Did you know that in 1997, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson almost left WWE in order to become a shoot fighter for Japanese MMA brand PRIDE?
That's right, fans almost never got to hear what Johnson had cooking, listened to his musical stylings on the acoustic guitar, or got to meet “The Rock” period, as at the time, he was known by his initial moniker Rocky Miavaia; no championships, no movie stardom, no none of it.
If you didn't know that fact, well, you're in luck, as it's not true, as, despite making the claim on the Joe Rogan Experience, Dave Meltzer pointed out that Johnson pulled a “Hulk Hogan” and simply made it all up.
“The Rock was channeling Hulk Hogan… he said in 1997, he was thinking very seriously, and he was very close to signing with PRIDE Fighting Championships… that's what he said in 1997. He said he was making $150,000 a year as a pro wrestler, and he was hanging out in Southern California, and he found out that these fighters in PRIDE were making $250k per fight, and he figured it was better than wrestling five nights a week and making not nearly the money — that's what he said, that's what he claimed,” Dave Meltzer noted on Wrestling Observer Radio via Ringside News.
“I am… I don't know. I'm trying to think if the PRIDE fighters were making that kind of money, and I don't think any of them were. In the 2000s, yes, but he said he was friends with Ken Shamrock, which he was friends with Ken Shamrock, they worked together in WWE, I remember that.”
Goodness, what would the professional wrestling world look like if Johnson did leave WWE for PRIDE, a promotion that only existed from 1997 to 2007? Fortunately, we'll never have to know because, once again, it didn't come close to happening.
Read up on Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson's interesting PRIDE claims.
So, if you're confused about Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson's claims and want to check them out for yourself without combing through Joe Rogan's podcast, then you're in luck, as you can actually read his words below.
“97, I was still going to LA and working out. We were crossing all the MMA guys. PRIDE just opened up in Japan. I started seeing all these MMA guys going over to PRIDE. At that time, I was making $150,000 dollars wrestling 235 days a year. Do the math on that and how much you're making per match. We start hearing, ‘These guys in PRIDE are making $250,000, $350,000, $500,000.' I thought then, ‘F**k, I don't think I'm going to make it in WWE. People are booing me out of the arenas. I can't be myself. They're telling me to f**king smile, I don't want to f**king smile. That's not who I am.' I start talking to Ken Shamrock, I start talking with Mark Kerr, ‘Tell me about PRIDE.' I have this idea in my head ‘Maybe I should train in MMA, go to PRIDE, and make real money, and I don't have to smile.' I'm going to get f**ked up, knock one of my lungs loose [laughs], but I find the right coach and train. I have this whole thing in my head. I'm talking to my wife at the time, ‘I think this is the way to go. I can make real money while these fans are booing me for $150 grand,” Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson told Joe Rogan via Fightful.
“I get a call from Vince [Vince McMahon], ‘How is your knee?' ‘It's healing up.' I don't tell him about this idea and that I've been talking to Shamrock and Kerr. He says, ‘I want to try to bring you back this one time. I want to turn you heel, and we have a faction called Nation of Domination, I want to have you join them, and we'll see how it works out.' I said, ‘Okay,' but I still have this MMA idea in my head because I want to make money and be myself. I get to the arena that night, I went to Vince and said, ‘When I go out there, can I have two minutes on the microphone?' He said, ‘I don't know, it's live, all our time is allocated for.' ‘I just need two minutes.' ‘Why?' ‘I just want to be real and tell the fans how I feel, and I needed to recalibrate things.' He said, ‘Fine, a minute, you got it.'”
So what did Johnson tell the audience that fateful night on the mic? Well, according to Johnson, he simply wanted to introduce the WWE Universe to himself.
“That was the most freeing thing for me in my career,” Rock declared. “You know how you have these defining moments? In that one little moment, I was ripping all this open. Now you can boo me, watch how I respond. F**k the smiling, I'll smile when I want to smile. Watch how I respond; watch my words and actions. The fans felt something that night, and within a month, I became the hottest heel in WWE.”
Fortunately for fans who are worried about Johnson's credibility, there is actual video evidence of his first heel promo with the Nation of Domination, and needless to say, it might just be the most important two minutes of his professional wrestling career.
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