|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Dwayne Douglas Johnson (born May 2, 1972), better known by his former ring name The Rock, is an American actor and former professional wrestler. He gained mainstream fame as a standout in World Wrestling Entertainment from 1996 to 2004. Since 2001, he has focused on a thriving acting career, though he still makes occasional WWE appearances for promotional purposes. Johnson was a nine-time world champion in his career, including a record-setting seven-time WWE Champion; his last reign was as WWE Undisputed Champion. He also was the winner of the 2000 Royal Rumble. The wrestler/actor known as The Rock would've been a football player, but a back injury cost him a place with the NFL. Instead, he pursued a wrestling career with the WWE, becoming a fan favorite and known for being an all-around nice guy (and using his brains rather than his brawn to get to the top). In 2000 he took a break from the WWE to make The Mummy Returns, which became a box-office blockbuster and led to the pre/sequel, The Scorpion King and a full-fledged movie career that has seemed to consciously avoid Arnold Schwarzenegger-style action typecasting. It was perhaps inevitable that this grandson and son of professional wrestlers would eventually join in the family business. At 6'5" and weighing some 250 pounds, The Rock had some rough going at first, having adopted a clean-cut image (first as Flex Kavana and later Rocky Maivia) that didn't appeal to fans. In 1997, he adopted a brash bad boy persona to which audiences quickly responded. Gradually, The Rock became more of a nice guy and a popular figure in the World Wrestling Federation (WWF), winning the championship belt six times between 1998 and 2001. When he hosted "Saturday Night Live" in March 2000, he showed viewers and the powers that be in Hollywood that he was more than just a muscle man, though, gamely donning drag, displaying a rather pleasant singing voice and a flair for sketch comedy. Although other wrestlers (like Hulk Hogan and Rowdy Roddy Piper) had tried to segued to movies, none really achieved true film stardom. The Rock, though, seemed poised to be the one to do it. Born Dwayne Douglas Johnson in Miami in 1972, The Rock was the grandson of Samoan wrestler High Chief Peter Maivia and the son of wrestler Rocky Johnson. He spent a peripatetic childhood, moving from Florida to Tennessee to Georgia and to Hawaii. The Johnson family eventually settled in Pennsylvania but things turned difficult when his father lost his savings around 1975. Although he had his share of problems, The Rock channeled some of his anger into sports, eventually ranking as one of the state's top ten high school football players. He earned a scholarship to the University of Miami, where he majored in criminology but spent a lot of time partying, brawling and chasing women. Much of that behavior stopped in 1991, though, after he met Dany Garcia, whom he married in 1997. Following his 1994 graduation, The Rock had hoped to parlay his prowess on the gridiron into a career with the NFL, but he found no takers. Instead, he was drafted by the Canadian Football League and moved to Calgary. Disenchanted after a short time, The Rock left professional sports and headed back to Miami, arriving with seven dollars in his pocket. After giving some thought, he decided to enter the family business and in 1996 debuted as Flex Kavana on the minor-league wrestling circuit. Moving to the WWF, he tried to trade on his heritage by calling himself Rocky Maivia, but the nice guy image failed. Once he reinvented himself as the trash-talking, egotistical The Rock -- with signature moves like "the People's Elbow" and "the People's Eyebrow" (raising his right eyebrow) -- his career was set. In February 1999, The Rock moved into acting, appropriately cast as his own father in an episode of the hit Fox sitcom "That '70s Show". The following year, he could be seen in "Star Trek: Voyager" but it was his March 2000 appearance on "Saturday Night Live" that made Hollywood take notice. Having fielded a variety of offers, The Rock made his feature acting debut as The Scorpion King in the 2001 sequel "The Mummy Returns". Although his screen time was limited, he displayed a strong, charismatic presence, enough for the studio to develop his own starring vehicle, "The Scorpion King" (2002), for which he earned a reported $5.5 million dollar salary. With the possibility of a franchise, The Rock was poised to step into the void of action hero left by aging stars like Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger. Even after demonstrating his considerable on-screen charisma--on par with his imposing physical presence--in "The Scorpion King," critics and