Dwayne Johnson seems to be able to do it all. An eight-time WWE Champion and two-time WCW Champion, he went from being an all-time wrestling legend to one of the biggest stars on the planet. From the Fast & Furious franchise to Moana to the Jumanji movie, his performances have been critically acclaimed. He writes books, has fashion lines, is an inspiration for healthy nuts, has a large following on social**, and a TV show based on his youth. On top of that, he's usually a likable, popular guy who won't mess up if he tries.
But for rocks, it's not always sunshine and roses. He emerged from a turbulent childhood with great success. From poverty, crime, and major setbacks in his early career, to skyrocketing success in wrestling and film, this is a story about how rock struggled to turn his pain into unparalleled star power and all-around popularity.
Today, Rocky "Soul Man" Johnson is primarily known as the father of the rock, but he once had his own respected wrestling career. Loki's father (Peter Mevia) was also a wrestler, and he started in the 60s and enjoyed considerable success after joining WWE (then known as WWF) in 1983. There, he had high-profile rivalries with wrestlers such as Greg Valentine, Don Moraco, and Adrian Adonis. In December of the same year, Soulman and Tony Atlas defeated the Wild Samons to become the first African-American label team in WWE history. Loki retired after just eight years, but he made enough impact to be inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2008. 
Unsurprisingly, it was Loki who first introduced young Dawn to wrestling, often teaching his son simple grips and movements, and introducing him to the gym when he was 13 years old. Sadly, Loki passed away last year at the age of 75. His son said on Instagram: "I love you. You broke the barrier of skin color, became a ring legend, and carved your own path in this world. I am the boy in the seat, watching and worshipping you from afar, my hero. That boy you raised will always be proud of our culture, proud of who I am and who I am. The boy you raised with the strongest love.
Dwayne Johnson was born in 1972. By the mid-80s, he had moved more than most people in their lifetime, and after moving from New Zealand to the United States, he spent at least a few months in 13 states. "Our life efficiency is $120 a week," Johnson told The Hollywood Reporter in 2014, explaining how his family was forced to leave Hawaii. "We came home with a padlock on the door and an eviction notice. My mom (Atta Johnson) started yelling. She just started crying and breaking down. "We're going to live in **? What are we going to do? It was one of the darkest moments of his life. If that wasn't bad enough, in the weeks leading up to that eviction, he had been waging a dangerous underground struggle, even stealing to help pay the bills after his mother's car was repossessed. They eventually moved to Nashville, Tennessee, where they were evicted and ended up in Pennsylvania, all in 1987. It was one of those periods in his life that brought Johnson to a fork in the road – succumbing to crime and despair, or trying to get out of it.
As a teenager, Dwayne Johnson didn't just commit crimes here or there. He was a member of a self-proclaimed "theft ring" and by the age of 17, he had been imprisoned at least eight times. In his own words (via Muscle & Fitness), "There are a lot of tourists coming to Waikiki (Hawaii), and there's a lot of money. A lot of foreign money came in, and we were part of a theft ring that targeted these groups. We'll aim for money, we'll aim for high-end clothing, we'll aim for jewelry – turn around and sell it as best we can. Johnson doesn't like having to resort to illegal schemes to support his family. Luckily for him, during this time, he spent as much time in the gym as he did lifting his jewelry, and for the same reason. His family's experience of poverty and despair led him to find unconventional solutions. As he puts it, "I started training at 14 and I started ** at 14 – because of fights, stealing, all sorts of stupid things I shouldn't have done. But I still found time to go to the boys' club every afternoon to play speed bags, heavy bags, and irons. I'm exercising my body because that's the expulsion mentality. Judging by his later successes in wrestling and film, it's hard to argue that the workouts didn't pay off. Go and ask anyone on the street what comes to mind when they think of Dwayne Johnson. We haven't done this exercise yet, but we're willing to bet that 95% of the answers you get are about wrestling, movies, or workouts. Hardly anyone would mention football, but that's exactly where the future WWE star got his professional sport started. Of course, this is not surprising because when he joined the Miami Hurricanes as a freshman in 1991, he was 6 feet 5 inches tall and weighed 290 pounds.
