Dwayne Douglas Johnson graduated with a Bachelor in General Studies degree in criminology and physiology in 1995. He was a college football player for the University of Miami and won a national championship on the Miami Hurricanes football team in 1991. He also played for the Calgary Stampeders in the Canadian Football League. He was cut two months into the 1995 season and this led him to become a professional wrestler.
He comes from a Samoan family with a very long line of professional wrestlers. There are sixteen wrestlers in his family, including his grandfather, Peter Maivia, and his father, Rocky Johnson. His uncles Afa and Sika AnoaʻI were also wrestlers and are known as 'The Wild Samoans'
When Johnson told his father he wanted to become a professional wrestler, he was not too happy, but eventually agreed and decided to train him himself. Dwayne was originally billed as 'Rocky Maivia' but gained mainstream fame as 'The Rock'. He was the first third-generation wrestler in the history of the WWF.
On March 29, 2008, 'The Rock' inducted his father, Rocky Johnson, and his grandfather, Peter Maivia, into the WWE Hall of Fame. Johnson is widely hailed as one of the all-time great professional wrestlers.
