Mike Mooneyham Article Part 2
Rock's stock on rise
Sunday, April 4, 1999
(Second of two parts)
The Rock may have dropped the WWF gold to "Stone Cold" Steve Austin last weekend at Wrestlemania, but his stock continues to rise. So much in fact that TV Guide put him on one of its collectible covers last week and noted that Wall Street was bullish on The Rock.
"They are rabid fans at Merrill Lynch," says Rock (Dwayne Johnson), 27, who just happens to be married to Merrill Lynch associate vice president Dany Johnson, 30. The couple, who met when he was a freshman football prospect at the University of Miami, married in 1996 and are building a 4,200-square-foot-home in Davie, Fla., a byproduct of The Rock's rapid rise to fame in the wrestling business.
Rock, a third-generation grappler who lettered in football and track in high school, was recruited by Miami where the 6-5, 280-pound defensive tackle played for the Hurricane from 1991-95 and earned a national championship ring in '91. Rock, who for part of that time played backup to current Tampa Bay Buccaneer standout Warren Sapp, also played on teams that competed for the national crown in '92 (losing to Alabama) and '95 (losing to Nebraska). He was a member of coach Dennis Erickson's first and last class at Miami.
"I always knew throughout college that I wanted to take my football career as far as I possibly could. I got injured in my senior year during my first day of two-a-days," says Rock, who graduated with a double major in exercise physiology and criminology.
The injury set Rock back and led to an unproductive senior season. He wasn't drafted but signed a three-year contract in the CFL where he played three-quarters of a season in 1995 with the Calgary Stampeders.
"I had two more years left on my contract, went home and did a lot of soul-searching. I realized that this was as far as I wanted to take football. I wanted to do what I felt I was almost born to do."
Rock, who had no amateur wrestling experience, began training with his dad, former mat great Rocky Johnson, in October 1995.
"I was always close to the business and what was going on. A lot of kids were sheltered from it, but it was the complete opposite for me. A lot of times I was in it when I shouldn't have been in it. The transition for me wasn't as hard because I was familiar with the idiosyncrasies of the business."
Rock's grandfather, High Chief Peter Maivia, passed away in 1982 when Rock was only 9. His grandmother, Lia Maivia, lives in Hawaii where she promoted for many years after his grandfather bought the lucrative promotion from Ed Francis.
"She continued it after my grandfather passed away and did extremely well," says Rock. "It was a really hot territory, and guys would regularly hot-shot over there for shows. She had a good relationship with Vince (McMahon) Sr. as well as Vince Jr., Jim Crockett, Bob Geigel and all those guys who would let the guys who were flying over Hawaii just stop by for a shot."
Rock, whose first bouts were tryout matches for the WWF in March 1996, signed with the company in April and started his pro career on the Memphis circuit in May of that year, calling his four-month stint in Memphis "a great experience."
"It was a very basic contract," says Rock. "The guarantee was like $150, which was fine with me, I was happy just to get that. I knew I was going to work for everything I got."
Rock's rise to the top in the wrestling business has been meteoric. It was a ladder match with Hunter Hearst Helmsley at last year's Summer Slam pay-per-view that catapulted him to the next level. The match went over half an hour - much longer than had been planned - and was a defining moment in Rock's career.
"With something like that, the drama has to build," says Rock.
"Looking back on it, I really don't regret it that much. That was a plateau for my career. We were talking a couple of months before the ladder match, and it was brought up that this would be the match that turns me. In a lot of ways it did."