audiences were nevertheless pleasantly surprised by The Rock's adroit, witty and charming turn in the crowd-pleasing action-comedy "The Rundown" (2003) in which he was finally proclaimed a full-fledged movie star for his winning performance as a relentless bounty hunter in the Amazon jungle saddled with an annoying sidekick (Seann William Scott). Of lesser quality but similar box office appeal was his follow-up effort, a remake of the cult classic "Walking Tall" (2004), in which the real-life Buford Pusser character that inspired the story is turned into special forces vet Chris Vaughn, who returns from service to clean up his corrupt hometown with a two-by-four at his side. Along with his father and grandfather, several members of Johnson's family are current and former professional wrestlers, including his uncles, the Wild Samoans (Afa and Sika Anoa'i) and cousins, such as Rikishi, Rosey, and Umaga. When he declared his intention to join the family business, his father resisted, but agreed to train his son himself, warning him that he would not go easy on him. With help from veteran wrestler Pat Patterson, Johnson had several tryout matches with WWE in 1996; he defeated The Brooklyn Brawler at a house show, and lost the others to Chris Candido and Owen Hart. Impressed by his talent and charisma, Johnson was signed to a deal after a short stint for "seasoning" in Jerry Lawler's United States Wrestling Association, where he wrestled under the ring names of "Flex Cavana" and "Pidlaoan Rock." Johnson made his WWE debut as Rocky Maivia, which combined his father and grandfather's ring names; Johnson was initially reluctant to the idea, but was persuaded to go ahead with the name by Vince McMahon and Jim Ross. In addition to tacking on the nickname "The Blue Chipper," WWE played up his connection to his father and grandfather, calling him the company's first third-generation wrestler. Johnson, who was first portrayed as a clean-cut babyface, was pushed heavily from the start despite his lack of in-ring experience. He debuted at Survivor Series 1996 and was the sole survivor, and he won the Intercontinental Championship from Hunter Hearst Helmsley on RAW on February 13, 1997, after only three months in the company. Fans, however, quickly grew sick of the one-dimensional good guy character, thanks in part to the exploded popularity of Stone Cold Steve Austin. As a result, a regular occurrence during Johnson's matches was the fans' angry chants of "Die Rocky Die!" and "Rocky Sucks!" After losing the Intercontinental Championship to Owen Hart on April 28 edition of RAW is WAR, and returning from an injury, Johnson was allowed to turn heel. He joined the Nation of Domination, with the nickname "'The Rock' Rocky Maivia," which was eventually shortened to just "The Rock." During that time, Johnson attacked and insulted the fans in his promos. In sharp contrast to the overly positive persona of Rocky Maivia, The Rock was a charismatic bully, eventually driving out the group leader, Faarooq in February 1998. The Rock also referred to himself in the third person, starting many sentences with "The Rock says..." Johnson was soon recognized for cutting arguably the best promos in the industry. In his 2000 autobiography, Johnson attributed this skill to his exceptional performance in speech communications classes at Miami, in which he earned "A" grades. At In Your House: D-Generation X, Austin defeated The Rock in less than six minutes to retain the Intercontinental title. The following night on RAW is WAR, Austin was ordered by Mr. McMahon to forfeit the WWF Intercontinental Championship, which Austin handed over to The Rock before hitting the Stone Cold Stunner on him. Rock spent the end of 1997 and the beginning of 1998 feuding with both Austin and Ken Shamrock. In 2001, The Rock continued his feud with Angle over the WWF Championship and eventually settled it at No Way Out 2001. After a battle that saw both wrestlers kick out of each other's finishers, The Rock finally came out on top and regained the WWF Championship. Afterwards, he feuded with the Royal Rumble 2001 winner, Stone Cold Steve Austin. The Rock went into WrestleMania X-Seven as the WWF Champion, but he was defeated after a shocking turn from Austin, who used Mr. McMahon to win the title. During a steel cage match with Austin in a rematch for the WWF title on the following night's RAW is WAR, Triple H came down to the ring with a sledgehammer. Many thought he was coming to aid The Rock, due to the hatred between Austin and Triple H (and an argument with Vince earlier in the night), but it transpired that he had joined the Austin/McMahon partnership by hitting The Rock instead. Austin and Triple H became a Tag Team and called