WWE legend and Hollywood a-list actor Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson recently appeared on the Instagram Live show of sports host and personality Jay Glazer. Featured below are some of the highlights from the interview, as well as several video clips from their discussion.
On the biggest rush he's ever felt in his career(s): “Well, there’s a few. That’s really hard. I’ve been a lucky son of a bitch to have a career, the multiple careers, that I’ve been lucky to have. I’ve been really fortunate, brother. The moment I was able to speak my mind and be authentic in the WWE. So what I mean by that is when I first started in the WWE, I was this good guy babyface, fresh out of University of Miami. You know, I was told by Vince McMahon, who was a very close friend of mine still today, is a mentor in the world of business, he would tell me, ‘You gotta go out there, you gotta smile, you just gotta… you just gotta smile!
"This was my rookie year, so you can imagine. Smile! So, I said OK, and again, you’re pissing vinegar… you’re ready to get out there and bang, man. And he said, ‘I want you to be… you’re grateful that you’re here, so you gotta smile.’ And then I would go out and I would h ear these fans, they just knew that I wasn’t being authentic. You know, and they would be like… ‘You fucking suck!’ And I would smile, ‘Hey, thank you, man! I know I do, right?’ I gotta smile."
On Vince McMahon giving him the freedom on the mic in WWE and his infamous first promo with the Nation of Domination on WWE Raw in August of 1997: "So, finally when the decision was to become a bad guy, to become a heel, I asked Vince, ‘If [you] can just give me two minutes on the microphone, on a live RAW, I just want to speak my mind. There was a faction at that time, called The Nation of Domination, led by [WWE Hall of Famer] Ron Simmons, who was one of the greatest Florida State football players of all-time. And Vince McMahon said, ‘OK, you got two minutes.’ I said, ‘Alright.’ I grabbed the microphone on live TV, which that’s a lot, man, because at that time there was just two hours of RAW live, that’s it.
"Pass me the ball, that was it. Just give me one shot. If I suck, and by the way, I had to tell him that. I said, ‘Listen, I understand that we only have two hours of live television.’ And this show is kicking ass, our ratings were great at that time. And I said, ‘Just give me two minutes, one minute, and if I suck you’ll never give me the microphone again.’ He said, ‘OK.’ I grabbed that microphone, Jay, and I said, you know, this is the very first night I turned bad, and I said, ‘I may be a lot of things, but sucks isn’t one of them.’ And I said, ‘Me joining The Nation is not a black thing, it’s not a white thing, it’s a respect thing, and I’m gonna earn it every night by kicking that ass.’ You know, and I start talking a little shit, but it was in that moment, that you could feel the crowd of 15,000 or 20,000 people go, ‘That’s real. What he just said, he just spoke from the heart.’ And that led to the birth, if you will, of The Rock. So that’s a very long answer and I appreciate you asking that."
Check out more from the interview with Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson below.
The moments when we take that chance is when true greatness begins.
You can't live your dreams if you don't swing for them. Take it from @therock, who, as a rookie in the @wwe, took the chance to ask Vince McMahon if he could get in a 2-minute speech..
The rest is history… pic.twitter.com/HaJPnRfsTZ— Jay Glazer (@JayGlazer) November 25, 2020
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