Rock, allying with McMahon and Austin and helping Austin retain the championship.[127] Austin and Triple H then formed a tag team called The Power Trip,[128] while The Rock was indefinitely suspended in storyline. Johnson used this time off to act in The Scorpion King.
The Rock returned in late July 2001, when the WWF was feuding with rival promotions, World Championship Wrestling (WCW) and Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW), during what's known as The Invasion storyline. In reality, WCW and ECW were purchased by Vince McMahon and the WWF. Many former WCW and ECW wrestlers were then brought onto WWF television and formed The Alliance to compete with WWF in storyline. The Alliance and Vince McMahon then both attempted to persuade The Rock to join their team. The Rock then aligned with McMahon and the WWF. The next month, The Rock defeated Booker T, at SummerSlam, to win the WCW Championship for the first time.[129][130] He later lost the title to Chris Jericho at No Mercy.[131][132] The next night on Raw, he teamed with Jericho to win the WWF Tag Team Championship from The Dudley Boyz. The two then lost the tag titles to Booker T and Test on the November 1, 2001 episode of SmackDown!.[133] The Rock defeated Jericho on the November 5 episode of Raw for his second WCW Championship.[134]
As part of the WWF's battle against The Alliance, The Rock wrestled in a "winner takes all" five-on-five elimination tag team match at Survivor Series where the losing team's company would be dissolved in storyline. He was a member of Team WWF along with Chris Jericho, The Undertaker, Kane, and Big Show. The Alliance's team consisted of Stone Cold Steve Austin, Kurt Angle, Booker T, Rob Van Dam, and Shane McMahon. In the end, it came down to a one-on-one between The Rock and Stone Cold Steve Austin. The Rock seemed to have the upper hand, until his teammate Jericho entered the ring and attacked The Rock. Austin tried to capitalize on this by pinning The Rock, but Kurt Angle revealed his true allegiance by attacking Austin. The Rock then pinned Austin, giving Team WWF the victory and forcing The Alliance to disband. The Rock's WCW Championship was renamed the unbranded "World Championship" following the Alliance's loss.[135] At the next pay-per-view, Vengeance, The Rock lost the World Championship to Jericho, who would then unify the WWF and World titles later that night.[136] The Rock then unsuccessfully challenged Jericho for the now Undisputed WWF Championship at Royal Rumble
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