In his four years with the team, he played in 39 games and completed 77 steals. Nothing exciting, but it gave the future Locke his first taste of real success. Crucially, it proves to him that the years of effort he put into improving himself – and avoiding the criminal and impoverished lives that his turbulent childhood set for him – paid off. After playing successful college football for several years, Dwayne Johnson seems to have a bright future ahead of the sport. Sadly, this was not intentional. His career ended before it actually took off, like the careers of many young athletes – a series of debilitating injuries. "In that game, I got hurt," Johnson said in a February 2021 interview with Sports Illustrated about a game he played in practice with current University of Oregon head coach and then-Hurricanes guard Mario Cristobal. "I tore everything on my shoulders and that meant I wore the red shirt and spent the whole season in the injured reserves. During that time, I was very depressed. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Johnson finally regained his standing with the team after spending weeks desperately with a bandage on his arm. He even regained his former passion, but more injuries followed. When the NFL came up in 1995, they skipped him in the draft. List of high-quality authors
Despite being skipped by the NFL, Johnson found a job on a professional football team – the Calgary Cowboys. It's not where he wants to go, and the money ($300 a week) is pitifully small compared to how much he earns in the NFL. But at least that's something, and the Globe and Mail reports that Johnson is popular among his teammates. Stulaelde, who played with Johnson on the team, compared him to a Greek god and said the players' wives were stunned when Johnson walked into the club to relax after practice. However, his time with the Stampeders was very short-lived. He played a few games with the team, but he struggled to stand out in an already excellent defensive lineup. He ends up being knocked into the practice team, and he barely earns enough money to eat. Soon after, the rock was completely cut off from the stampede, and he returned to Florida to live with his parents. Johnson then fell into one of the darkest periods of his life, battling severe depression.
After being fired from the Calgary Cowboys, Johnson spent several weeks in his parents' Florida apartment, dealing with feelings of hopelessness and hopelessness. It's understandable – he put everything into his NFL dream, but he didn't win an award. It's arguably the best thing that has ever happened to him. After living at home for almost two months, the head coach of the stampede team played him ** and asked him to return to the team. Johnson thanked him and said he would think about it, but he had already made up his mind. He never replied.
Dwayne then told his parents that he had left football behind so he could get into the family business – wrestling. His father was stunned. Johnson recalls (via own) being told he had made a terrible mistake that ruined his career. However, after seeing that his son was serious and enthusiastic about the move, Rocky "Soul Man" Johnson agreed to train him. The rest, as they say, is history. When it comes to anything – especially professional wrestling – you don't start at the top. No one knows this better than Dwayne Johnson. "It's hardcore," Johnson told Stephen Colbert in 2018. "So when I first started, we would live like gypsies, I would wrestle and I had a $40 guarantee per fight per night. Johnson often finds himself wrestling in the rings set up in the middle of flea markets or used car dealer parking lots. "People will go in," Johnson explained, "and they will buy used cars, and if you want, you can see free wrestling matches." 
It's far from glamorous, but the future star knows that if you want to play big time, he'll have to pay his fair share – even if things are awkward or awkward. As he himself said, "I would have a pineapple haircut, boots and wrestling gear, next to an office trying to sell cars." This is the strangest thing.
While Dwayne Johnson was working hard at the lowest level in the wrestling world, he was given a lucky break when his father's friend, Pat Patterson, heard about his amateur fight. As a professional wrestler, Patterson was so impressed with Johnson's abilities that he told Vince McMahon, CEO of World Nature, that he had to go see the kid's training.
Johnson told the story in an Instagram post following Patterson's death in December 2020. As Johnson said, he was about 24 when Patterson hit McMahon and told him, "I just watched this kid, Dwayne Johnson, work out in the ring...He's only been training for three months, but Vince, you've got to look at this kid. The boss replied, "Great, I'll see him in three months' time," but Patterson didn't. "You have to see him now," he insisted. McMahon agreed, and from there, well, Dwayne Johnson's future was coming.
