Dwayne Johnson Instagram – 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.