“No One Can Stop Me” - Dwayne Johnson Opens Up On Trump, Hollywood, Vince McMahon & Father | PBD Podcast | Ep. 473
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Were you prepared for it? Was it like something you were afraid of? Was it something you mentally and emotionally were getting ready for? Or was it like, I'm never gonna be ready for this day? We never had a chance to reconcile that. So, that time has come. The man is in the arena. Hollywood conformed to you, to me when I became authentic and when I became myself. At this phase,

How much leverage, power, credibility do you have where they know they can't screw with you because you're going to do it no matter what? Do you have that kind of leverage yet or not yet? I wasn't prepared for it because it's the people you don't meet.

The ones behind the scenes, those are the ones who are trying to hold you down. President? There's a thought of, dude, I don't want to effing mess with that at all. That job would take me away. For you to come out and say, here's who I'm voting for? Yes. That could be catastrophic for your career. Yes. What was your reaction when you saw the president being assassinated? I mean, I just, I felt like, you know. Yes, I'm mad! What the rock!

When I wake up in the morning, I have got to be running towards the thing that I want to do. Your father pushed you away from being a wrestler and the ultimate compliment to your dad is, "Bro, I want to do what you did. I'm going to continue your legacy and tell the world you're my hero." As of now, the most important thing is to be a daddy to my little girls. How are you going to get here? By being the hardest worker in the room. ♪ Hear me smell what the is cooking ♪

Give it up to the one, the only, the way, the rock, Johnson. Wow, good to see you guys. Yes, let's go. How are you feeling? I'm feeling great, brother. Thank you for that. We've been waiting for this. We've been waiting for you to be here at the event. Everybody's been asking. Thank you so much. Good to see you guys. Here we go. By the way, just so you guys know, he is...

I don't know if you can tell them what you're working on and how you got here. It's not like you were in Florida. You have to get on a flight, come here, get on the flight, go back to where you're at. Maybe you want to share that with them. Yes, absolutely. So we're shooting live action Moana, which will be out...

Yeah, it's exciting. Which will be out, I believe, next summer. And of course, as you guys know, many of you may know, we have Moana 2, the animated version, will come out this holiday season. So I shot last night, probably till about 9, 10 o'clock. Wound up getting to bed after I put the babies to bed. I have all girls.

got a couple of hours sleep, got my butt on a bird, flew here with you and with you, and we're going to have a great time. I love it. I love it. So, you know, one of the things, maybe we can open it up with this because, you know, this room is filled with

business owners, small business owners, some brought their executives, some brought their sales folks, some can range from a small business doing a million a year, some just raised a few hundred million dollars in the front, they're maybe valued at a unicorn right now, some are doing a billion dollars in top line revenue with a few thousand employees. And the conversation comes about going on a run or work ethic and how hard you work.

Sometimes when somebody follows you on social media and Instagram, you kind of see the videos you're posting. And hey, just got back to this. And I got here at 2 o'clock. I'm training. And then see you 7 o'clock in the morning.

How hard do you actually work? Meaning what the audience doesn't see. How hard do you actually work, DJ? Hard. I mean, you have to work hard. Everybody in this room knows if it's worth something to you, you've got to put in the effort. And, you know, the tricky thing, as we know with social media, is...

You let people in a little bit. You let them in on what you want them to see. But at the end of the day, I always feel like social media may be the tip of the iceberg that you allow people to see, but it's everything underneath the water that they don't see. And I always like to say it's the work we put in when nobody's watching that really matters. It's easy, I think, when you go to work, you got a lot of people around, you galvanize everybody, you can feel the momentum and the energy start to go. It's

And not to oversimplify the work, but it leads to work begets work. So if we're all together in a room, we're going to work. But it's the stuff you do on your own away from everybody really that matters. So you've got to put in the work. How hard do I work? I don't know.

I work hard, like we all work hard. I like to say that. I guess the follow-up for that would be, the follow-up for that would be, you know that. That's my family, thank you. Rock's family's here. But the follow-up for that would be,

On working hard, there's different reasons for it, right? Some people work hard because they're just like that. My dad's a hard worker. He's just wired like that. He's not doing it to anybody. He's not doing it to make money. He's not doing it to build a business. From the day I've been young enough to remember my father till today, he works. You met him in the back, 82 years old. He's always moving. He's always working. Doesn't have any excuses for it.

But then there are certain people that work hard for different reasons. You obviously are a very super hyper-competitive type of guy. How much of the working hard is just because that's how you're wired? How much of it is because you want to suffocate your competitors for them to say, yeah, I'm willing to go here. I can hang with him. He went here. I can hang with him.

He's willing to do this. Shit. All right, I'll hang with him. But he went here. I'm going to the club, right? How much of it is that additional intimidation factor of your competitors that you're going up against? I think it's a combination of a few things for me. I can trace back my work ethic to...

We were evicted out of our, we had a little efficiency apartment in Hawaii, and we were evicted out of there, couldn't pay the rent. The rent was $280 a month. We eventually got kicked out. When we got kicked out, I was 15 years old, I'll never forget it. I was standing there at the door, there was not the padlock, but the notice. And if any of you have had this fortunate, unfortunate experience, you get evicted, they

They tell you in a week you got to go. If you don't, then the Honolulu Police Department will come and they'll escort you out. In that moment, I saw my mom crying. And I just, because I'm a mama's boy, and that kind of pain really impacted me. And I thought then, I want to do everything that I can to make sure we never get evicted like this again and make sure that she is never this upset again. Thank you. You know, and that then I thought,

I didn't even know what that meant at 15 years old. It just meant I have to work. I have to work. I have to do something with my own two hands. So I have a philosophy these days that you got to put in the work with our own two hands because this is the stuff that you can control. We control the controllables as we say. The other part is a competitive nature that is in my DNA and it's in my blood just like it runs in all of our constitution and our makeup here in this room and yours included where I love the competition.

I love to win, and I also love to learn. I don't say lose. I say I love to learn. So I would say it's a combination of that. For me, the work ethic comes from

I never want to be evicted again, which is probably why I need therapy. And then the other side to that... You're not alone. The other side to that is a competitive nature. And that competitive nature, that never goes away. Do you think that is in you? Do you think that's maybe pops behind closed doors?

would say certain things to you that you remember? Do you think that's somebody offending you that you said, you're going to say that to me? Watch. What do you think that comes from? Like, is it duplicatable or is it you either have it in your DNA or you don't?

I think there's versions of it that are duplicatable, but we all go through our own journey and process. So there's something I think that we all can tap into that becomes our juice and our wiring. For me, you bring up my old man. My dad was a professional wrestler at a time when professional wrestling, I think, wasn't as globally renowned as it is today. My dad was paycheck to paycheck kind of guy, and when I...

decided to get into professional wrestling, we had the biggest fight about it. And ultimately he said, look, I'm not too sure if you have anything to offer. I mean, it got to that level. How old are you at this time? I was 22 years old, 23, 22, 23. And I understand what he meant in his limited capacity to love. He meant, look,

I live in this little apartment in Tampa, right up the road, I-75. I don't want this life for you. I think there's more for you out there. And I said, yeah, but I got to follow my gut and my instinct. So I bring that up to say, along the road of life, we always have these moments that are seminal moments where somebody, sometimes it's a loved one like my old man. Sometimes it's a friend. Sometimes it's a boss. Sometimes it's a stranger who says, you can't do it. You're not good enough. Don't even try. Pack your stuff and go home.

Same thing happened to me in Hollywood. When I got to Hollywood for the first time, when I got to Hollywood, I was coming out of the world of professional wrestling, WWE, and I was really determined, hopefully, to have a career that had longevity, and I was willing to put in the work and commit.

What I realized at that time was there was a lot of naysayers and there was a lot of cynicism as I was getting into Hollywood. And I get it because you were successful in another place and now Hollywood comes knocking and now you want to try and come in and make a name for yourself in Hollywood. It was a little tricky because I was coming out of the world of professional wrestling. It's just a unique animal at that time.

and machine. So when I got there, a lot of people around me at that time who were part of my management team said, listen, if you really want to make it in Hollywood, and even those who weren't part of my team,

You know, now looking back, I can see the chess that they were trying to play back then. They said, if you really want to make it in Hollywood, then you can't call yourself The Rock. You've got to lose weight. Don't talk about wrestling. You have to, and you have to look and walk and talk and act like these guys, and these guys are the biggest stars in the world at that time. Johnny Depp, Will Smith, et cetera. If you don't know any better, you buy into that stuff like I bought into that back then.

But then you start to realize something starts to eat at your gut about, well, this just doesn't feel right because I'm not being authentic. I'm not being myself. So finally, I said, a few years later, I said, I can't do this anymore. I have to be myself. Had a big meeting at the agency. I said, I'd like to have the same career as these guys, only bigger and different. And I mean it respectfully, respectfully.

