There are very few human beings as dedicated to staying in ridiculous shape as Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson. Father Time may be undefeated, but The Rock is at least taking him to Game 7.
Yet even for the Final Boss, there’s a difference between looking like a Greek god and being in ring shape, the kind of specific fitness needed to pull off a top level WWE wrestling match of any length. You can’t quite get that working solo, especially when you’re a super busy entertainment star and businessman.
So WWE went to great lengths to give Johnson the help he’d need to get in ring shape for his upcoming tag team match on night 1 of WrestleMania 40. ESPN broke down those measures in a lengthy feature on The Rock’s impending in-ring return:
- WWE sent one wrestling ring to Los Angeles and another to Hawaii for The Rock to use for training
- Gallus, the NXT team of Mark Coffey, Joe Coffey and Wolfgang, helped him work on tag team matches in L.A., while he used the Hawaii ring for solo workouts
- Referee Chad Patton, Michael Hayes and Bobby Roode also helped with the L.A. sessions, and a WWE medical team was present as well
As The Rock told ESPN, some parts of pro wrestling are “like riding a bike,’ but timing and getting reacclimated to different kinds of physical impacts are harder to prepare for by yourself.
“Fortunately for me, very lucky in that I became somewhat of a ring general where I see the circumference of the ring and where I need to be usually timing wise,” Johnson said. “Because timing is really important in our business of wrestling. So, just putting in the work, training, the diet begins, which always sucks. And taking the falls and just getting my ass kicked every day. So, we’ll see how it goes.”
The incredible team effort to help Johnson prepare suggests he’ll be able to perform at the level WWE fans associate with his Hall of Fame career. We’ll find out soon as he climbs into the ring at Lincoln Financial Field this Saturday, April 6.
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