ANOTHER OF PRO WRESTLINGS BIGGEST STARS...THE ROCK

ANOTHER OF PRO WRESTLING BIGGEST STARS...THE ROCK!              

Along with his father and grandfather, several members of Johnson’s family are current and former professional wrestlers, including his uncles, the Wild Samoans (Afa and Sika Anoai), and cousins such as the late former WWF Champion Yokozuna and former WWF Tag Team Champion Rikishi. When he declared his intention to join the family business to his father, the elder Johnson resisted, but agreed to train his son himself, warning him that he would not go easy on him.

With help from former WWE executive and veteran wrestler Pat Patterson, Johnson secured a tryout with the WWF. Impressed by his talent and charisma, he was signed to a WWF deal after a short stint for "seasoning" in Jerry Lawler’s USWA, where he wrestled under the stage names of Flex Kavana and Pidlaoan Rock.

Johnson first wrestled in the WWF as Rocky Maivia, a combination of his father and grandfather’s ring names. The WWF played up his connection to his father and grandfather, calling him the first third-generation superstar to wrestle for the company. Johnson was first portrayed as a clean-cut babyface, and gained early success, winning the prestigious Intercontinental Championship after only three months.

He was the first Intercontinental champion of Samoan descent. However, wrestling had changed since Hulk Hogan’s heyday in the mid 80s, and fans quickly grew sick of the two-dimensional good guy character. Despite often being loudly booed, Johnson was forced to go to the ring and smile, as if the crowd was cheering (like they were "supposed to").

Eventually, Johnson was allowed to turn heel and joined the Nation of Domination (wrestling’s version of the Black Panthers), spewing venom at the fans for turning on him, influenced by Johnson’s real-life feelings toward the WWF audience. In the Nation, Rocky Maivia became The Rock, a cocky and charismatic bully who even drove out the Nation’s leader Faarooq.

Now allowed to be more or less himself (Johnson has often said in interviews that The Rock is merely Dwayne Johnson with "the volume turned way up"), The Rock became wildly popular, establishing several much-quoted catchphrases including "Do you smell what The Rock is cookin’?", "Layeth the Smacketh down," "It Doesn’t Matter What Your Name Is!", and "Know your role and shut your mouth!" Johnson’s popularity as The Rock propelled him to the WWF Championship at the 1998 Survivor Series at age 26.

At the time, he was the youngest WWF Champion in history, siding with then-heels Vince McMahon and Shane McMahon as the crown jewel of their "Corporation" stable. The Rock would begin to feud with Mankind over the WWF Championship in which the title would change back and forth between the two, first during the main event of the January 4, 1999 episode of RAW, when Mankind pinned The Rock with the help of Stone Cold Steve Austin his opponent at Wrestlemania XV.

The Rock would lose the WWF Title to Austin at that event, and continued his feud with Austin until May 1999. WWF fans began to cheer The Rock dispite being a bad guy, due to his hilarious interviews and segments which mocked wrestlers and announcers. Johnson eventually turned face again after the Corporation betrayed him and established a feud with The Undertaker and the Corporate Ministry.

The Rock, now a face, feuded with "Badd Ass" Billy Gunn over the summer of 1999. In the fall the Rock found himself in several WWE Championship opportunities, both in singles and tag. He teamed with now former enemy Mankind to create the "Rock N Sock Connection" and won the WWF Tag Team Titles. Aside from the championships, the team was one of the most entertaining teams in recent memory, where Mankind would imitate The Rock, while The Rock would mostly ignore Mankind.

The team was also invoved in a segment which occurred on RAW called "this is your life," which to this day is the single highest rated segment in terms of viewrship in RAW history. As a singles competitor, The