Little Known Facts About the Rock

I'm sure everyone has heard of The Rock by now. The Rock first gained mainstream fame in a wrestling ring. He quickly became one of the most popular wrestlers in the World Wrestling Federation with his incredibly charismatic mic skills and his great work rate. Eventually The Rock ventured into a successful acting career starring in movies like Doom, the Gridiron Gang, and Walking Tall. He has continued his acting career and will soon be starring in Southland Tales alongside Sarah Michelle Gellar and Mandy Moore, in 2007 he will be filming Spy Hunter and after that a Johnny Bravo movie. But here are a few things you might not know about The Rock.

Wrestling heritage
For those of you who are fans of The Rock's wrestling career you might be familiar with his heritage but for those of you who only know the Hollywood Rock let me give you a wrestling lesson. When The Rock debuted in the WWF (now the WWE) he went by the name Rocky Maivia. The name Rocky Maivia was combination of his father's wrestling name, Rocky Johnson, and his grandfather's wrestling name, Peter Maivia. Peter Maivia grew up in Samoa and was in the 1967 James Bond movie You Only Live Twice starring Sean Connery. Peter Maivia moved to New Zealand to learn how to wrestle. Peter later moved to San Francisco and joined the NWA and took a young wrestler under his wing. That young wrestler was none other than "the Superstar" Billy Graham. Peter Maivia would later capture many Tag Team titles including the NWA Tag Team titles with Pat Patterson. Peter Maivia eventually wound up in the WWWF (which eventually became the WWF) and wrestled such legends as Stan Stasiak, Billy Graham, George "the Animal" Steele, Mr. Fuji, and he often tagged with Chief Jay Strongbow.

The Rock's father Wayde Bowles went by the name "Soulman" Rocky Johnson and wrestled in both the NWA and the WWF. During the 70's Rocky Johnson was a top contender in the NWA and had many title matches against World Champions Terry Funk and Harley Race. Later Rocky Johnson joined the WWF and started a tag team with Tony Atlas called the "Soul Patrol". On November 15, 1983 Rocky Johnson and Peter Maivia defeated Afa and Sika, the Wild Samoans, for the WWF Tag Team Championship. It was the first time the titles had been held by black wrestlers. Rocky Johnson is not a Samoan but actually married into the family by marrying Peter Maivia's daughter Ata. The two had a son, Dwayne, on May 2nd, 1972. His son of course would later become The Rock and Rocky Johnson was the one who trained The Rock and also suggested the name Rocky Maivia.

College Football
In high school The Rock was one of the top football players in the state of Pennsylvania. He received numerous football scholarship offers from all the top universities in the nation. Some of the universities even offered the Rock bribes to come and play at their school. When The Rock didn't hear from one of the top schools, the University of Miami, he wondered why. He went to the University for a visit with the coach and the coach told him that they didn't have a scholarship for him but that he could try-out for the team. He was also told by the Hurricanes coach that they would not offer him bribes like the other schools, his only incentive was that he would get to play for a National Championship caliber team. The Rock ended up deciding to go to the University of Miami even though he wasn't going to receive any bribes and wasn't even guaranteed a spot on the team.

In his freshmen season The Rock was supposed to get to play even though most of the other freshmen were redshirts. However the Rock was the second string defensive end because ahead of him on the depth chart was Russell Maryland who would go on to win the Outland Trophy. Unfortunately during a practice that season The Rock had his shoulder popped out of his socket. The Rock was taken to the hospital and he was told he had two options. He could play with the injury but there was a risk it would get worse or he could have surgery to fix it and miss the season. At the time the Miami Hurricanes were loaded with defensive lineman and The Rock was only a freshman so he decided to have the surgery. While recovering from the injury the Rock became depressed and started skipping classes. Eventually he was put on academic probation due to his 0.7 GPA. The Rock's sophomore season he once again took a part time role as he played about 30 to 40 percent of the snaps. When the Rock's junior season came Russell Maryland was gone from the Hurricanes but a young sophomore emerged to take the starting spot instead of the Rock. That sophomore was none other than Warren Sapp who would go on to be one of the most dominant defensive linemen in the NFL. Before the Rock's senior season many people listed him as a preseason All American even though he would once again be sharing time with Warren Sapp. But once again the injury bug bit as The Rock was injured during the first practice with full pads. The Rock ruptured two disks in his back but after a few weeks told the coaches he was ready to play. The Rock played the entire season with two ruptured disks and it led to a very lousy, unproductive year. Because of all the injury problems The Rock didn't get drafted but one night he got a phone call from his agent saying "You have a job, playing football. There's just one catch. It's in Canada."

Canadian Football League
That's right not only was the CFL once the home of Warren Moon and Doug Flutie but it's also where The Rock called home at one point. The CFL only paid thirty grand which was nowhere near what NFL players were making nor was it as good as what The Rock would later be paid in the WWE. Unfortunately there was a rule that The Rock wasn't aware of. In the CFL there is a rule that limits the amount of non-Canadian players on your team. There were three Americans at the Rock's position alone so it was likely that not all three of them would make the team. Needless to say The Rock didn't make the cut. He did stay on with the team as part of the practice team but he only made about $175 a week. Not too long after that a defensive lineman was cut from the Jacksonville Jaguars and The Rock's Canadian Football team wanted him, so they signed him and he took the Rock's spot on the practice squad. The Rock wasn't even good enough to make $175 a week on the practice squad of a Canadian Football team anymore. That's when he went home to Tampa and began training to become a wrestler with his dad and soon he became the jabroni beating, pie eating, trail blazing, eyebrow rising, heart stopping, elbow dropping People's Champion that we all know today.