The Rock Recalls The Worst Wrestling Injury He Suffered
Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson has been through some rough periods as it relates to injury and those predate his wrestling days.
In fact, he probably wouldn't even be the man he is today had he not suffered some bad injuries during his stint playing football in college. If you ask him, though, The Rock will tell you that these ordeals weren't the reason he missed out on an NFL career. He blames Warren Sapp.
But fast-forward to WrestleMania 29 in 2013, when the wrestler-turned-movie star was already well established as a household name, and you come across what was perhaps the most devastating blow he's ever suffered.
Fighting in the main event against John Cena - a duel down to last 45 minutes - he felt something in his leg pop after just 15 minutes, following a slam to the mat.
Johnson recalled the moment during a recent episode of the Los Angeles Lakers Genius Talks series as he likened his experiences as a successful entertainer to facets of professional basketball players' lives.
"At the 15-minute mark, 'bang!' I feel something pop and I'm like 'What the f---?' I'm laying there and both of us are out," he said. "I said 'Oh f---, something is going on.' 85,000 people and I sort of roll over and stick my hand down in my trunks because I wanted to make sure no bone was sticking out."
Fortunately, there was no bone jutting out of his flesh, but just moving his leg took a whole lot of doing. Johnson was left with a choice to make, with a crowd of 85,000 in attendance, plus an entire WWE roster depending on him to put in the performance of his life.
"In the world of wrestling, when you have a big show like this, a big main event that the entire show is based around," he continued.
Previously: 10 Wrestlers Who Escaped Bad Gimmicks And Became Superstars (And 10 Who Never Recovered)
"The wrestlers will come up to the two people in the main event, at some point, all throughout the night in the locker room and be like, 'Hey, thank you for the house.' What that means is thank you for drawing - helping draw 85,000 people - and putting a lot of f------ money in my paycheck. We got a lot of 'Thank you for the houses' that night."
Of course, The Rock fought through the pain and went on to produce one of the best WrestleMania events in recent memory alongside Cena, albeit losing his WWE Championship belt. And a subsequent MRI would reveal a badly torn adductor.
"Final move of the match, it's his big finishing move and I remember, I'm getting up and I'm turning and he's going to hit me with his big finisher," he adds.
"It's like a massive suplex where I go over his head and he slams me down. ... I feel 'boom!' and I don't know what just happened. Luckily the match is over, one-two-three. Get to the back, can't move, now I'm getting a little nervous. Doctors come in, John comes in, 'You okay?' We like to celebrate with some booze, he brings moonshine, like legit moonshine. It's some crazy white boy s--- that they bring in a jar."
If you're still wondering about that Warren Sapp bit from earlier, though. It's because the NFL legend actually came in and took Johnson's spot as a defensive lineman for the Miami Hurricanes in 1991. Thankfully, though, they both turned out okay.
