Dwayne Johnson

Wrestling may be choreographed, but... In professional wrestling, it is always and only real blood, and that's the truth.

And hopefully make you see the world anew.

Thank you, Terry.

Good to talk with you.

First of all, I realized I don't like getting punched in the face, so I prefer not to, as these guys do.

But in 1997, I was wrestling for the WWE, and my career at that time wasn't going as planned.

And it was actually going backwards, and I wasn't making much progress.

And I wound up getting hurt.

I tore a ligament in my knee, and

And so I went home.

And when I was sitting at home, that's when I really started to question whether or not I was on the right path of being a professional wrestler.

And the reason why I considered MMA at that time was because guys like Mark Kerr, who I met, and a lot of his MMA fighting buddies at that time from Mark Coleman, Kevin Randleman, Don Frye,

These were all guys who ultimately went on to become legends and godfathers of the world of MMA.

And those guys were making a lot more money, and they were wrestling out of Japan.

And at that time, I was wrestling...

approximately 235 to 250 nights a year.

So I was never home, and I was wrestling every single night in a different city.

And so the wear and tear of my body was already beginning to set in, and it was just year one for me.

So at that time, I began to consider a career in MMA, thinking, I know they're making triple the money that I'm making, and they're only fighting...

maybe five to eight times a year.