The Rock is one of the most beloved names in wrestling history (Picture: WWE)
Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson made his WWE debut at Survivor Series 1996 and went onto become arguably the biggest stars in professional wrestling history.
The so-called People’s Champ became a worldwide phenomenon in the Attitude Era before taking his talents to Hollywood, but he didn’t always have it easy on his way to the top.
‘Road Dogg’ Brian James, a Hall of Famer himself and WWE’s current Senior Vice President of Live Events, admitted he was ‘jealous’ of The Rock when he arrived on the scene.
This meant Road Dogg felt a need to ‘keep his feet on the ground’, and he felt envious of the way the Black Adam star was ‘the total package’ in terms of the look, charisma and wrestling talent.
‘I wasn’t that, and so I was very jealous of him. And I’ve told him that and apologised since but it still doesn’t take away the fact that I took it upon myself to keep his feet on the ground,’ he explained on his Oh You Didn’t Know podcast.
‘And I did that with verbal abuse and potshots in the ring too, you know what I mean? Like, he knew that when they were there and he would bring it back and we would, you know, kind of do you and left it all out in the ring for sure.
‘Road Dogg’ Brian James was ‘jealous’ of Dwayne Johnson (Picture: WWE)
‘But I took it upon myself to keep his feet on the ground, and that was not my place, and I’ll forever apologise for that to him. But it was just, we were just in the ring wrestling, and I’m in the ring with you, dude, so you’re equal to me, you know what I mean?’
However, the former D-Generation X member acknowledged that in the wrestling world, they pair were ‘not equal’.
He added: ‘And look, and like I said, in retrospect, I see we’re not equal. We’re not equal as far as intellectual properties are concerned, you know what I mean? In the eyes of God, you and I are the same, but in the eyes of the consumer, of the almighty consumer we are not. And I understand that.’
The Rock had a tough time backstage as he rose up the card, with his fellow star Mark Henry previously recalling how an unnamed disgruntled rival once literally pooed in Dwayne’s lunchbox.
The Rock says The Undertaker helped him early in his run (Picture: WWE)
Remembering how he saw people ‘giggling’ next to their lockers – which were nearby – he said: ‘I grabbed the box and was going to close it and I looked in it and there was s**t in it. Somebody s**t in his food box, so of course, I have to dispose of this and tell him, “Hey man, don’t leave your food in here.” ‘
He added: ‘They were envious of us new guys coming in. We have developmental contracts or a full contract in my case. They hated us. They thought we were taking their jobs.’
Meanwhile, Dwayne himself has previously opened up on his early days in WWE, and credited Undertaker with being one of those to look out for him when other stars tried to hold him down.
He said: ‘One of the important things that I wanna say about The Undertaker – this is stuff I’ve never shared, but I do wanna share it because it’s important.
‘When I started to make the move and word started to get around that the office was priming me for a WWE Championship run, there were a handful of guys in the business at that time, they did everything they could to stop that run from happening.
‘Undertaker was one of those guys who was always so steady, telling me “Don’t worry about it, kid. You just got out, you keep doing your thing, you have a hell of a future.” ‘
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The Rock had a tough time early in his wrestling run.
