The Rock remembers how his very first time on WWE 'changed his life'
Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson launched a new video series known as "The Rock Reacts," with his commentary on video of his very first time in the ring for WWE match all the way back in 1996.
Johnson comes from a wrestling family, and after a failed football career, he went on to an extremely successful gig in pro wrestling before he took over movies and TV.
As he says of his '90s WWE debut, which was at Madison Square Garden in Manhattan and shown on Pay-Per-View, "I was super, super, suuuper amped."
He explained of how he felt, "22,000 people did something that defined my career and literally changed my life in one night. And it's something you can't write, you can't script it. That thing was 22,000 people chanting my name."
He also throws in some colorful humor about what his WWE days then were like:
- "I got a f---ing Chia Pet on my head as a haircut." (He later says the hair looked like a "pineapple and a Chia Pet all mixed in one.")
- "I start going crazy right here. All that crazy s--t, in wrestling terms that is called 'babyface fire.'"
And finally he ends on a sweet reminiscence of how the WWE brought him where he is now - which is to say, the highest-paid actor in Hollywood:
- "There's an old saying in show business: 'If you can make it in New York, you can make it anywhere.' And my very first night in New York, they embraced me like a son. Since then I have nothing but gratitude and love for New York City and the WWE."
Watch the video below: