The Rock

COMING SOON!

Can you smell what The Rock is cooking? Dwayne Johnson, third-generation wrestler and star of The Mummy Returns and The Scorpion King compares the exitement of the ring to the movies.

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Dwayne Johnson (The Rock)
born: 02-05-1972
birth place: California, USA

Dwayne Douglas Johnson’s father is former professional wrestler 'Soulman' Rocky Johnson. His maternal grandfather was also a wrestler and Johnson would find himself traveling a lot during childhood, moving from Florida to Tennessee to Georgia and then Hawaii to watch his father perform in the ring.

The family eventually settled in Pennsylvania and Johnson excelled in sport at school, ranking as one the state's top ten high school football players.

Earning a scholarship to the University of Miami to study criminology, Johnson played in the football team and in 1991 was part of the Miami Hurricanes' National Championship team. An injury forced him to retire early though and despite initially enjoying the party life when he arrived, he met his future wife Dany Garcia - also attending the university. The two were married in 1997.

After graduating in 1995 Johnson was drafted by the Canadian Football League and moved to Calgary. Disenchanted by the prospect of making football a lifelong career option though, he left professional sport soon after and returned to Miami.

It was perhaps inevitable that the grandson and son of professional wrestlers would eventually follow suit. In 1996 Johnson made his debut as 'Flex Kavana' on the minor wrestling circuit. Moving then to the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) he traded on his father's heritage and changed his stage name to Rocky Maivia (combining both his father's and grandather's ring names) but made the mistake of trying to retain a nice guy image. Realising this was never going to establish him as a top pro wrestler, Johnson dropped the nice act and re-invented himself as ‘The Rock’ in 1997. The brash bad boy persona did the trick and audiences responded quickly.

Johnson was pushed heavily from the start, despite his lack of in-ring experience, but won the Intercontinental Championship from Hunter Hearst Helmsley in February 1997, after only three months in the company. He soon became known as one of the most electrifying man in sports entertainment as The Rock. But it was more than his ability to 'layeth the smacketh down' in the wrestling ring that made Johnson an international superstar. His quick wit, charisma and ability to talk up the crowds earned him legions of loyal fans.

In July 2002, Johnson had won his record-breaking seventh and final WWE (replacing WWF) Championship, which was then under the banner of WWE Undisputed Championship. However when Mick Foley suffered injury and humiliation at the hands of Evolution in 2004, Johnson returned to wrestling to reform the Rock 'n' Sock Connection, and the two competed as a team at WrestleMania XX in a losing effort. That was the last time Johnson, known as 'the People's Champion', competed in a WWE ring.

Although Johnson is no longer active with WWE, the company still sells The Rock merchandise, and he continues to be featured prominently in the opening montages of their television programming.

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Links relating to this biography:
Dwayne Johnson Online