And they all looked at me like I had three heads. And I have a big enough head as it is. So they looked at me like I had three heads. And I said, listen, just because it's never been done doesn't mean it can't be done. It just means we've got to figure out a different path. So ultimately, I wound up saying, look, The Rock is a pretty cool name. And I love wrestling. And I'm also proud of where I came from, from this world of pro wrestling, where it's my dad and my grandfather. And I have a lot of family in pro wrestling. And...

Then this unique thing happened when I was myself, and we can apply it to all of us here, business, life, etc., is Hollywood conformed. Hollywood conformed. Conformed. To you. To me when I became authentic and when I became myself. And then I went, ah, I got it. At this phase... Yes. Close your thought, finish your thought. Yeah. At this phase...

How much leverage, power, credibility do you have where they know they can't screw with you because you're going to do it no matter what? Do you have that kind of leverage yet or not yet?

Not at this moment, but they felt the passion and they felt a little bit of momentum. I feel like there's a word that I use, it's called mana, and it comes from in here. It's like chi, it's like a power, like you could feel it when we walked out and we all came in here, like you could feel the mana in the room. I think they felt that at that time. And at that time, I had not had the credibility of any box office big hits or anything like that. But I did have what I felt, clarity, and how important that was.

I'm not these guys. I'm not a Johnny Depp. I'm not a Will Smith. I'm not a George Clooney. Those guys who were big stars at that time. I'm me. And the most important thing I could be is authentic and be myself. And Hollywood then conformed. So, absolutely. And this is after when you first got into wrestling and, you know, Rocky sucks. Rocky sucks. And you're like...

grab the mic and like there's a lot of things rock is but sucks ain't one of them maybe I'm not saying the right line properly but was that kind of like you don't get to determine my reputation who I am I'm taking control of this right up front is that like have you always been like that like hey I'm I know who I am I'm not gonna let you turn me into who I am or was there a moment in your life where you conformed and you're like I feel like I'm in a cage I don't want to be in a place like this I know who I am I'm gonna go out and show it to the world was it that kind of a moment you had yes

Yes, you'd like to be able to say I'm wired that way and we're all wired that way. But the truth is we're human beings with big emotions and big swings that we take, ups and downs. And there was a moment where I did conform to the idea that, oh, I shouldn't go to the gym as much and I need to lose weight and I need to start getting insecure. I mean, yeah, imagine that. And in terms of Hollywood,

Right where they said, "You have to be like this and don't call yourself The Rock and don't talk about wrestling." And I thought, "God, none of that felt right." So I did conform for a few years until I said, "I'm not doing this anymore." So the same thing happened. What Patrick is referring to, when I first started my wrestling career,

I got there in the WWE and I have a meeting with Vince McMahon and Vince says, okay, we're going to bring you in and we're going to... He said, what's important to you? And I said, well, what's important to me is learning the business, even though I grew up in professional wrestling, still so much to learn and I want to be good. I want to be really good at what I do and put in the time and put in the work and I would like to not...

I'd like in a way, and I mean this respectfully, I said, I'd like to do it on my own. I don't want to, I don't want to be handed anything or given anything just because my grandfather wrestled for Vince McMahon's dad in the seventies. My dad wrestled for Vince McMahon in the eighties. And I said, and I mean that respectfully. I just, so maybe it's a, it's a different name change. I said, but I just feel like I want to do it on my own.

He said, okay, got it. So your name is going to be Rocky Maivia, which is your dad's first name and your grandfather's last name. And I went, that's not what I was hoping for. Which again, the name is the name, you know, and people change their name all the time in entertainment. But the interesting thing to your point, Patrick, is that what he did say to me was, I want you to go out there and smile. You got a pretty good smile.

I want to leverage that. I want you to go out and smile. He's probably got the best smile in the world. Some people have it. He's got it. And he said, I want you to go out there and smile. I want you to be grateful that you're here every night. May May debut at Madison's telling you, Vince is telling me this. And I understood the logic at that time. He goes, look, I plan on, it seems like you have potential. It seems like eventually we're going to create an opportunity to give you a push and

I would like for you to come in and not feel entitled, not feel, I want you to feel, I want the audience to feel that you're grateful. So I want you to smile all the time. So I would go out every night and my music would hit just like this happened here. And I would come out and I would smile. But then when I would get beat, I had to smile like coming back to the locker room.

And, you know, eventually people just started to feel like, well, that's not real. It's not authentic. And I started to feel that too. It started to really eat me up inside. So what Patrick's referring to about Rocky sucks, eventually this wild thing happened in professional wrestling where I was given a push, became intercontinental champion in the world of WWE, and in every arena across the country, the whole arena was chanting Rocky sucks. But I was a good guy, and I was a kid. I was 24 years old. And...

I knew every night this has to, something has to happen. It's like when you're holding a ball underwater, that analogy, eventually you got to let it go. And I said, something's going to happen here. And I don't know what's going to happen, but this doesn't feel right. And I'm not being myself. You would walk out and I would hear people go, you suck. And hey, thank you. Appreciate it. Like it was that kind of thing, very inauthentic. And then I wound up getting hurt that summer of 1997, sent home, did rehab on my leg and

came back when I was coming back, Vince said, I'm going to turn you heel, which is wrestling parlance for a bad guy. And I said, okay. And he goes, and if you don't work as a heel and it doesn't work out, then I don't know if you have a future. I went, okay. Who's in the room? Just you and him. Me and Vince. Yes. It was always straight up. We have that dynamic, always straight up, always, always open and real. And I said, okay. I said, I have one request.

what you were referring to. I said, we have a live show, Monday Night Raw, two hours of live television. Can I have the microphone for two minutes? I just want to express myself. And he went, oh boy, I don't know about that. I said, just give me one minute. He said, fine. So I take the mic and I get on and this is live TV. And I said, the whole crowd is chanting Rocky sucks. And I said, okay, I got to tell you something. I'm a lot of things, but sucks isn't one of them.

And me joining this faction as a bad guy, I said, it's not a black thing, it's not a white thing, it's a respect thing. And a respect that I'm going to earn every single night. And within two months, I became the hottest bad guy in the company and then turned into The Rock. And years later, I'm sitting here with you and sitting here with you. Un-freaking-believable. Unbelievable. Unbelievable.

So now, now just one thing, just to underscore the most important thing, I think the takeaway there is being real and being yourself. And that's what I had shared with Vince. I said, look, I can't smile. Why would I smile? I'm coming out of the university of Miami. We were dogs, man. We were bad dudes. Yes. I said, and this is, this is wrestling and this is my blood and I love it. And I want to talk shit and I'm going to raise my eyebrow and

drop fools on the people's elbow. And so it's like that kind of thing. I said, it's got to be real and be authentic. When you said skinny, you just took me somewhere because I'm trying to see which movie you were skinny in. The one movie you did, and this is going to sound weird that I even seen this movie 10 plus times.

It's with you and Vince Vaughn. Is it twinkle, twinkle, easy? Be cool. Whatever you say. Be cool, yes. Oh, be cool. Because you were skinny in that movie, right? Is that kind of when you're like, I'm going to go to the anymore? It was during that time where I went on these crazy diets. Who's seen that movie? Anyone seen that movie? If you've seen that movie...

You're good people. I love that movie. So that's when you're like, I'm going to go to the skinny, you know, Hollywood model type because big guys won't make it nowadays. Well, I was told that. And then you start buying into it. If you have no point of reference or experience, but you have people around you who are telling you, hey, we know this business. This is what you need to do to become a leading man and to become a movie star. You can't be what you were. You have to be what they are. Then you realize, well, actually...

The most important thing is to be what I was and am and will be tomorrow and that's real. And again, that's when everything starts to conform. Hollywood conformed. And I find like, what I have found, I'm sure you guys will agree, is that when you take that kind of action, that kind of step of following your gut and your intuition, taking that step, whatever it is, universe has a funny way of meeting you halfway. So, absolutely. DJ.

I love how you're speaking in a way where we're all in the same level, including yourself. You know, because in life, there's levels to life, okay? There's levels to the game. And I'm sure there's levels to the game. But let me kind of walk you through the levels. And I think it's important for everybody to realize this. So let's say a guy starts off with only $7 in his bank account. Let's just...

Pick this case study, whoever this guy may be. Starts off with $7 in his bank account, goes, recreates his identity, becomes the biggest name in wrestling, right? Most electrifying man in wrestling.

Goes into movies, makes it highest paid actor I think four out of the last seven years. I don't know what the number is. I think three or four out of the last seven years. I have the data. 84 million, 87 million, 270 million in 2021 I think it was, whatever it was. I'm not counting your money, but you made a lot of money. Right? I made a lot of money, yeah.

Then you got Zohar. Then you got this. Then you got that. And then social media following, you know, 1 million. Oh, my God, the guy's got a million followers. 10 million followers. 100 million. And then there is the 600 million community. There's not a lot of people in the 500, 600 million community, and that's one of one. Then, I don't know if you guys saw this seven years ago. I'm trying to figure out when this came out.