Dwayne Johnson didn't start out as a rocker. He actually debuted as "Rocky Maivia" in the 1996 Survivor series, a combination of his father's and grandfather's wrestling names. It's not just that his name is unrecognizable. Loki came out in a rather strange outfit that included a checkerboard neck ornament lined with feathers and draped blue tassels. Despite this, and his odd hairstyle (he later admitted he was cutting his own hair at the time), the Madison Square Garden gave the newcomer a skeptical treat.
The World Naturally (WWF) (which eventually became WWE) called him a "blue chip" and used his family's extensive wrestling background to hype Johnson as a third-generation wrestler. He won a series of competitions and received considerable championship consideration within a year of his debut. But the fans didn't. They thought the world would naturally try to strangle Loki's superstar qualities in their throats before they had time to get to know Loki, and they did this by chanting "Loki sucks!" during his game. And "Die, Loki, Die!" to express their disgust. Ouch. The world naturally poured a lot of money into Dwayne Johnson, but it's clear that his Rocky Maivia character isn't popular with fans, who believe he's been prematurely hyped as a future champion before they fully understand him. It's clear that Johnson's wrestling family history isn't enough. He needs to forge his own path. So, they changed direction. Johnson ditched his blue curtains and "chipper" identity in favor of a black suitcase and an uninhibited, trash-talking character. Thus, the rock was born. Johnson made his debut in 1997 as a member of the Nation of Domination as "heels" (wrestling villains) in Rock, a team of black wrestlers whose shticks were named and kicked ass as revenge for being suppressed. He often refers to himself in the third person and insults spectators and opponents in the ring. Most notably, during this period, he developed an intra-character feud with the legendary "ruthless" Steve Austin, a feud that went far beyond his reigning nation. Fans loved it, and Johnson found his niche. In the 1997 storyline, the rock band delights fans by backstabbing teammate Faarooq and taking over the ruling nation. But it's becoming increasingly clear that Rock is too popular to be stuck in a team. After a high-profile defeat in which he blamed the state, he disbanded the team and went it alone. Superstars await. By 1999, Rock was flying solo and quickly established himself as a sleek, trash-talker-attitude era villain and a wrestler to be reckoned with. His high-profile rivalries with Steve Austin, Triple H, Mankind and others have given him plenty of opportunities to earn belts and legions of fans. His first WWF title came in the 1998 Survivor Series, where he defeated Mankind in the finals after surviving a series of tournaments in which Stone Cold, Al Snow, Ken Shamrock, and others all competed. He lost to Mankind in December 1998 but regained the title by defeating his old rival at the Royal Rumble "I Quit" in January 1999. In the ladder less than a month later, Rock defeated the humans again to win his third WWF title. The following year, he won his fourth title against Triple H, his fifth in June of that year, his sixth in February 2001 and his record-breaking seventh in July 2002. He eventually won his eighth and final WWE belt in January 2013 over CM Punk.
By that time, the "People's Champion" had not only become one of the most popular wrestlers of all time, but also a pop culture icon, and his star power could arguably have completely surpassed the ring. After playing his own father on the 1999 '70s show, Rock made its debut in 2001's The Mummy Returns. The following year, he returned for the "Scorpion King" sequel. The films were lukewarmly acclaimed ("The Mummy Returns" is largely remembered for Johnson's ridiculously bad CGI work on his face), but the negative reviews did little to diminish Johnson's rising star power. The evaluation of his acting skills is positive. Since then, he has barely taken the time to act, and the A-list star has appeared in more than 40 films. He is widely acclaimed for his role as Luke Hobbs in the ongoing Fast & Furious series, as Dr. Xander "Smolder" Br**estone in Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle and Jumanji: Next Level, and for his role in the hit Disney film Moana. He also plans to wow superhero fans by playing DC's Black Adam.
In 2019 and 2020, Johnson topped Forbes' list of the highest-paid actors in the world – unlike he needed financial help. Far from his teenage days of impoverished thieves, Johnson sold clothes, wrote books, and even made some popular comebacks for WWE. He is currently one of the most popular men on the planet, but it all didn't come easily.