themselves "The Two-Man Power Trip." After fighting to "No Contest" with Austin in a rematch, (where Triple-H helped Austin avoid his obvious defeat from the hands of The Rock), Rock went on to film the movie "The Mummy Returns" after a storyline suspension from Mr. McMahon. He returned in late July 2001 and had to decide if he wanted to join the WWF or The Alliance during The Invasion, eventually siding with the WWF. At SummerSlam 2001, The Rock defeated Booker T to win the WCW Championship. He lost the WCW title to Chris Jericho, with whom he won the WWF Tag Team Championship around the same time, at No Mercy 2001. The Rock made occasional wrestling appearances up to 2004's WrestleMania XX, when the storyline revolving around Mick Foley had him brought back to help in his feud with Evolution (Ric Flair, Randy Orton and Batista). One humorous in-ring segment involved The Rock hosting his own version of "This is Your Life" for Foley on the March 8, 2004 edition of RAW. Rock reunited with Foley after five years, as Rock 'n' Sock Connection and the duo went on to lose to Orton, Flair and Batista at WrestleMania XX in a handicap match when Orton pinned Foley. This was Rock's last match. He made sporadic appearances in WWE following WrestleMania, including standing up for Eugene, making a cameo appearance in his home-town of Miami and helping Foley turn back La Résistance. He hosted a "Pie-Eating Contest" during the Diva Search 2004 and ended the segment by giving Jonathan Coachman a Rock Bottom and a People's Elbow. After this appearance, Johnson reported in several interviews that he was no longer under contract with WWE. He also reported that the reason he was able to continue using the name "The Rock" was part of a dual ownership between him and WWE. On March 12, 2007, The Rock made an appearance on WWE after a near three year absence, appearing on RAW via a pre-taped segment on the titantron. He correctly predicted that Bobby Lashley and Donald Trump would defeat Umaga and Vince McMahon at WrestleMania 23 in their "Battle of the Billionaires" match. On February 25, 2008, WWE announced that The Rock would make an appearance at the 2008 WWE Hall of Fame Ceremony to induct his father, Rocky Johnson, and his grandfather, Peter Maivia. Taking a page from his predecessor Arnold Schwarzenegger, The Rock eschewed action to turn in a full-fledged comedic performance in "Be Cool" (2005), the entertaining sequel to "Get Shorty." Playing Elliot, the openly gay, afroed Samoan bodyguard to music manager Vince Vaughn who dreams of becoming an actor, the Rock played against his established type--he sings Loretta Lynn tunes and acts out scenes from "Bring It On"--and provided the film with a steady stream of comedic frission. However, he continued to equal every positive step forward with a momentum-stopping misstep, following up as the lead in the forgettable video game adaptation "Doom" (2005). The overwhelming success of Johnson's in-ring character allowed him to cross over into mainstream popularity, and he appeared on Wyclef Jean's 2000 single "It Doesn't Matter" and the accompanying video. That same year, he co-hosted Saturday Night Live (along with Triple H, Mick Foley, and The Big Show). The episode was considered a major success and helped kick-start his acting career. According to Johnson, it was due to the success of that episode that he began receiving offers from Hollywood studios. He filmed guest roles on Star Trek: Voyager and That '70s Show, and his motion picture debut was a brief appearance as The Scorpion King in the opening of The Mummy Returns. The film's financial success led to his first leading role starring in the follow-up, The Scorpion King. He was considered for the lead in a feature-length Johnny Bravo film, but it was canceled during production. Since his last WWE match in 2004, he has quit wrestling and focused solely on acting. He also continued to make television appearances, including Disney Channel's hit show Cory in the House, in the episode entitled “Never The Dwayne Shall Meet.” Though Johnson is no longer active with WWE, the company continues to sell "The Rock" merchandise, and Johnson continues to be featured prominently in the opening montages of their television programming. Johnson was featured in the 2007 Guinness Book of World Records for having the highest salary as an actor in their first starring role. He appeared at the 80th Academy Awards on February 24, 2008 as a presenter for the Best Visual Effects award. |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Celebrities Guide 
| WhoABC
Home : Disclaimer
: Terms
: Privacy
Policy : Contact
Us : Links All original content Copyright Celebrities Guide, WhoABC.com © 2004 - 2008. All Rights Reserved |