And it was saying, who is the most recognizable face in the world? Like when you go out there, they're going to recognize your face. I think you were at like 56, 54 percentile. That means 54 percent of the world, no matter where you go, they're going to say, I know this guy from wrestling, from movies, from this, from that. So...

Some people may go up and they'll compete. Man, this wrestling thing is great. I'm partying, I'm drinking. The girls are awesome. We're going to Japan. What a hardcore party. I have nice jewelry and clothes and I'm happy where I'm at. No, that's not enough for me. I want to be this.

No, it's not going to be easy to transition to movies. I'm going to do it. And you go this, I'm going to do it. And then in the movies, listen, just be happy that you're an actor. No, no, I'm not just, I'm going to go this. And then, you know, I'm going to start a drink and I'm going to do terrible. And I'm going to go do this. To get to the highest of the highest of the highest level, where it's not 1% or 0.1% or 0.01%. It's one of one. You're a one of one camp. Tiger is a one of one. Michael is a one of one in their camp, right? Right?

Tom Brady last year, Ron Stage, I asked him a question because he's another one of those one-of-ones. I said, generally, when I look at guys that go to that level, I see there's three things they have in common. They have one person in their lives that gave them unconditional love. You have to experience that to tolerate the pain. But all you need is one person. You need one person to give you unconditional love. Mom, you need one person in your life that no matter what you do, you will never win them over.

It's like it's never enough. I can go get this. I can go make this money. I can go win this award. They're always going to be like, yeah, but, yeah, but, yeah, you know, it's kind of like he hasn't done enough yet. Then there is those who have those two, but then they choose their enemies wisely. For whatever reason, some people don't choose their enemies wisely. They choose an enemy lower than them. They choose an enemy that produces the bad feelings, but they choose their enemies wisely.

To become one of one and to go for as many years as you've gone and the highs and the lows and the losses and the injuries and the setbacks and all this other stuff that you go through,

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You mentioned about choosing enemies wisely, which I love that, and we've heard that term. Certainly you've embodied that term. I always like to say you choose your enemies up and choose up for the enemies. But also what drives me is, I'll take it back. There was some cheers in here at the University of Miami. When I stepped onto that campus in Coral Gables, we were hungry dogs, but also it was there that I started to understand that

Number one, it was really challenging to be a student athlete back then and certainly now. It's almost like having a pro career at the same time as being a student, especially today. But what Miami allowed me to do, none of us had money, we were broke, but we were hungry, and we put in the work. We always like to say we were the hardest workers in the room. That's where I got that term from. But also, that place and that culture, that winning culture, winning culture that we all want and that we're all part of,

I want to continue to grow the winning culture. What Miami, it was almost like a forcing mechanism. What it allowed me to do was realize there's more and think more. Think for more. You don't have to be just this, especially when there's a lot of people who are against you. And at that time, University of Miami, we were the bad boys of the game at that time. And we played ball, won national titles, et cetera. But at our core, it was,

No, we could still be dominant, but we could still go for more. So I learned that there, that you don't have to stay in something like this. You could do more. And then I started to understand, as I started to get down the road, that

oh, you don't do it by yourself because I used to be very hands-on, micromanaging, and it served me for a little while. Then I started to realize it started to be counterproductive for me. Oh, you don't do it by yourself. Bring in a team of people. Choose your enemies up. Choose your partners up. People who are a lot smarter than I am, which isn't hard to be, at what they do. And then you can continue just to fortify this idea that,

Let's do more. So, for example, we talk about levels, right? And everybody has achieved some sort of level of success in this room. Massive, growing to be massive, ambitious, etc. So I, like you, we've talked about this. We're lucky boys to be able to get to do what we do. But man, the work ethic, the drive, that hunger to compete, it never goes away. I reached this point in my career where I started to realize that

Oh, you know, I've done pretty good and we're sitting up top on this mountain. And I realized this happened probably it was a big revelation for me about a year ago where I thought, okay, I'm on top of this mountain. A few things can happen from here. I reached this point in my life. We could either stay here and enjoy the view and bask in it or we could go back down the mountain right off into the sunset. And I thought, well, the first two don't seem like it's in my DNA. I know what we should do. Let's go build more mountains.

Not only let's go build more mountain, but the difference is for me is now bringing everybody with us to build more mountain as well. So everybody can get a, not only, so everyone can,

Take accountability for the work ethic that we're all going to put in, but everyone can enjoy building this mountain too as well. Because what happens is you ultimately, as we go along on the road of life, you become so uniquely focused, myopic on the thing that you want to attract and compete for and accomplish. You and I were talking backstage about that, about, you know, just everything that you have done and continue to do.

It's funny. I said to David backstage, I said, so is there going to be a moment, if you don't mind me sharing this, he went, would you go to the Hamptons? Yes. He said, I looked around, it just felt so good. And I said, so is that going to be part of a lifestyle for you one day where you kind of just unplug?

And it was as if I said, hey, do you mind if I slap you in the face? Because he looked at me and went, no, not at all. And I went, that's my guy. That's right. So I think for me, the drive just comes from wanting to do more. So let's go back to that. This is great, but I want to go a little deeper on this. So from a fan standpoint...

Arnold, his enemy was Sly. They went up against each other. You know that story about when Arnold made it seem like he was interested in this one movie. I don't know what the movie was. Oscar? Throw Mama from the Train. Yeah, what was the movie called? Throw Mama from the Train. Is that what it was? Yeah. I'm going to go, no, yeah, you know, Sly. Great story. Biggest flop, right? You know, for Michael, maybe it's the Isaiah, you know, being left off the dream team. Or Magic or Bert or later on maybe a Malone, maybe, you know, Akeem. Yeah.

you know, maybe even in the past of trying to outdo Wilt or, you know, whoever it is, David Thompson, all these other guys as the greats, you know, you go into business, you have certain names that Musk keeps going and he's not stopping. It's constant. Like, how much more money do you need to make? You're worth a quarter of a trillion dollars. You're still going. Who are some of those enemies throughout that brought in the best in you? Some names. Like, I can drop some names, but I'm curious to know if you have any names. Sure. So, for example, maybe...

Would you consider John Cena as one of them? Would you have considered Stone Cold Steve Austin as one of them? Would you have considered maybe a Will Smith as one of them to outdo? Were they some of the guys that drove you to compete against them? Those guys, I know all those guys, and we competed on a great level. But, you know, the truth is in wrestling it's a little different.

You still compete, you still have to keep your head on a swivel. And I always like to say it's shark infested waters in that world, in this world too. Business, entertainment, sports, sports entertainment. Here's what I will say. When I got to Hollywood, you mentioned Arnold. Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sylvester Stallone, Clint Eastwood, and Bruce Willis. Those four men were so good to me when I got to Hollywood. And they didn't have to be. They were biggest stars in the world at that time, 20 years ago.

They were welcoming. I would see them out. They would come to me or say, hey, I want to see The Rock. Can I meet him? Say hello. We all stayed in touch, became friends. And I never forgot that because they were in positions where they didn't have to be. And I realize, though, to your point, Patrick, is the ones who are confident in themselves, confident in their success, and want to see not only the business grow, but want to see people do well.

And especially, I feel like I'm a decent guy. You want to see somebody who's a pretty good person do well. It's the people you don't meet, the ones behind the scenes. Those are the ones who are trying to hold you down. So I realized instead of searching for those guys, and also those guys are really there. And you guys will find this in business too, as you know.

The ones who are confident, quiet in the room, it's like in a board meeting, the quiet ones will sit and they're really the powerful ones in the meeting who make all the decisions. The quiet ones, the ones who are behind the scenes trying to hold you down, those are the ones who are chicken shit anyway, who will never come to you, you'll never see them. And I realized instead of me trying to find them or try to figure out, well, who made that call and why did this happen?

I thought, okay, I'll always remember the people who were good to me. And then I realized the person I compete with most is just me. It's you versus you. And I think that's something we can all, yeah, attest to. You versus you. I want to believe you. Okay. Okay.

But, and that's very nice what you just said. Fantastic. But I'm not convinced. I think you're a psycho competitor. And I'll say one thing. I am, I'm crazy. I think you're a psycho competitor. But I think, I think like, I'll give you an idea. When I was watching Brady speak while he's playing basketball,

and they would ask him questions, he would give his answers in a very interesting way. It would be, yes, they were the better team today. And a reporter's job is to ask a question to have a story, right? And Brady was a pro. He wasn't going to give him shit, right? And he knows the game because you also know this, right, while we're going back and forth. And then I'm like...

But I would watch Brady in the game, he playing against that Kansas City Chiefs. Who was the cornerback or the safety that he went in his face afterwards and he bumped him? What was the guy? Do you guys know who I'm talking about? Number 32. What is number 32's name in... What was his name? Who? Oh, the Badger. What's his name? That's what it is, yes. So he goes in his face. This guy's freaking 40 years. Look at this. And then he comes after the interview.

I shouldn't have done that. I lost control. It's not how you behave. I'm like, dude, stop it. That's exactly how you behave as a crazy competitor. But then, you know, we had Bill Belichick at our event a month ago in MGM and he comes in. He's no longer coaching.

