First let's start by telling you a little bit about The Rock. He was born Dwayne Douglas Johnson on May 2, 1972 in Hayward,California. His mother Ata is of Samoan heritage, the daughter ofThe Late High Chief- Peter Maivia, and former promoter of Poleynesian Wrestling-Lia Maivia.His father the great legend Rocky Johnson is of African-Canadian heritage.He also has several other family members who have graced the squared circle such as Ricky Johnson,The Wild Samoans,Yokosuna,Rikishi and others.
The Rock first got into sports by playing high school football at the age of 14 at Freedom High in Bethleham,Pa. By his senior year, Dwayne was considered one of the top 10 defensive tackles in the country. So much so, that he caught the attention of the Miami Hurricanes head coach at the time Dennis Erickson. Erickson paid Dwayne a visit and offered him a scholarship and Dwayne accepted. While playing at Miami, Dwayne won a National championship in his very first year the 1990/91 season.He would once again go on to play for the national championship in The Orange Bowl,but unfortunatly his team lost to Nebraska.In 1995 Dwayne graduated with a degree in criminoligy and signed a contract with the Calgary Stampeders of the Canadian Football Leauge.After playing on the team for one season Dwayne decided that playing in the CFL or football wasn't for him and decided to take a crack at what was in his blood-Professional Wrestling.
In March of 1996, Dwayne signed a contract with the WWF. Dwaynes' first stint was in the USWA,(which is also owned by the WWF)where he was sent to hone his already gifted skills. While there he wrestled under the name Flex Kavana and won the areas tag team title with Bart Sawyer.He also formed a very credible team with "Too Sexy" Brian Christopher. By October the WWF brass felt that Dwayne was ready to make the jump to the "big leagues" .The WWF first started to run weekly promos telling fans just who Dwayne Johnson was and about his up coming debut at the Survior Series. It was at this time that Dwayne announced that he would combine both his grandfathers name (Peter Maivia) and his fathers name (Rocky Johnson) as an honour to them, thus forming the name Rocky Maivia..
On November 17, 1996 Rocky Maivia made his WWF debut at Madison Square Gardens in a six man survivor series match. Being the last man left on his team,(which consisted of Rocky, Barry Windham and Marc Mero) Rocky knew his back was against the wall and that the odds were against him.But as gifted athletes often do,Maivia proved he belonged there that night, first pinning Bryan "Crush" Adams, and then put the finishing touches on Dustin "Golddust" Runnels to become the sole survivor, much to the delight of the crowd! After six months of wrestling and defeating some of the top names in the federation, Rocky was granted a Intercontinental shot against then champion Hunter Hearst Helmsley, on a live televised WWF special called Thursday Night Raw. To the surprise of the fans in attendance and those watching at home, the "blue-chipper" rolled HHH up in a small package ,and became the youngest IC champion in WWF history. This victory, The Survivor Series victory, plus the string of other impressive victories that the young Maivia had put together, earned him "The Best Newcomer Of The Squared Circle" Slammy Award. Although Rocky was accepted by most of the fans, there were also those who felt that it was too much too soon and that Rocky hadn't "paid his dues" sort of speak. This became evident when signs reading "Die Rocky Die" and chants of "Rocky Sucks" when heard throughout the arenas, even though he was wrestling as a babyface! Soon Rocky would lose the title to The Late-Great Owen Hart. Rocky would suffer a serious knee injury shortly thereafter which would require surgery and rehab, forcing him on the DL for a few months. This writer believes that it was during this time that Rocky underwent a change of character,and decided to bring back a whole new Rocky Maivia upon his return to the ring wars, thus "THE ROCK" was born!
