Dwayne Johnson

Dwayne Johnson

Dwayne Douglas Johnson (born May 2, 1972), also known and sometimes credited by his ring name The Rock, is an American actor and professional wrestler who works for WWE.

Johnson was a college football player. In 1991, he was on the University of Miami's national championship team. He later played for the Calgary Stampeders in the Canadian Football League, and was cut two months into the 1995 season. This led him to become a professional wrestler like his grandfather, Peter Maivia, and his father, Rocky Johnson. He gained mainstream fame as a wrestler in the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) from 1996 to 2004, and was the first third-generation wrestler in the company's history. He was quickly pushed as a face in the WWF, originally billed as "Rocky Maivia", then as "The Rock". He turned heel as a member of the Nation of Domination in 1997. Two years after he joined the WWF, he won the WWF Championship and became one of the most popular wrestlers ever, primarily for his charismatic interviews and promos.

Johnson is widely considered one of the greatest professional wrestlers of all time. He held WWF/E championships sixteen times. This includes nine World Heavyweight Championships (the WWF/E Championship seven times and the WCW/World Championship twice), the WWF Intercontinental Championship twice, and the WWF Tag Team Championship five times. He is the sixth WWF/E Triple Crown Champion, and the winner of the 2000 Royal Rumble.

Johnson's autobiography The Rock Says... (co-written with Joe Layden) was published in 2000. It debuted at #1 on The New York Times Best Seller list and remained on the list for several weeks. Johnson's first leading film role was in The Scorpion King in 2002. For this role, he was paid US$5.5 million, a world record for an actor in his first starring role. He has since appeared in several succesful movies, including The Rundown, Be Cool, Walking Tall, Gridiron Gang, The Game Plan, Get Smart, Race to Witch Mountain, Planet 51, Tooth Fairy, Doom, The Other Guys, Faster, Fast Five, and Fast Six.