So he can talk a little bit, you know. You know what I'm saying? It's like, listen, I don't give a shit right now. He's got some freedom. He's got some freedom. He's got a 25-year-old girlfriend. He really doesn't give a shit what you think about him right now. Right? Like, dude, say whatever you want. I'm freaking Bill Belichick, right? But I got a flavor of it with...

Brady last year, and even with Kobe, because when Kobe came, and we did the late great Kobe, to me, Kobe is just, you know, I have a very unique relationship with Kobe. I love Kobe. My father and I, I mean, it was a whole different thing. When he came to the event at Mirage, and we did the interview, it was after he had retired, and guess what?

he was a little bit more loose. And I said, hey, you know, if Shaq had your work ethic, what would have happened? He said, we would have won 11, 12 rings. And then Shaq got pissed at me. He blocked me. You and your little company. Who the hell do you think you are for two and a half years? He's blocked me. Then I invite him to the event. Then we had a great conversation together. Do you think...

A part of you with where you're at in your mind, it's I don't want to give the media nothing. So the next day, nothing's going to be written about me. And you are so...

great of a natural communicator that you know how to give an answer, but the levels of the answer of, you know, not necessarily vanilla's here, you'll go here, but this is 24, 48-hour news cycle. You play right here, right now, this phase of your life. Would you say that's kind of where you are? Yeah, I think as you go down the road of life, you start to realize you like to think you get a little savvy, little media savvy, but also to realize

You go down the road of life and you experience what you experience where you're always in front of the media. You either go this way at the fork of the road and this way is I never want to talk to them again or this way where you say, look, we all got jobs to do. We're all in this business together. I'm an open book. You can ask me whatever you want to ask me. I always tell that to anybody who I sit down with. The thing that I realized is I have to be

Very clear and concise with my answers, depending on the subject. Because as we know, clickbait time, that's all everybody wants. And they'll take the answer, they'll spin it, clickbait, and then just move on. When you realize, oh, wait, that's actually not what I said. You're taking it and you're spinning it. So the balance is...

I don't want to not speak to media. I got a lot of friends in media, as you do too as well. And again, we're all in this thing together. So I can control the controllables about what I say and how I say it too as well. And the reason why I'm asking this question from you on the enemy side is because at some point...

You've got a beautiful house. You live in a beautiful place. You've got your place that you told me in the back that you like to go to, you know, family, fishing. I love your fishing videos. When you're doing your fishing videos, you're out there, you know, you're doing your thing, and you put them out, and then boom, next. You know, you've had the success, the fame, the recognition, the accolades, all this stuff. Eventually, it gets to a point where it's kind of like,

You know, what's going to drive this guy to go to the next level? So if you're saying enemy up, maybe I'll ask this one question on this one. Let's see if we'll get anything out of you on this specific topic. Is there a next enemy for you where you're kind of a, and maybe we don't even need to say enemy. It's the next thing you're saying, enemy up, like compete up. Is there a next target for you where you're like, this would be interesting for me to play in this space?

I'd like to be able to do X, Y, Z. Is there anything like that or no? Well, there's always stuff like that. I think that I've gotten really lucky and fortunate over the years to have accomplished what I've been able to accomplish. But again, the hunger doesn't go away. I like to say I got a full plate, but I could always make room for the stuff I love. And I've reached that point in my life where when I wake up in the morning, I have got to be running towards the thing that I want to do.

And not walking towards it, not, I really don't feel like doing this, or why did I agree to do this, or why did I get into this business with somebody, et cetera. I got to be running to it. And I realized that if I'm able to do that, get up in the morning and run to it, then I'm in that place of joy and happiness. It doesn't mean that the work goes away, the work ethic goes away. You work even harder. So I got to run towards it. So the second part to this, to answer you directly, is,

I don't know if there's anything that I could point to and say, "I've never done that, therefore I want to do it." But I can tell you that what I do these days, I run to, I love, and also... So for example, and I feel like it could tie into everything we're doing in here, we all rely on the product, the brand, the consumer, the customer, the people, the audience. For a long time, what I used to do is think audience first.

That was important. And it served me very well. Consumer first, customer first, guest first, however we qualify our audience. And it served me very well. I started to realize, oh, but I'm not running towards this particular thing. So what I realized is now it has to be the thing that I do, has to be the thing that I love to do. And therefore, almost like Hollywood conformed years ago, I found that if it's the thing I'm running to and I love to do, then everybody comes with me.

Got it. Okay. So. How's that for an answer? Well, I, again, what you call a professional, right? But no, I get it. So, so I guess, let me, let me transition into this one for, for me, PBD podcast on PBD podcast, we're shooting the shit, talking shit, you know, we're doing current events, whatever we're talking, we'll talk about a bunch of different things, right? And just a couple of boys, guys sitting down talking, Hey, today this happened. Let's talk about this today. This time we'll give our opinions, right?

and you're a family guy. You got three girls. I'm family. I got four kids, and, you know, of course, you have to kind of figure out the future and, you know, where the future is going to go. In your gym, I think you got a flag in your gym, right? Don't you have, like, a big flag in your gym? Keep an American flag everywhere I go. Right. Everywhere you go, there's always an American flag, and you're a patriotic guy. You're a guy that loves this country. You have a military following. You have guys that

Look at you from that standpoint. And today, America is a little bit kind of weird politically. We're in a very weird place right now in America. From the left to the right and the divisiveness the last four years. I feel like politics has always been nasty and ugly. But in 01, you went and spoke at the RNC. It wasn't crazy. You just spoke, boom, out. Hey, DNC, boom, boom, boom. You've done a couple of these things. But the last four years, nasty. Today, election, nasty. Today,

assassination attempt seven weeks ago, July 13th. I don't know what today's date is. Today's what, September 7th? Just seven, eight weeks ago, right? And your name is always on the vaguest odds of running for president, always. And you'll see it, 40 to 1, 100 to 1, 80 to 1, all these other things, right? And you're looking at this, and I have my own

people on the list on who I think will be running 28, 20, 32. But how do you look at this as a guy that has been in a lot of boardrooms? You're dealing with REs, right? You're dealing with, no, we don't want to pay this. No, we don't want to do this. And then they negotiate the contract. And then you have to do the movie and the people that may be overpaid or underpaid or whatever they do, you still have to figure out a way to get along with them. You've been on a lot of

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I think that, well first of all let me just say, when it comes to stuff like this, I never speak declaratively. I'm always open and flexible and I think you gotta be that. When it comes to the divisiveness you talked about, it's the main thing that really eats away at my gut. I know you too, we've talked about this, and I know for a lot of you as well. I think, I always like to say, keep the main thing the main thing, and if the main thing is to bring our country together,

For anyone in the presidential leadership space, there's a few things I think that are important, and I'm going to take a crack at this, is for unity, I'll start with guidance. And what I mean by that is the ability to listen and pay attention to everything and everyone around you, regardless of where they're at and where they sit on whatever side of the aisle or other side of the fence. The other thing I think would be... The other thing I think would be...

would be grit. Because I feel like if you, if the goal is unity amidst this crazy division that we have today, that we can all agree on. And if the goal is this, as you said, bring everybody together, there's gonna be a lot of bumps in that road. And there's gonna be a lot of people who are cynical about this idea and this ideology of bringing people together as one, never gonna happen. They'll have their knives out.

So I feel like as you go down that road, if that's your goal is to bring people together, you got to have a lot of grit to get through all those knives and all those bumps, but it can be done. I believe that. The other thing would be, I think, humility in that you're probably not going to know all the answers to these questions, and that's okay. And I always like to say humility.

And I know you guys feel this way in the room too. Look, like just because something's never been done doesn't mean it can't be done. It just means we haven't figured out a way to do it yet. It doesn't make it impossible. So I would say humility and strength. You gotta have strength to stand up in the face of this kind of adversity and to stand up and say, it is that time to bring everybody together. Oh, and I'll say one more thing too. I think you gotta be positive. I think it's important. Positivity I think is important and be good to people.

Do you think that should be the goal? Do you think the goal should be unity? Do you think that should be the goal? Because I like the way you said it. You said, if that's the goal, right? So maybe that doesn't

Like my parents, when I was a kid, my parents got divorced twice to each other, right? Since 11 years old when the divorce papers came into the house, it was a very difficult six months. Mother crying every day, which is tough, right? Like, oh, man, you know, my dad would always, when he would come home, we had a class in Iran, in Iran, and we were on the fourth floor. And the moment I would see my dad's head go like this, I knew he saw him. I'd run up. It was the happiest moment of my day.

And at 11 years old, I realized that's never going to happen ever again. And my entire goal as a kid, young boy, was what can I do to get these guys to come together? No joke. By the time I was 16 years old, I said, that's no longer the goal. It's just never going to happen.