In July of 1997 The Rock was sitting in the audience at a Raw card when all of a sudden he came to the aid of Nation of Domination leader Farooq. As fans looked on in disbelief, Rocky embraced the leader, and then stood alongside him and other nation members (D-Lo Brown & Kama "Godfather" Mustafa} with their fists clenched and arms raised in true nation fashion. All of a sudden,this young polite babyface named Rocky Maivia had a new attitude and a certain cockyness and arrogance about him. In a interview conducted shortly after, Rocky explained to the stunned crowd that he tried hard to do things the right way and all he received in return was negative signs and Rocky sucks chants. He also made it clear that this choice he made had nothing to do with race or prejudice, but rather it was all about R-E-S-P-E-C-T ! This sudden change of attitude really angered the fans, and over the next few months the chants of Rocky sucks grew louder and louder.The Rock now became the man the fans loved to hate. The federations number one heel. In December of 1997 after feuding with then IC champion "Stone Cold" Steve Austin for a while,Austin decided to relinquished the belt in his quest to become the WWF World Heavyweight Champion, and the Rock being the number one contender once again became the IC champion.!Upon becoming the IC champion for a second time in as many months, The Rocks' ego grew even bigger and eventually he would convince Kama and D-lo that since he was a two time champion and Farooq had never held any of the federations gold, he would by far be a better, wiser, and younger leader of their organization. It wasn't long before the three turned their backs on Farooq and added the world's strongest man Mark "Sexual Chocolate" Henry, and just as he had earlier planned, The Rock became the new leader. Over the next few months The Late Owen Hart would join the Nation. For nine months The Rock carried the IC strap before dropping it to Triple H at Summer Slam in August of 1998. In September the Rock became the number one contender for the federations top gold by defeating both Ken Shamrock and Mankind in a Triple Threat Match. As The Rock became more and more over with the fans, and his popularity began to skyrocket, the now self centered Rock began to refer to himself as "The Peoples Champ" and developed such trademarks as "The Peoples Eyebrow", "The Peoples Elbow" and his infamous finishing move,"The Rock Bottom" With that came an even more cocky attitude and a total lack of respect for anyone but himself, at times even shouting at fellow Nations members to "Know their roles and shut their mouths". Needless to say, this didn't sit too well with the rest of The Nation and it wasn't long before they threw The Rock a goodbye party.....the hard way!
Although still wrestling as a heel, the fans continued to love The Rock and no matter what he did, or said for that matter, huge pops could be heard throughout any arena with even just the mere mention of The Rocks' name. But the cheers would once again turn to boos when on November 15, 1999 The Rock captured the feds top prize and joined Vince and Shane McMahons' corperation making him the youngest, and first WWF Heavyweight Champion of color. At that time The Rock let the fans have it referring to them all as "Trailer Park Trash" and reminding them of their earlier treatment of him. Once again chants and boos were heard throughout the arena..The following night The Rock appeared on Raw and told the fans that he had to do,what he had to do, to become the WWF champ, and if that meant kissing Vinces' ass as they referred to it as, then it was still a lot more beneficial than most of them who do the same thing for minimum wage, as he made the statement "Hell the Rock is a millionare and the WWF champ, if you smell what the Rock is cooking?"!
So now the Rock was not only the WWF champion,but also the corporate champion,but this reign would be not be for long ,because on December 29,1998 The Rock lost the title to Mankind after being hit with a ringside chair by Stone Cold Steve Austin. During the next couple of weeks The Rock, feeling that Mankind had stolen what was rightfully his, questioned Micks' 'testicular fortitude' and taunted Mick (or Mandkind, which ever you prefer)into granting him a title shot on the upcoming Royal Rumble ppv. At first Mick hesitated, but then decided to give The Rock a shot, under one condition and one condition only, that it be a special I quite match with I Quite rules. The Rock gladly accepted,and at The Royale Rumble on January 24 1999 the Rock started his second reign as the WWF champion by destroying Mankind in what has to be one of the most brutal matches in WWF history(at one point during this matchup, The Rock handcuffed Micks' hands behind his back and struck him over the head with a steele chair, 12 consecutive times!!.But sadly the Rock's reign would be a short one as Mankind defeated the Rock on Jan 26 1999 on a special taped match shown at The Superbowls halftime. The Brahma Bull and Mankind would once again lock horns on the February 14th St. Valentines Massacre ppv in a last man standing match. This match would end in both men knocking each other out with a chair simutaneously, leaving neither man standing and Mankind still the champion. But the following night on Raw, Mankind gave the Rock a rematch and with help from Paul "The Big Show" White, the Rock became a triple heavyweight strap holder.
On March 29,1999 The Rock defended his WWF title against Stone Cold Steve Austin at Wrestlemania 15 and after a hard fought, extremely entertaining match, The Great One once again dropped the title this time to Austin. After a lengthly feud with Austin and Triple H,(By this time he was no longer a member of The Corporation) he briefly feuded with the 1999 King the Ring champion Billy Gunn who he defeated at Summer Slam. He then went on to fued with the British Bulldog for a short while.In between all this action though,he won the tag team belts on three different occasions,with his old foe Mankind.Together they were known as The Rock and Sock Connection,one of the greatest and most popular tag teams in WWF history.
After his final tag team run The Rock,once again had his sites set on the Heavyweight title and that mean't taken on the champion Triple H.After a lengthy battle for months, The Rock finally beat Triple H at the backlash pay-per view on April 30,2000.For the next six months The Rock carried the title,defending it well,winning battle after battle agains't the likes of Chris Benoit,Triple H and Kurt Angle.But it was Angle who finally dethroned him on October 22,2000 at the No Mercy pay-per view,in Albany,NY when Rikishi interfered costing The Rock the title.So the chase starts once again.
