Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson has admitted he once considered leaving pro wrestling for a career in MMA, before a UFC legend persuaded him otherwise.
Johnson, who stars as former UFC fighter Mark Kerr in the upcoming biopic The Smashing Machine, revealed on the Joe Rogan Experience that he was fascinated by the spectacle of Pride events in Japan early in his WWE career. With crowds of up to 30,000 and the promise of big paydays, the young wrestler believed it could be a path worth taking.
“I had this thought of Pride because it felt like, ‘Oh, those guys, they’re making money. They’re putting on big shows,’” Johnson said. “When you’re talking to guys in it, they’re saying, ‘Yeah, you could do it.’”
But regular conversations with Ken Shamrock, a UFC Hall of Famer who also wrestled in WWE, convinced Johnson to stick with wrestling. “Shamrock was very smart,” he recalled. “We were wrestling each other every night, training together, and he said: ‘You might just want to stick with this first. There’s a real shot here. You’ve got something here.’”
Johnson also discussed how his connection with Kerr, dating back to 2019, led to the eventual creation of The Smashing Machine. Kerr admitted he told Johnson he didn’t need to take on such a demanding project. “He could just keep doing blockbusters and be fine,” Kerr said. “But he needed to do something different.”
For fans, Johnson’s decision not to pursue MMA left room for one of wrestling’s greatest careers — and now for his transformation into Kerr on the big screen.