And I stopped trying at 16. They're better off not being together. And you have to find a way to coexist in these two different philosophies that's out there. My dad, on one end, looked at the world in a completely different way than my mother did. Do you think progress for us to get to the next level is try to unify? Or do you think you have to find a way to lead and have policies in a chaotic environment? What do you think? I think the key is, before unity, is the desire to...

in the openness to listen to each other. And it's okay if you have a difference of opinion. That's okay. It's okay if... Because ultimately, I do feel like we're all looking towards the same North Star. So whoever that leader is and becomes for us, whoever the president is, I'd like to think and hope that they can hold that same North Star for all parties and all people and how important that is. So I think probably the path to...

unifying is the openness to conversation. Like if you bring up 01, I think it was, or 2000 with the RNC, even back then. So even say 10 years ago, you can have a conversation about, oh, I voted for this person. I voted for this. Okay. Today, nothing. No way. You cannot do that. Especially in your world. Sure. I would say in your world is probably the highest score out of everybody.

Would you agree, like in Hollywood, in a celebrity, for you to come out and say, here's who I'm voting for? Yes. That could be catastrophic for your career. Yes. Okay. What was your reaction when you saw the president being assassinated? Do you remember where you were and what happened and what was the immediate reaction to the assassination attempt? Yes. I was up in Vancouver, Canada, and we were filming a movie and I got home and Vancouver. There you go.

Again, my family. Beautiful, beautiful place. I love that city. I got home, turned on the news. And well, first I hit my phone, turned on the news, and I saw that. My reaction was, this is not who we are. And I hated that this is who we have become on this day. That was my reaction.

What was the, when you saw the blood hand up, American flag, did it give you any, like, did you get any feeling of, you know, this is great to see a leader standing up after that? Did you get any kind of mojo like that or? Yes. I mean, I just, I felt like, you know, a centimeter in a different direction or less, that would have been a different story.

And the fact that he came up out of that, that was a big deal. And that was a big, I think, regardless of who it was, whether you love Donald, you don't love Donald, it doesn't matter. Somebody tried to assassinate him and there's no room for that. And yes, and despite it being who we were in that moment, I still believe in my core, that is not who we are as a country. So him standing up in that moment, you wanted to see that. And it was also, it was an important moment for,

For everybody to see, regardless of who it was, for that person to stand up.

We were half an inch away from having chaos. It would have been in shambles if that shot would have hit him. Do you have a Donald Trump story with wrestling? Do you have a Trump story? Yes. What's your Trump story? He used to come watch me wrestle all the time in Madison Square Garden. And it was great. The first time I saw him, though, I said, let me see the eyebrow. He said, you got it. There it is. Ha, ha, ha. Ha, ha, ha.

That's cool. So he was a fan. He watched you as a fan. Oh, huge. Yes. That's cool. Used to come to the Madison Square Garden all the time. Big sports fan. So question. This is my prediction side. Let's play a game of predictions. And I always love to play prediction games. It's good for shooting the shit in conversation, right? So I think there's a handful of people that...

either auto consider running 2028 and I think the timing would be

2028 is more important than 32, my opinion. And I know in the movie Young Rock, your first episode of the interview is, it's 2032. We have President Dwayne The Rock Johnson here, and I don't know who's interviewing you, the Asian, whoever the other, what's his name, who's interviewing you. Anyways. Yes. Yeah, somebody's interviewing you, and it's 2032. So I think 2028, these are my opinions, okay? I could be fully wrong, and I'll go take my loss at Vegas, okay? Okay.

I think Mark Cuban is flirting with wanting to run 2028. I think he wants to be part of the trifecta community. And to me, the trifecta community is winning in media. Mark has Shark Tank, you know, however many years wealth sports billionaire. He's one. He's only missing one thing to be a trifecta. And that's the political to win in politics, like being a triathlete in Hollywood, singing, dancing and acting like a JT J-Lo, some of these guys.

I put Jamie Dimon on that list because I think he's gradually stepping away from Chase. And I think Jamie could be one hell of a president if he chose to run. I got a few other guys. I think Vivek would be formidable in 2028 because some of the crowd would go to Vivek from the MAGA side. And I have you on that list on the prediction side. And I'm asking this from you because...

Would it be a wise choice to take 50 to 1 odds in Las Vegas for 2028? But no, listen, if it got to a point, would you entertain the idea if your fan base, if people came back and said, Rock, you got to do a lot of private conversations. Why don't you do it? 2028 is the time. Would you entertain the thought and the idea? I've been asked, and I feel like...

My honest answer is I have little ones at home. I'm a girl dad. And right now, the most important thing, and I've said this, is, and I will say that whether it's a poll that's come out that a lot of people would vote or a conversation like this, it really moves me. I mean, I was the kid who I had seven bucks in my pocket in 95, 1995, to this day.

potential of this or even the idea and the conceit of this. So it's really humbling and I'm a patriot like all of us are in this room. He's shifting. He's like, this guy's not answered my question. 50 to 1. I think that as of now, the most important thing is for me to, you know, you have little ones too, is to be a daddy to my little girls. Truly. Truly.

And I'm not, you know, being savvy out of my, out of this answer. But by the way, I would, I don't know about, how many guys say it's probably a 50 to one are good odds to take in Vegas? Who would say? All right. So, I mean, that's what I received from this, but this last topic on this before we move on, because I got, I want to tell you about what's the most, the one video of yours I've watched the most. And I think it's going to surprise you what video it is. I've watched it so many times, bro. It's not even funny, but let me finish the thought here.

Do you sit there and think about, like, for example, if I'm your agent, I'm your manager. I'm not. Brad is. But if I'm your agent, I'm your manager. And by the way, Danny and I had a call. I freaking love Danny. I don't know if she told you about it. Yes, she did. Our call was sick. I told her, I said, I'll get to that topic here in a minute. I don't want to digress. But she's a monster. She's something else. Of course, you know that. But to me, it was kind of interesting watching her. But if I was your agent, if I'm your manager, right?

Do I want you to run for office? Hell no. I lose that 10% on $100 million every year or whatever. I don't want to give that up. You know what I'm saying? Hey, let's go 2032. Maybe 2036. Wait until the kids are 18 years old. There's a part of it. But if I'm like a guy that's an advisor and I'm sitting there on the inside and we're having conversations, we're chopping it up, we don't have that kind of a relationship. We're just starting a relationship the last three, four months that we started. I probably would do a couple things.

research data. We just talked about data a few minutes ago. My step number one will be the following, and I think there's a way of doing this. I would run an analysis to see what percentage of your following lean right, lean center right, lean center, lean libertarian, lean center left, lean left,

Left left like you know, whatever. I'm not I'm not saying far left. I'm saying left right? Of course There's the likeability factor and the fame factor everybody loved Trump before 2015 and it's like he's the worst human being in the history of mankind And so he goes through that phase I'd run that report and I wonder if if you think a bigger percentage your audience is conservative or liberal I would lean towards a bigger percentage your audience is probably conservative because WWE conservative, you know

Big BMF, bad mother, you know what? You are a BMF, hands down, conservative. You go to UFC, UFC is as conservative as it gets. Dana's, you know, every time pumping up Trump, right? You give me the vibes of somebody that...

wants to be a good father, wants to be a good husband, wants to be a good son, wants to be a good citizen. I think that stuff is very important to you. I feel that. I don't know. That's the vibe I get from you right when I watch you. But I wonder if the thought in your mind is, if I get into this space...

The amount of like, you have to take positions. You didn't take positions. You're like, great, this, this, that. Those are nice, like valuable, positive, listening, all that's great. But if you do run, you have to say if you're pro this or anti this. If you run, you have to be, we're doing this or we're not doing this. If you run...

There's a thought of, dude, I don't want to effing mess with that at all. That's exactly why I don't ever want to get into politics. Because it's very different than Rocky sucks. Rocky sucks. Now it's like, no, Rocky is, I used to like him. He's the worst human being in the world. Do you really want to go through that? Like, does that thought, I don't ever want to touch that. Do you ever go there? Yeah, you think about that all the time. Of course. Because that kind of energy, that's a cesspool.

And it's hard for people to navigate through. It's hard for us to watch it on TV. It's hard for us to absorb the news. It's hard for anybody to be in that, politician, especially politicians or not. So you think about that. I think about it. But at the end of the day,

There's two things that I'll say here, and I want to double down on it because it is the undeniable truth, which is I've got an eight-year-old and a six-year-old, and school drop-offs and pickups are so important to me, and being daddy is important. And I also have a 22-year-old daughter, and I like to say we grew up together because I had her when I was in my late 20s.

where I was on the go, pro wrestling, wrestling 250 dates a year for years. So I missed out. God. 250 dates a year for years. Different city every night. It was a brutal schedule. This is why we all get divorced in pro wrestling. So I missed out on a lot of her childhood. And I know what it's like to have a job that takes you away. And I do believe that precedent is

That job will take me away. Now, I'm not saying it can't be done. Of course, there were presidents in the past who had little kids, of course. But when they're eight and six, and I'm the male figure that they're going to compare other men to the rest of their life, this critical time, I'm home with them. That's the most important thing. So that's one thing I wanted to say. Thank you.

