Crowds chanted 'Rocky sucks' until Dwayne Johnson started insulting them back
When Dwayne Johnson debuted in the WWF in 1996 as Rocky Maivia, a smiling third-generation hero, fans hated him so much they chanted for his downfall. After a knee injury he came back snarling at the audience, calling himself the Rock, and the villain they loved to boo became one of wrestling's biggest stars.
Wrestling ran in the family. His father Rocky Johnson and Tony Atlas became WWE's first Black pair to hold the tag team titles, his Samoan mother was the adopted daughter of wrestler Peter Maivia, and his grandmother Lia ran a wrestling promotion in the 1980s. The ring name Rocky Maivia combined his father's and grandfather's names, and he took it reluctantly after persuasion from Vince McMahon and Jim Ross.
Football had been the original plan. As a teenager in Pennsylvania he had racked up repeated arrests for brawls, theft and bad checks before coach Jody Cwik recruited him to the high school team, an experience Johnson says changed how he thought about goals. The University of Miami offered a full scholarship after only two seasons of play, and he was part of the 1991 national championship side, though mostly as a backup behind future Hall of Famer Warren Sapp. Undrafted by the NFL, he joined the Calgary Stampeders and was cut two months into the 1995 season.
His wrestling start was rocky in every sense. He won the Intercontinental Championship within months, but audiences resented the heavy push given to an inexperienced good guy. Joining the Nation of Domination in 1997, he refused to answer to his old name, spoke of himself in the third person and mocked crowds, rivals and interviewers alike. The trash-talking persona propelled him to ten world championships, including the first held by a wrestler of African descent.
Hollywood followed. After a first film role in The Mummy Returns in 2001 he led The Scorpion King, then built a career spanning family comedies, the Fast and Furious films as Luke Hobbs and the voice of Maui in Moana. His films have grossed more than $11.4 billion worldwide, placing him among the highest-grossing actors ever.
Source: Dwayne Johnson
