Dwayne Douglas Johnson, better known as “The Rock”, was born on May 2nd, 1972, in Hayward, California. His father was a professional wrestler, so he grew up traveling around and seeing him perform in the ring. Contrary to what one would think, during his high school years, The Rock developed an interesting in football, and started to play this sport, for which he received a full scholarship from the University of Miami, where he had a great success as a player. Unfortunately, he suffered a back injury in 1995 that costed him a spot in the NFL. After a year of a contract with the Canadian League, he turned his back on football to pursue a career on wrestling.
He debuted in one tryout match with the WWF (World Wrestling Federation) in 1996, but played several other times at Jerry Lawler’s United Stated Wrestling Association under the name of “Flex Kavana”. He won the USWA World Tag Team Championship, twice, in the summer of that same year, with Bart Sawyer, and then he signed a WWF contract under the name of Flex Kavana. Later, he joined a band of elite wrestler, The Nation of Domination, where he started to call himself the nickname he’s known for now: The Rock.
He eventually took over leadership of the group, but it split; then he joined another group called “the Corporation, of which he was soon kicked out after developing an enmity with Steven Austin, another wrestler.
But outside of the ring, he did different stuff: he took time-off from WWE to film a movie, The Mummy’s Return, which was followed by a prequel, starred by him, The Scorpion King. He gradually turned face to his wrestling career, but occasionally returned to the WWF in non-wrestling roles while filming a few movies and making some appearances on TV or cameos. In spite of that, he is known as one of the greatest wrestlers of all times.
Nowadays, he’s mostly a mild-mannered husband, and father of two daughters, but his fame precedes him wherever he goes.