Just to underscore that, but the part that you just brought up about that stuff that you think about, of course you think about it, because it's hard to navigate your way through it, because it's so venomous, and it's so declarative, and it's so, this is the right way, that's the wrong way, you're wrong, we're right, don't talk to us. I'm aware of it, like we're all aware of it, but it doesn't scare me, and I think that's the important thing. Awesome. No, it shouldn't.

That's very good to know, bro. No, that doesn't scare me. Respect. Yeah, because I think it's going to come and it'll be overnight. Yeah. And when it does...

I'd like to see you run one day. I'd be curious to know what you're going to run on. I'd be curious to know what levels you're going to be run on. I would encourage you to run that analytics on your audience and kind of feel how they view you. I don't think it's going to be hard to do. You just got to hire a couple of BI, $100,000, $200,000-year people to do that. You probably already have that on your team. And you can kind of put that on the back of your head that if you ever go, you know, what things will that happen? Would I appreciate you taking these questions? I know it's not the most comfortable questions to take because you're still in the game. You're still in the arena.

you're still kind of, you know, doing your movies, doing your things. And again, thanks for taking these questions. Let me transition to another part here. The part that... By the way, thank you for thanking me on that and acknowledging that. But let's underscore this because this is the stuff that's important. If something's uncomfortable, it doesn't mean we run away from it. It means we sit here and we talk it through. Yes. Right? My man. Yes. Respect. So...

Let me share with you what video of yours I watch a lot, bro. I watch a lot. I'm wondering if you can even guess in your mind what video is talking about. I have watched your eulogy speech of your father, bro, over and over and over and over. And you go up and, you know, you're really trying to hold it together and, you know, and.

I see the pictures when you're, you know, that one video is the best video is the one that like your dad is out there walking on his chest and shoulders. And then you're on the sideline, young rock, you know, that's the best. That's the best when you're seeing that, right? And then the day comes. And I know how important it is for you to be a father. Were you mentally ready for that day many, many years prior to that where you're like trying to prepare for that day to come where it's your hero? Because

Your father pushed you away from being a wrestler and the ultimate compliment to your dad is, bro, I want to do what you did. I want to do what you did. I'm going to continue your legacy and tell the world you're my hero. That's the way I saw that.

And I saw that, you know, like, oh, brother, I just want to watch this thing on repeat over and over again. Were you prepared for it? Was it like something you were afraid of? Was it something you mentally and emotionally were getting ready for? Or was it like, I'm never going to be ready for this day? No, I wasn't prepared for it because my dad died suddenly, just like that. An embolism traveled up and ended his life. So it happened suddenly. I didn't get a chance to say goodbye. And here's the thing.

And brother, this is just, it's life. And a month before he died, we got into the biggest fight we have ever gotten into. And we never had a chance to reconcile that. It was brutal. It was brutal. And it was during Christmas time too as well. So Christmas was just tainted and I felt like shit. He felt like shit. And my mom was involved. And admittedly, I was angry. And

Three weeks went by. We didn't reconcile. He died. And that was it. And so you asked me if I was prepared. No one's ever prepared for that, even if, God forbid, you have a loved one who is transitioning out and you can prepare as best you can for their transition or, in my case...

You know, they say goodbye just like that without saying goodbye. So I never had a chance to say goodbye and never had a chance to write that thing that I wish I did. And so that was a tough one. And the lesson, though, I realized is we hear this all the time. You never know what's around the corner. Hug your loved ones. Hug your little ones.

I do a lot of work with Make-A-Wish, and every time I do it, thank you. It's so important. And when you leave those meetings with Make-A-Wish, you see these kids who are so strong, and you see the parents who are being so strong too as well. You go home, you hug your kids tighter. That's just what you do. And so we hear it all the time. Hug your kids. Take care of your loved ones. Hug your loved ones. You never know what's around the corner. But until you go through something like that, that's when those words really hit home. And I realized that, man, I thought...

I wish I had a shot just to hug my dad one more time or say -- or hug and say -- maybe he's listening now. So hug and say, it's all right. It's all right. We're good. You know? I never had a chance to do that. That's why it was so cool meeting your dad backstage. I love that. Yeah. How big of a role did faith play in you, like -- because that's pretty heavy. That's not easy. That's a very heavy thing that you carry as a man with your father.

How big of a role did faith play for you to be able to continue with your life, to be a good father, to be a good role model? Was there a big role there? Yes. Faith before my dad passed away has played a very important part of my life. Faith after my dad passed away played a very big part in my life because a lot of times you go down the road and, you know, there's the phrase, you have to walk by faith and not by sight. A lot of times you walk by faith, not sight nor experience, and you just don't know. So you've got to have that faith. The faith is the thing.

for one of the many things that can anchor us and that should anchor us. So yeah, and it's funny. Yeah, it's true. Faith is the anchor, man. It's funny when my dad, because we had a complicated relationship, he, when I was five years old, our bonding was come with me to the gym.

sit in the corner, but that was our bonding. And then as I got a little older, eight, nine, 10, he'd let me work out a little bit. He'd take me on the wrestling mats. He kicked the shit out of me in a good way. And so we, his capacity to love, my dad was kicked out of the house when he was 13. I tell you a quick story about my dad. So my dad's dad died when he was 13. That Christmas, my dad's mom had another boyfriend. The

My dad's 13, small town up in Nova Scotia. My dad at 13 grabbed a shovel and he drew a line in the sand and said, if you cross that line to the drunk boyfriend who peed on the turkey, I'm going to kill you. And so the drunk crossed the line. My dad hit him in the head, knocked him out cold, didn't kill him. Cops came. When the cops came at that time,

The cops told my grandmother, my dad's mom, when this man becomes conscious again, one of these two, they're going to kill each other. So one of them should go. You know what's next. So my grandmother said to my dad, you got to go. Wow. So he was kicked out at 13. My point is that's his capacity for love right there. So that's the man that raised me. Respect is given when it's earned. No one's going to give you shit.

go out and earn it, work hard, get up with me before the sun, come to the gym. So all that stuff I got from my old man. And the reason why I'm telling this story is because even though I didn't reconcile with my dad, I think one of the saving graces when we talk about faith is if you have a complicated relationship with your dad and you grow up, you start to look at the world differently. Like, I don't, I want to be the opposite of my dad.

I don't want to have that quality. I want to have my own quality. I don't want to do it like that. I want to do it like this. I don't know if I like that. I'd do it like this. But then when he died and you really start looking at the stuff that was really important and the stuff that really matters, then you realize, man, I got a lot of great qualities from my old man. Thank you, dad. And that's the thing that helps me in a way reconcile with my old man and that today I can say, hey, thank you, pops, for, you know,

Sick. You know? Powerful. So, meaning a lot of the signs are still through you, even though at one point my pastor one time told me something. I always talk about this. He said, you know, one thing, Patrick, you need to know about your relationship with your father. Every father and son goes through three phases. First, you idolize him. Two, you demonize him. Three, you humanize him. Mm.

And he says those three phases are evident when you're going to go through it. The sooner you can go into humanized, the more you can enjoy life and your relationship with them. Are you there now? 100%. Yeah. Him and I. My dad's my best friend in the world. Him and I have been there in a big way. But he's everywhere I go. He's with us. He lives with us. But I love the story you shared. By the way, so with that upbringing, with that kind of a father that's just grinding, driving like nothing's ever enough. Boom. Boom.

Then you come in and you're telling stories about you and Vince. And Vince is also a little bit of a complicated guy, right? Vince McMahon is not the same. There's a lot of weird. And I'm not even going the weird side. I'm just talking. He's a complicated guy on how he is. What was it behind closed doors with your relationship with Vince that made it work?

because this guy's a big personality, larger than life. I don't know what he's worth today. I think he's $7, $8 billion. I don't know his net worth because he sold it for $10.6 billion or $11 billion when he sold it. And it's funny, Endeavor bought both of them, right? They bought UFC and they bought, you know, WWE, which what a long term, if they do it right, and I know Ari's a brilliant guy, so he'll do it right.

But how was your relationship with Vince and what things did you pick up from him, specifically with the relationship behind closed doors? The relationship with Vince and I was a great relationship because it was based on I'm willing to work for every dollar. I'll tell you a story about Vince too as well that really helped expand the aperture of my brain in terms of business. But our relationship with Vince and I, it was about the work, willing to put in the work,

And I have a tremendous, boundless respect for the business of pro wrestling. That is so deeply important to him. That's his life. It's his world. It's his blood. And I grew up in the business of pro wrestling. My grandfather wrestled for Vince's dad in the 70s. My dad wrestled for Vince in the 80s. So I went into this with a tremendous amount of respect and reverence, willing to put in the work. Let's get to work. And I had shared this with Vince before.

