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It is hard to imagine what the wrestling world would be like with The Rock being an integral part of the sport’s history.
However, there was a time when The Rock considered leaving pro wrestling to join PRIDE and become a pro MMA fighter.
“In ‘97, during that time, while I was still going out to L.A. and working out, we were crossing all the MMA guys,” Johnson said on The Joe Rogan Experience podcast (transcript via Alexander K. Lee of MMA Fighting). “Pride just opened up in Japan so I was seeing all these MMA guys going over to Pride. ... At that time I was making $150,000 wrestling 235 days a year. So do the math of that and how much you’re making per match. We start hearing, hey these guys over in pride are making 250, 350, 500. I thought then, ‘F***, 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****** smile, I don’t want to f****** smile, it’s not who I am.
“I start talking to Ken Shamrock at that time, who was wrestling with us, I run into Mark Kerr, I start talking to him. ‘Tell me a little bit about Pride.’ And I had this idea in my head, maybe I should train in MMA and go to Pride and make money, real money. Then I don’t have to smile. I’m sure I’m going to get f***** up over there, knock one of my lungs loose, but maybe I can do something.”
The Rock never did make the jump to MMA, but would eventually leave pro wrestling behind, for the most part, to become one of the most successful actors in the world today.
A short time after The Rock’s appearance on The Joe Rogan Experience, MMA historian Jonathan Snowden would contradict some of what The Rock said on X:
There weren't "Pride" fighters in 1997. There was one Pride event at the end of the year.
— TheRealSnowden (@JESnowden) November 16, 2023
Ken would have absolutely heard what they were paying over the next couple of years. It's not at all what Rock says here. Which is why Ken himself didn't go there until 2000.
Shamrock and Severn both went to WWE specifically because there was no money in MMA in 97/98.
— TheRealSnowden (@JESnowden) November 16, 2023
