Fortune.com
has published a new profile on Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, and below are some highlights:
Returning to WWE to prove he could boost WWE’s business and win back fans who felt he abandoned them for Hollywood:
“We set pay-per-view buy-rate records and attendance records each time… I think fans realized, ‘Wow, you’re back, and you committed for three years, and you don’t have to be here.’ I had the balls to be authentic.”
How changing talent agencies from Creative Artists Agency (CAA) to William Morris Endeavor (WME) led to his WWE return:
“If I want to be called ‘The Rock,’ I’ll be called ‘The Rock.’ If I want to go back to wrestling, I’ll go back to wrestling. It’s all the same guy.”
Critics in online forums accusing him of using steroids:
“Training is my anchor. Being on a regimented schedule, setting a goal, failing at a goal. It’s the philosophies of being an athlete that carry me today… Sure, you get a lot of people out there who will suspect, and say s–t,” he says. “They want to negate the hard work you put in.”
Moving from L.A. to Florida with his girlfriend of seven years, Lauren Hashian (not identified by name in the article) and his ex-wife, Dany Garcia, getting remarried this year, to Dave Rienzi, who is now his strength and conditioning coach:
“Life is amazing. Life is f–king messy. Life is what you make of it. I’m happy to say we’re all together working nicely, but it took a lot of work. With Dany, it was going through the sludge of divorce and then having the clarity to say, ‘We’re still friends, we respect each other, let’s do business. And let’s do big business.'”
Nick was born and raised in Detroit, Michigan, and lived there until the age of 18, when he decided to pack his flack jacket and move to New York City.