When I became The Rock and things started to take off for me, he said, what's next? I said, I feel what's next is to take this brass ring and take it to places it's never been. He said, where is that? I said, I don't know. Let's figure it out together. So I'll share this one story with you guys, and you'll appreciate this too. I was coming up, and my very first contract with the WWE, with Vince that I signed with him, was a five-year contract for $150,000 a year.

How old are you at this time? 24. 150 grand a year. So 750 is what you're signing? 750. However, keep in mind, not only taxes, but also in that world of pro wrestling, I had to pay for everything. So I pay for hotel and food and transportation. Wait, so when you're on the road 250, he's not covering the rooms and transportation? Not then. Okay. Not then. It's different now. So, and again, 150 grand per year is great.

When you're wrestling 250 dates a year, do the math. Broke. What you're getting per match. Right. And it was what it was. It was an opportunity for me. Look, I came from seven bucks. So this, great. It was time to renegotiate. And a couple of wrestlers at that time, about three years later, after, as I became The Rock, newly minted The Rock, it was time, he wanted to renegotiate my contract about two to three years in. A couple of wrestlers at that time had their own agents. Right.

I chose not to have an agent. He said, are you going to have an agent? Are you looking for an agent? I said, I'm not. I'd like to negotiate with you directly. And how we met was with a handshake. And I believe how we're going to do this is with a handshake. Handshakes are very important to me, as I know everybody in this room. So I always say my handshake is better than anything I ever signed. It's right here. So he said, great. I love that. I respect it. He said, what are you thinking?

And I said, who's the highest paid, if you don't mind me asking, between us, who's the highest paid on the roster? He said, Stone Cold Steve Austin. I said, okay. I said, if you don't mind me asking, what's his guarantee? He said, a million dollars. I went, okay.

I want two. Max Bankman, I'm the new doctor. Welcome aboard the Odyssey. ABC Thursdays. This ship is heaven. We're tending to our past bitter dreams. I'm in. From 911 executive producer Ryan Murphy comes a splashy new drama on a luxury cruise ship with Joshua Jackson and Don Johnson. It's your job to keep everyone alive. She's in V-fit. One, two, three. Clear. Clear.

I have a pulse. You're going to be okay. Dr. Odyssey, Thursdays, 9, 8 central on ABC and stream on Hulu.

Reporting live from under my blanket, I'm Susan Curtis with Dunkin' at Home. Breaking news, pumpkin spice iced and hot coffees are back. I'll pass it to Mr. Curtis with his blanket for the full story. That is so right, Susan. You know, it's never too early to get in a spicy mood. I'm talking cinnamony goodness that's so tasty, people don't want to leave their blankets either. Back to you. No, back to you. All you. The home with Dunkin' Pumpkin Spice is where you want to be.

So, oh, I know, the balls, that kid. So he said, two million? I said, yes. Guaranteed? Yes. And he said, I'm just curious, where do you get that from? Like, what are you figuring out in your mind? And I said, well, I love Steve, I respect him, but if he's getting a million dollars, where I see myself going is past a million dollars, I think it should be two million.

And he went, "Okay, I understand that logic." He said, "Here's what I want you to do. I'm going to put you in contact with one of our executives and I need you to take a couple of months if it takes that long," because I was on the road. He goes, "I need you to understand the business.

I need you to understand the business, this side of the business from top to bottom, all the economics. Wow. I want you to understand that. I want you to understand our cost overhead. I want you to look at what's allocated to the board. I want a great thing to do. Yes. I want you to take the time and put in the work that you say you're committed to in the ring. Yes, I expect that from you. But now I want you to learn the business. Once you learn this business, then you come back to me.

And then we'll talk about what the renegotiations were. Who was the executive? Was that a CFO? It was like a CFO at that time. So you learned the money aspect of the business. Yes, exactly. What the overhead costs are, what the costs are every venue we go into, what the cost of the venue is, what the state tax is, what the allocation for all the wrestlers is going to be, that percentage of what the gate is that particular night.

I didn't take three months. I mean, maybe it was just two weeks and it was baptism by fire. And I learned to absorb as much as I could about the business. I went back to Vince and I thanked him. I gave him a big hug. I said, I understand now I'd like to match it at a million dollars. What Steve is getting. Thank you for taking me through it. And we had a great conversation and he said, how much do you think you're going to make this year?

I said, well, my guarantee is a million. I've been going, averaging about 50% over my guarantee, so maybe 1.5. He went, okay. Now that you've taken yourself through that, now you understand the business, you're going to make $15 million a year.

Are you kidding me? Yes. You're not expecting this? No. But he already did the math. He could see where it goes. Wow. He'll make $15 million. Life-changing. What was your reaction when he says that? Holy shit. I mean, from $150 a year to $15 million. That's 100x in income. That was crazy. But that was by the time we hit about 1999, 2000, wrestling had a boom period at that time. Yeah. Yeah.

By the way, you know wrestling, I think if I'm not mistaken, wrestling's YouTube channel for sports and entertainment, I think it gets the most views. It's number one. It's number one, right? It gets the most views. I don't know how many subscribers they have, but you'll see videos, 288 million views, 263 million views. It's not like it's an easy thing to do. That's pretty interesting. I got another question for you. This part of it, maybe it's a little bit for us. Some of you guys may not be interested in this, but I'm asking this question.

So I'm a fan of bodybuilding. I'm a fan of Mr. Olympia. I'm a fan of all the bodybuilding stuff that's going on. Years ago, I'm interviewing Ronnie. I went through the whole phase of interviewing all the Mr. Olympia. So Ronnie comes, Dorian Yates comes, Phil comes, Dexter Jackson comes. I bring everybody. One by one by one, we're interviewing. And they're going really good.

So I get a call from the CEO of Mr. Olympia. He says, I'd like to meet with you at Prime at Diplomat, which is like 30 minutes, 40 minutes away from, hour away from here because we're in Palm Beach.

So I meet him over there and I'm like, hey, so tell me, listen, I'm noticing some of the stuff you're saying. You're calling us out on Mr. Olympia on the way we're doing this. And, you know, I understand that. But what can we do to collaborate? I said, forget about collaboration. Are you guys for sale? I'm interested. No, we're not for sale. You're not for sale? No. At all? No. Well, what is the brand? Well, it's muscle and fitness and it's really this, you know, the whole breakdown of the business.

And then three months later, they announced Jake Wood bought Mr. Olympia. Okay. And I think this is the time where you were going to Mr. Olympia. You were involved. You were going there. And obviously, Danny is somebody that she has been ambassador. Yeah, of course. How close were you guys of buying Mr. Olympia? We were close. Super close? I don't know about super close. Okay. But the discussions were there. And Danny, who Patrick is referring to, she's my business partner. I've known her since I was 18 years old, University of Miami. Yeah.

She wound up becoming my first wife. We have our child together. We got a divorce, still stay together. Even through the divorce, we thought, well, we've been building this company over here. Should we continue to build it? We don't hate each other. We just wound up getting a divorce, so let's continue to build it. So that's who he's referring to with Danny, who wound up becoming a competitor and getting her pro card in bodybuilding. And we grew up just...

loving working out and training. And so we were with the Mr. Olympia, we were in discussions at that time. There were a lot of discussions that were happening. And, you know, at that time, it was really interesting. And I think for you too, as well, I think we were probably sensing it. There's something interesting there at that time.

But it never happened. It wasn't. And is there any interest now or not really? No. No interest in Mr. Olympia brand. I think it's tough to scale. I think it's challenging. But you know what I thought about when I was telling the bodybuilders? I'm like, dude, if Rock buys Mr. Olympia and say Danny would run it and she would crush it, right, if she ran it. And...

somebody who wins, I'm doing a movie, they get a part, you're able to get that recognition and the eyeballs, oh my God, look how this guy's playing this and that guy's playing this part. I thought it was a very...

smart move for them to sell it to you guys. I'm surprised they didn't. My opinion, it's their loss, but still, I'm a fan of the game. I'm a fan of the sport. I just don't think it's what it was 10, 15 years ago, 20 years ago. I think 90s to me was 90s, 2000, Mr. Olympia was a very unique time for that sport.

They were also coming out of the 80s too as well. And out of the 80s, aesthetically, the bodybuilders, aesthetically, their bodies just look different. Like the Arnold's of the day and guys like Frank Zane, you know, really had like some pretty impressive physiques. Yeah. Who's your favorite physique-wise? Of all time? Frank Zane is like waist 29. I don't know what his waist was, but... Physique-wise, I would say Arnold in his heyday. I thought he had a phenomenal physique. Yeah.

By the way, you're no little guy either. I don't know if you have seen Patrick up close. He's a big guy. We're taking a picture and I'm looking at him and I'm like, how tall are you? I'm like, you're 6'5". Tall guy, you're talking to him. So business. We got 10 minutes and in about 10 minutes we'll go to questions. If you want to line up by the mic, we'll go there in a minute. Question, you've been in a lot of rooms that you've done negotiations with, right?

Oh, look what just fights are going to break out. Guys, just we're not, we can't, we can't do like 50 of them, but it's just going to be a couple we'll go to. But you've been in a lot of rooms that you've negotiated with, right? Negotiation rooms, right?

