In the 1990s, The Rock signed with WWE after a successful collegiate football career at Miami. He eventually made the transition to Hollywood, where he achieved countless box office hits, before jumping into the business space as the executive of his own production company and as co-owner of the XFL. Throughout his career, the People’s Champ has excelled in every path he has chosen.
But over 25 years ago, as he told The Joe Rogan Experience, The Rock nearly joined Pride FC, a now-defunct MMA promotion, after suffering a knee injury in June 1997 in WWE. He pursued this due to the fighters’ high earnings and being constantly booed by fans as a babyface (h/t Fightful for transcription).
97, I was still going to LA and working out. We were crossing all the MMA guys. PRIDE just opened up in Japan. I started seeing all these MMA guys going over to PRIDE. At that time, I was making $150,000 dollars wrestling 235 days a year. Do the math on that and how much you’re making per match. We start hearing, ‘these guys in PRIDE are making $250,000, $350,000, $500,000.’ I thought then, ‘F–k, I don’t think I’m going to make it in WWE. People are booing me out of the arenas. I can’t be myself. They’re telling me to f–king smile, I don’t want to f–king smile. That’s not who I am.’ I start talking to Ken Shamrock, I start talking with Mark Kerr, ‘tell me about PRIDE.’ I have this idea in my head ‘maybe I should train in MMA, go to PRIDE, and make real money and I don’t have to smile.’ I’m going to get f–ked up, knock one of my lungs loose [laughs], but I find the right coach and train. I have this whole thing in my head. I’m talking to my wife at the time, ‘I think this is the way to go. I can make real money while these fans are booing me for $150 grand.’
Before it could happen, though, Vince McMahon contacted The Rock to discuss the idea of him turning heel and joining the Nation of Domination stable. The Rock accepted, but requested to address the audience with a promo beforehand, which he called the “most freeing thing for me in my career.”
I get a call from Vince [Vince McMahon], ‘How is your knee?’ ‘It’s healing up.’ I don’t tell him about this idea and that I’ve been talking to Shamrock and Kerr. He says, ‘I want to try to bring you back this one time. I want to turn you heel and we have a faction called Nation of Domination, I want to have you join them and we’ll see how it works out.’ I said, ‘Okay,’ but I still have this MMA idea in my head because I want to make money and be myself. I get to the arena that night, I went to Vince and said, ‘When I go out there, can I have two minutes on the microphone?’ He said, ‘I don’t know, it’s live, all our time is allocated for.’ ‘I just need two minutes.’ ‘Why?’ ‘I just want to be real and tell the fans how I feel and I needed to recalibrate things.’ He said, ‘Fine, a minute, you got it.’
It’s safe to say that pro wrestling thing worked out just fine for The Rock. He became one of WWE’s most beloved talents of all time, headlining WrestleManias, delivering instant classic promos, and being one of the faces of WWE’s hottest era. The question of what could have been in MMA somewhat lingers, but it appears he made the right decision.