The Rock Makes Shocking WWE Confession

Before becoming The Rock, Dwayne Johnson was Rocky Maivia.

Maivia was basically a ‘jolly good fella,’ who liked interacting with the fans and showing gratitude. The fans, on the other hand, hated his gimmick with passion.

While promoting his recent movie, The Smashing Machine, The Brahma Bull appeared on Sports Illustrated and discussed one of the lowest points of his wrestling career.

The Rock looked back at a clip, recalling the incident that occurred during WrestleMania 13, where he successfully defended his Intercontinental Championship against The Sultan.

While Maivia won that match, he was booed out of the building by the Chicago crowd.

Vince McMahon Wanted The Rock To Portray Rocky Maivia A Certain Way

The Rocky Maivia gimmick was received so poorly by the audiences that they cheered “die Rocky die” at him during the In Your House 14: Revenge of the ‘Taker event, where he lost by countout.

He revealed that Vince McMahon wanted him to play the character like he did. While he understood where McMahon was coming from, the idea felt inauthentic for him.

This is me at WrestleMania 13 in Chicago. I was a rookie and Vince McMahon told me very early, ‘You’re going to become the youngest Intercontinental Champion, but you have to smile all the time. When you go out, your music plays, you got to smile. As you come back, you got to smile.’ And I remember telling him, I was like, man, that doesn’t feel real authentic.

And he goes, ‘Yeah, but I want to make sure people know that you’re grateful to be here.’ And I went and I thought, ‘God, I wonder if there’s another way, but he’s the boss.’ So what you’re seeing there at WrestleMania 13 is that’s a culmination of months of being inauthentic, not being real, smiling. I mean, dude, I used to go out, my music would hit, and fans would be like, ‘You suck.’ And I’d have to smile, yeah, yeah, thanks, man. [H/T: Ringside News]

He subsequently suffered an injury that kept him out of action for months.

Upon returning, he joined the Nation of Domination, becoming the trash-talking and audience-bashing heel the promotion needed at the time.

It’s fair to say that The Rock never looked back and went on to create an enviable legacy.

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