The Rock (real name
Duane Johnson) played
college football for the
Miami Hurricanes. He was a likely
NFL prospect, but a serious injury during college changed that. He played briefly in a
Canadian football league before giving up and starting to train as a
professional wrestler under his father's direction.
He quickly earned a tryout with the
WWF through his father's connections, and the WWF stuck him in one of their "farm" promotions for a few months to flesh out his style. During this period, he was known as
Flex Kavana, and the character was just as dumb as the name suggests.
Eventually called up to the WWF in late 1996, he debuted under the name
Rocky Maivia, a mixture of the names his father and grandfather were known as during their wrestling careers. He was pushed as a third-generation "blue chipper", and the fans absolutely HATED him. He was pushed down everyone's throats as a classic
babyface (
good guy), and the fans responded by chanting "Rocky Sucks!" at every opportunity.
After an
injury forced him out of action for a few months, he came back in August 1997 and promptly turned
heel (into a
bad guy) by joining
The Nation, a heel stable (group of wrestlers) of the time. Citing the fact that the fans hated him, he shunned their approval and gradually morphed into his current persona,
The Rock.
Needing a credible wrestler to lead his "Corporation" heel stable,
Vince McMahon recruited
The Rock by having him win the
WWF Championship at
Survivor Series '98 in a
screwjob reminiscent of
The Montreal Incident that
Bret Hart fell victim to the year before.
The Rock thus became the number one
heel in the federation, eventually leading to a
blowoff match with
Stone Cold Steve Austin at
Wrestlemania XV, where Austin regained his championship belt.
In the months that followed, the growing popularity of
The Rock practically forced the WWF to turn him
babyface, although he retained many of the heelish personality aspects that made him a star. When Austin went on
hiatus in November 1999 due to a neck injury,
The Rock became the star of the WWF in his absence.
Although his ring work itself is
mediocre at best, he continues to give some of the freshest and greatest interviews ever seen in the sport of
professional wrestling.