Dwayne Johnson

That was like the last man standing in terms of small promotions.

So when I first got into pro wrestling, I didn't immediately go to the WWE because I wasn't ready and I was still green and I needed experience.

So fortunately, there was a wrestling company called the USWA.

And...

That had that wrestling company was based out of Nashville and based out of Memphis and I lived in Memphis and that's where I started and the reason why I say I was really lucky in that because it allowed me to cut my teeth every night and I would wrestle in flea markets and

and barns and used car dealerships where people would come to buy a used car and there would be a ring in the parking lot and you would see wrestlers.

And I had my guarantee for wrestling a match every day was 40 bucks.

That was my guarantee.

So we're making no money and really starving, but you just love to do it.

So wrestling had changed and evolved from my grandfather to my dad to me and the WWE.

But I was really lucky that before I got to the WWE,

I was still able to learn that way and learn on the road.

Well, the gimmick in the ring is what your persona is.

So a lot of these guys, you know, in the world of pro wrestling, especially back then in the 70s and in the 80s and in the 90s, these wrestlers were so bombastic and the characters were so colorful.

And so that would be working the gimmick in the ring.

Now, working the gimmick out of the ring, it essentially means you live your gimmick.

You live your persona.

So this is why what we laugh at is a lot of the wrestlers, my dad and us being one of them, was,

It was so important to live the gimmick, so when you left the arena, or if you left wherever it is, the venue, the flea market, wherever you were wrestling, living the gimmick means you got in a Cadillac or you got in a Lincoln and you drove away in front of the fans, but that was your car.

And living the gimmick means, oh, there's this idea, fantasized idea that these pro wrestling stars are making a lot of money and they're leaving in their Cadillacs, they're leaving in their Lincolns and they're going to their mansions.