The Rock: The People’s Champion

From Wrestler to Movie Star

By Ethan Sayer

Dwayne Douglas “The Rock” Johnson is well  known for his many talents He was a world famous wrestler, who was also an American and Canadian football player, then became an actor. He is now one of the highest paid movie stars in Hollywood. He was a third generation wrestler, meaning his grandfather and father were also wrestlers. He is originally from Canada and is half-Black and half-Samoan. He has dual citizenship with both the United States and Canada. 

He is married with three children.

“Can you smell what The Rock is cooking?”

The Rock was born in 1972, so he is now 48 years old. As a child, “DJ” as he was called, played football in junior high and high school. He was a football player for the University of Miami and won a championship with them in 1991. Johnson entered the 1995 NFL draft but went undrafted. He then went to play for the Calgary Stampeders with the Canadian Football League (CFL), but he was cut from the team in his first season.  Rather than let the disappointment of his football dreams get to him, he began training to become a professional wrestler shortly after leaving the CFL. 

DJ signed a contract with the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) in 1996. He developed a brash, boastful, and trash-talking persona as “The Rock”. He won his first WWF championship in 1998 and helped to usher in the Attitude Era of professional wrestling, where the wrestling industry boomed in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Johnson left wrestling in 2004 to pursue his acting career, but he returned to the ring from 2011 to 2013 and on numerous other occasions until his retirement from wrestling in 2019. He is considered one of the greatest and most successful wrestlers of all time.

His movie career has also been extremely successful. He has been a part of many blockbuster movies such asThe Fast and The Furious franchise, The Scorpion King, Moana and Jumanji just to name a few. Currently, he has an athletic competition show on TV called the Titan Games. He is also the new co-owner of the Xtreme Football League (XFL). 

In his personal life Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson gives to many charities and has his own foundation. He has endorsed Joe Biden for President in 2020. He credits physical fitness and a positive attitude for his success.