Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson is undoubtedly one of the greatest names in professional wrestling history. However, his journey to the squared circle was not an easy one. The Rock’s father, Rocky Johnson, was a professional wrestler, and his grandfather was none other than ‘High Chief’ Peter Maivia. When The Rock arrived in the WWF in 1996, he became the company’s first third-generation wrestler. Since then, many others such as Randy Orton, Natalya, and Dominik Mysterio have made their own names in the ring and carried on the tradition of their wrestling families.
Growing up, The Rock’s family often struggled to make ends meet, and his father’s career as a wrestler was often unreliable. As shown in NBC’s Young Rock, The Rock never saw himself in the wrestling business, despite loving it. He saw the toll that the profession had taken on his father and did not want to experience the same struggles. However, wrestling remained a passion for The Rock, and he continued to follow it closely.
“I loved wrestling. And when I was growing up, I loved wrestling too, but wrestling, it was the family business. it’s what we loved. But it was a different time back then, especially, in the 80s, as you’re growing up, it was almost like the movie, The Wrestler with Mickey Rourke… Wrestling was always there in my heart but I never looked at it like, ‘oh I could take care of my family’ because I and also too my dad would say ‘You don’t want to get in this business. Look at me, I don’t have anything.’”
As The Rock grew older, he believed he would find his fortune in football. He tried his hand at playing in the NFL but did not make it. He then moved on to the Canadian Football League, where he also did not make the cut. It was then that The Rock received a phone call from Wally Buono, the head coach of the Calgary Stampeders. Buono informed The Rock that they wanted to bring him back next season, but The Rock declined the offer, knowing that football was not his true calling.
I get a call from Wally Buono, who at that time was the head coach of the Calgary Stampeders, who has since gone on to become commissioner of the CFL and GM. He’s, he’s an OG up there. He called to say, ‘hey, even though we cut you, DJ, we would like to bring you back next season, and I think they had just won The Great Cup. So they were on top, and I said, ‘I really appreciate it.’ Now, my dad doesn’t know who I’m talking to, it’s one of those old phones on the wall and I was like, ‘yeah, thank you coach. I appreciate it. I said I got to be honest with you. I’m gonna close this chapter in my life. I can’t thank you enough for everything. You’ve been a wonderful mentor. I wish you the best of luck.”
It was at this point that The Rock decided to pursue a career in professional wrestling. However, this decision did not sit well with his father. In a tense stand-off, The Rock told his father that he wanted to enter the wrestling business, and his father vehemently opposed the idea. It was a heated argument, with tears shed, but eventually, The Rock convinced his father to train him. Rocky Johnson became The Rock’s trainer, and together they worked to develop the skills that would eventually make The Rock one of the most iconic wrestlers in history.
We got into the biggest fight. He hated the idea and ultimately, he came back around and said, ‘You don’t have anything though, what do you think you have to offer? I mean it got heated, and we fought. Eventually, we got out of that argument, I convinced him. I said, ‘listen, I need you to train me, um and if it’s not you, I’m gonna go to somebody else, but I would love for you to train me. So we got into this huge fight, tears, all that thing, all that stuff, and finally he trained me.”