You know, even the story you just told right now, Vince, of what happened from, hey, 155 years, 750 to, hey, I want to take 2 million. How is your, well, I want to make two times what Stone makes. I'm about to, now, you know what? I'm actually willing to do a million and I'm like, you know, million five. Oh, you know what you're going to make this year? What, actually 15 million bucks. Holy shit. Life changing, right? Yeah.

What have you learned from being in negotiating rooms, movies, contracts, terms, short-term, mid-term, long-term?

Do you have two or three things from maybe mistakes being made, we should have done this differently, that you could say, these are three things we follow when it comes down to negotiations? Sure. I think when it comes to negotiations, I like to try to remember that we want the same thing. Let's get to a good place. Again, it goes back to what you and I talked about earlier about let's have the conversation. Let's have the dialogue. Sometimes it gets tricky in Hollywood because there's a lot of managers and there's agents and there's people involved. There's business affairs. You have a lot of people involved.

doing the talking for me when, and they're all qualified, but too many conversations and too many people in the room can start to stunt the progress of where you need to go. So it's much easier for me now out of the gates. Let me call either business affairs. Let me call the head of the studio. Here's what I'm thinking. Let's make this, let's cut away the fat at first in terms of negotiation. Here's what I'd like to get.

What do you think? Does this work? Here's where we're going to bring it in. We'll be fiscally responsible. We're these kinds of partners, et cetera. What I realized in the past is, what I realized in the past that's informed me today is at the end of the day, no one can talk on your behalf better than you and how important that is. So are you really negotiating? Like, are there many cases where you're doing the deals? Well, I don't have to get into the nuts and bolts of that part. I say, here's my goal.

I think this feels right, and everyone else can then talk. But let me say something. So, for example, if we were making a deal together at Value Entertainment, say $7, I'd come to you directly and say, what do you think about this? What do you think you and I will go back and forth? And then we would call our guys to come in and handle the details. I want to give a compliment to, he's the only person that's done this. And by the way, we've booked...

a lot of people over the years. You name them, Kevin Hart, you know, Kobe Bryant, Tom, names, names that are like, you know, in their space, they're big. When Brad and I were talking, one day Dana White calls me, says, hey, Pat, I'm in Abu Dhabi. It's 3.30 in the morning. You got a minute? Call me. Great. What's happening, Dana? Hey, do you know this guy named Brad Slater? Oh, yeah, of course I know Brad Slater. He's, yeah, of course. I'm like, yeah, I know who he is.

He's a fan. He wants to talk to you. Are you okay if I put you guys in a group text? Great guy. Let me tell you a story about Brad. One time I went in there. We started off rough, but we have a very good relationship now. I said, okay, great. No problem. So I talked to Brad. Hey, would love to meet with you. I go in LA. We have that three-hour lunch together at one of the hotels. I got a story about Dana too I want to tell you. That'd be great. I'd love to hear it. So then Brad and I walk away. So what if we do this? What if we do that? What if we do this? Nothing's going on. It's like, well...

You represent the Rock. Yeah, I do. He represents a lot of different ways he represents the Rock. I said, Brad, what about the Rock coming to the Vol Conference? He says, let me talk to him. And I'm like, all right, cool. Next thing you know, on a Sunday, you reach out to me. Yeah. Hey, what do you think about this? And what do you think about that? And what do you think about this? I'm like, I'm telling you, no one does that ever. And in that moment, I'm like,

This guy is a freaking involved guy in the deals, in the trenches, and you rarely see that.

And then even throughout the process, even throughout the process of doing, hey, interview, we're going to go to this angle. Hey, Rock, I want to talk about this. Well, what about this and what about that? We're going back and forth. Normally, this guy's one of one. It's like, hey, handlers, you guys handle this. We're not going to da-da-da-da-da. No, it's just right here. The way you approached that was a lot of respect to you.

Because I would have expected our team to just communicate all of it, but we went through it and it ended up being an unbelievable experience. Yes, and it has to be like this. This is the way it should be. Like I was just saying earlier, like you, yeah, no one can speak on your behalf better than you.

Period. And so I feel like, because when it starts to go through other people, it starts to get filtered through their lens and perhaps what their agenda could be. And so, and I'm not knocking, it's not an indictment on anybody else who is on my team, but everyone serves a purpose and they're all really, really good at what they do a lot better than I could be at their job. But this kind of conversation is, this is where the magic happens when it's like this.

That's very impressive because you know what it makes me think about? Here's what it makes me think about. I know you don't want to go there. I'm just making a statement. It tells me later on if let's just say you do run and shit hits the fan, I think you're the guy that's going to call the president and say, hey, listen, all the shit everybody's talking about, what are we going to do? I foresee you being the kind of guy that's going to call the guy directly, not

hide behind closed doors and have wired phone ear whatever to claim like they're busy but you know they don't want to answer you know have the conversation. Anyways that was a forget about what I just said there but you guys understand what I'm saying. I think you'll make the phone call. Do it direct. I think you'll make that direct phone call. You had a Dana story. We got a Dana story so I'm very fortunate to you know be in this position that I am in terms of social media.

So about 10 years ago, as social media, a little bit before that was hitting, it was a section and a vertical of our world that I didn't understand. And I didn't get it. It wasn't clicking with me. I thought, well, who cares what I'm having for lunch or what kind of ketchup I'm going to put on. That's the way I saw it back then. And I thought, I just don't see the value of this. And...

I had a conversation with my team, you should join social media and I went, just not too sure if we should do that. I don't know if it's for me. I go see Dana. I've been great friends with Dana for 15, 20 years now. And I go see him and we're in the back and at this time he was just, he was on Twitter, king at that time, you know, very engaged,

And he goes, um, he goes, dude, are you on social media? I went, no. He's like, you have to get on. And they're calling him out to the event, by the way, he's got to get out there because the show is live, the pay-per-view. And he goes, tell him I'll be out there in a second. Hold on. This is very important. You have to. You know how determined he gets when you talk to him about something. Of course. You have to. And I was like, brother, I don't know if it's for me, man. I just, I said, you do it well on Twitter. And at that time, Instagram, I don't even know was, uh,

Was up and running yet. And then he goes, I'm telling you, you have to, but here's why. He said, you will engage in ways that fans, in ways that nobody's doing. And in your, what's important to you is to connect with people. I said, it is. It's the most important thing. This will allow you to connect with people because you will control everything that you do.

Years later, I wind up fortunately becoming the most followed American man in the world, all thanks to Dana White. Wow, shout out to Dana. There you go. Yeah. Fantastic. Give it up. Dwayne The Rock Johnson. I got a gift for you. I got to give you this gift, man. I got two gifts for you. Appreciate you. Oh, man, hold on. It's all good. It's all good. This was great. Let me give you these two gifts. Hang on. Thank you guys so much. Do you have both? Where's the other one?

Okay, so I got two things. You're a movie guy. Anything I give you, you can go buy it or you probably have it anyways. But you may not have these two. So this is a signed script of Godfather Francis Coppola. Wow. I know you're a Godfather guy. And I think you're an Elvis guy, if I'm not mistaken. Yes, you're an Elvis guy. So am I. Big fan of Elvis. This is Elvis...

He wrote this Christmas card in 1959 when he was in the army. This is signed by Elvis. I want to give this gift to you as well as somebody that's an Elvis fan. I hope you appreciate this gift. Wow, thank you so much. And we'll ship this to you. This is amazing. Right here, it's signed by him. Wow.

So, first of all, thank you so much for this, brother. Anytime, brother. I really appreciate it. Thank you for this. I'm a big fan of The Godfather. I always say The Godfather, so many life lessons in the movie The Godfather. But also, I love Elvis, and I was at Graceland two years ago, and in the Elvis Museum is one of the Elvis costumes that I wore for an event that was called Rock the Troops,

And it was the largest gathering of military personnel on U.S. soil for our troops and families. Dude, and it was awesome. And it was Elvis themed. So thank you so much. We're going to ship this to you. Appreciate you, Sam. If you want to grab this, I don't want to drop it. We got pictures. Yes, Malik. Right there. Awesome. Thank you, Sam. You want to grab this? Once again, give it up. Dwayne The Rock Johnson. Thank you, brother. Appreciate you. Thank you. Thank you.

If there's one thing you're going to get from this interview with The Rock and I, we both love America. We had two big flags at our event. He's got a flag in his gym and everywhere he goes. This is the USA Gear limited edition for the rest of the year. If you love America, support this USA Gear. On the side, it says, Future Looks Bright. On the back, it says, Valuetainment. On the side, it's got the American flag. We got the shirts.

We got the flip-flops. These are the only flip-flops I wear when I'm at the house and walking the dogs. It feels amazing with the gel in it. So, if you love America, if you believe the future looks bright, if you love Valuetainment, click on the link above or below. Go wear some of the gear and tag us because we share the pictures on the podcast all the time. So go to vtmerch.com and place your order.