Why Is Dwayne Johnson Called The Rock?
If any performer in Hollywood has had a rock-solid nickname over the years, it has to be Dwayne Johnson.
Of course, Johnson first emerged in the spotlight as a World Wrestling Entertainment wrestler who rose to prominence while sporting the moniker "The Rock," but once he started starring in Hollywood productions like the "Mummy," "Fast & Furious" and "Jumanji" franchises, he's been known as either Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson or simply Dwayne Johnson.
In a Wired video Q&A with fellow actor Emily Blunt to promote his 2021 action-adventure film "Jungle Cruise," Johnson revealed that he didn't start out as "The Rock" in professional wrestling. Instead, he used a different moniker rooted in the names of his father and grandfather on his mother's side.
"The birth story of 'The Rock' is before I do what I do now, many moons ago, I used to throw around 300-pound men for a living and get my ass kicked," he explained. "And then my original wrestling name was 'Rocky Maivia,' which was a combination of my dad's first name and my grandfather's last name because both of them were pro wrestlers. So, my name became 'Rocky Maivia,' and when it was first pitched to me from [WWE co-founder] Vince McMahon, he said, 'I got your name, and I want it to be Rocky Maivia. Now, what do you think?'"
Johnson wanted to establish his own identity with his wrestling name
While Vince McMahon asked Dwayne Johnson to wrestle under the pseudonym of Rocky Maivia, the wrestler-turned-actor admitted in the Wired video that he wasn't a big fan of it.
"I hated the name. I hated it. I hated it because the lineage I had gave me the opportunity to at least knock on the door," he said. "I wanted my own identity; I wanted my own space. So, while I was very proud to come from who I came from, with my dad and grandfather, and my whole family's in wrestling, I still wanted my own space. And so, I said [to McMahon], 'I hate it.' And he said, 'Okay. Great, well that's your name.' And I went, 'Okay.' So, I embraced it, and I did it."
Fortunately for Johnson, the foundation of his Rocky Maivia name crumbled during his time in the wrestling ring, giving way to the nickname everybody knows him by today. "Eventually, when I became a bad guy, it got truncated down to 'The Rock,'" he said. Among his opponents was fellow actor-turned-wrestler John Cena, who later had some generally warm remarks about Johnson despite being an adversary of his in the ring.
Johnson said the "Rock" nickname was suggested by his professional wrestling mentor, Pat Patterson, who sadly died the same year as his father, Rocky Johnson, in 2020. "He said, 'What if we call you The Rock?' ... I said, 'I love it!' And he goes, ”Okay, you're The Rock.' And that was it," he recalled.