The Rockhas revealed the moment that nearly led him to quit wrestling for good — long before he became The People’s Champion and one of WWE’s biggest stars. At a press conference following hisappearance on WWE SmackDownin New Orleans last night,Dwayne Johnsonheld court and opened up on the hardest moments of his career, particularly his WrestleMania 13 match against The Sultan (aka his cousinRikishi). Despite being positioned as a heroic character, fans mercilessly booed him out of the building due to finding his character boring and uninteresting, leaving him questioning his future in professional wrestling.
Speaking quite candidly, Johnson recalled the horrendous reception he received from the crowd at the Rosemont Horizon in March 1997, when his initialRocky Maiviacharacter failed toconnect with audiences. “I go into WrestleMania in Chicago at the Horizon at that time," said Johnson. “It was sold out and I was the Intercontinental Champion.And that entire arena booed me, and they were chanting ‘Rocky sucks.’ And it was very hard. I was just a kid, but also, I was what’s called a babyface — in wrestling vernacular, you’re a good guy. You’re not supposed to get booed.”
Johnson continued, revealing that his cousin did his best to reassure him during a down point of the match:
“That place, they [booed the sh*t out of me] that night. So much so I remember being on the mat and the guy I was wrestling was called The Sultan. He’s actually a family member of mine. He’s my cousin Rikishi. I remember him holding me in this wrestling move and he goes, ‘Don’t worry about it. Don’t listen to them, it’s okay.’ Meanwhile, there’s 15,000 people chanting ‘Rocky sucks.’ It’s like, man…”
WrestleMania 13 Was a Turning Point for The Rock
At the time, The Rock was making $150,000 per year, but after paying taxes and various expenses, he found himself struggling financially. To make matters worse,Vince McMahonhad decided to take the Intercontinental Championship off him after WrestleMania, leaving him at a career crossroads. Following the humiliation, he was sent home to recover from injury and, during that time, he considered giving it up.
“After that night, I had a meeting with Vince. He said, ‘Things aren’t working out. I’m going to take the title off you.’ A week later, I got hurt. I tore a ligament in my knee. He said, ‘You’ve got to go home.’I went home for the rest of the summer, and I didn’t know what I was going to do," he revealed, before adding that he considered switching to mixed martial arts. He said:
“In that summer, I thought, ‘Man, I’ve got really no money. I’m getting booed out of the building. I went toWrestleMania. I don’t know what to do.’ At that time, I thought maybe I should consider a career in MMA. At that time, there was a company called Pride in Japan. They were making a lot of money, and I thought maybe I should do that.”
Thankfully, Johnson never pursued MMA and instead returned to WWE later that year with a new attitude, soon being repackaged as the arrogant, trash-talking “The Rock.” He would go on to join The Nation of Domination, setting him on the path to becoming one of the most electrifying figures in WWE history, and the rest is history.
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