Chopping it up with
@joerogan about the summer of ‘97 before I became “The Rock”, my name was “Rocky Maivia” - I just tore a ligament in my knee and my
@wwe career was completely failing as a rookie babyface. I started to consider a career in MMA with a new started fighting company, called PRIDE in Japan — where the athletes were making some pretty big money.
I thought I could take a year or so to commit to my MMA training and maybe I’d have shot. Maybe not.
But I wanted to make some real money.
At the end of that summer of ‘97 I was rehabbing my injured knee and got the call from Vince McMahon that wound up changing my life — he said I’m gonna bring you back BUT you’re gonna become a heel, join the Nation of Domination and call yourself The Rock.
Thank God I got that call, because my career as an MMA fighter in PRIDE would’ve lasted all of 3 minutes because those guys would’ve knocked my fucking jaw across the pacific 😂💀
But the lesson of all this that I did learn, is that the most powerful thing you can be is yourself.
