A ring name is a type of stage name or nickname used by an athlete such as a professional wrestler , mixed martial artist , or boxer whose real name is considered unattractive, dull, difficult to pronounce or spell, amusing for the wrong reasons, or projecting the wrong image. Since the advent of the Internet , it is relatively easy to discover a fighter's real name.
113-476: Dwayne Douglas Johnson (born May 2, 1972), also known by his ring name The Rock , is an American actor, professional wrestler , and businessman. He is signed to WWE , where he performs on a part-time basis. Widely regarded as one of the greatest professional wrestlers of all time, Johnson was integral to the development and success of the World Wrestling Federation (WWF, now WWE) during
226-458: A Rock Bottom to Damien Sandow and a People's Elbow to Cody Rhodes . The Rock closed out the 20th-anniversary episode of Raw , on January 14, with one of his "Rock Concerts", leading to a brawl with CM Punk. The following week on Raw , The Rock was attacked by The Shield . Vince McMahon then asserted that if The Shield attacked the Rock in his title match with CM Punk, Punk would be stripped of
339-486: A field agent , but is blocked by the Chief, who values his analytical skills. After their headquarters is bombed by the terrorist organization KAOS, who also obtain the identities of CONTROL's agents, Smart is promoted to Agent 86 and is paired with Agent 99, who is unknown to KAOS after undergoing plastic surgery and doubts his competence. Max traces the suspects to Moscow , but while on a commercial flight going there, he
452-456: A gimmick he employed as a charismatic trash talker . Johnson left the WWE in 2004; he returned in 2011 as a part-time performer until 2013 and made sporadic appearances from thereon until his retirement in 2019; in 2023, he returned once again on a part-time basis. A 10-time world champion —including the promotion's first of African-American descent—he is also a two-time Intercontinental Champion ,
565-523: A ladder match at SummerSlam on August 30, where The Rock lost the title to Triple H. In the latter half of 1998, The Rock saw a big uptick in fan support. He also started consolidating his famous persona during this time, which would last until 2000. His popularity caused him to be booked in a feud with fellow Nation members Mark Henry and D'Lo Brown, turning babyface in the process. Henry defeated The Rock at Judgment Day: In Your House on October 18 after interference from Brown, effectively breaking up
678-600: A "This Is Your Life"-style segment for Cena, and later both members of Awesome Truth. The Rock and Cena defeated Awesome Truth on November 20 at Survivor Series, when The Rock pinned The Miz. After the match, The Rock gave Cena a Rock Bottom . Leading up to WrestleMania, The Rock and Cena had several verbal confrontations on Raw SuperShow . On the March 12, 2012, episode of Raw SuperShow , The Rock hosted his first "Rock Concert" segment since 2004, mocking Cena in his songs. On April 1, at WrestleMania XXVIII, The Rock defeated Cena in
791-659: A Kiss My Ass match at SummerSlam on August 22. The Rock was also given the privilege of having his own signature match, like The Undertaker with the Buried Alive match, Kane with the Inferno Match and Mankind with the Boiler Room Brawl: the Brahma Bullrope match, a variant of a strap match was a normal singles match where the components are tied together with a rope used for cattle farming, and
904-568: A Last Man Standing match which ended in a draw, meaning Mankind retained the title. Their feud ended on the February 15 Raw Is War , when The Rock won his third WWF Championship in a Ladder Match after a debuting Big Show interfered on his behalf. The Rock then lost the WWF Championship to Stone Cold Steve Austin at WrestleMania XV on March 28. The Rock's popularity continued to grow and audiences still cheered for him even though he
1017-578: A McMahon in his corner: Triple H had his wife Stephanie , Foley had Linda , The Rock had Vince and Big Show had Shane. The Rock lasted until the final two but was eliminated by Triple H after Vince betrayed him by hitting him with a chair. Due to his image at the time, a Magic: The Gathering deck archetype was named after him. In the following weeks, The Rock continued his feud with Triple H and eventually won his fourth WWF Championship, which he won on April 30, at Backlash , after Stone Cold Steve Austin intervened on his behalf. The following night on Raw
1130-448: A blowgun during a stakeout in the main film). Despite the relative commercial success of the film, a sequel was never filmed, even though it was on the schedule for a few years without any known results. For this reason, the ending suggests a continuation with other characters. On October 7, 2008, it was reported that Warner Bros. and Village Roadshow Pictures were producing a sequel. Carell, Hathaway, and Arkin were set to return, but
1243-456: A cameo by Hathaway reprising their roles), was released on DVD on July 1, 2008, eleven days after the feature film's theatrical release. The film tells a standalone story that takes place concurrently with the events within the film (including a scene in which Agent 99 calls Lloyd and angrily berates him for the poor quality of her gadgets compared to Max's; that scene takes place immediately after Max accidentally renders himself unconscious with
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#17327987836851356-516: A cameo in his hometown of Miami, where he confronted Randy Orton . On the August 23 episode of Raw , he hosted a pie-eating contest, as part of the WWE Diva Search , and ended the segment by giving Coachman a People's Elbow . The Rock's contract with WWE then ended and he started his full-time acting career. On March 12, 2007, the Rock appeared on a WWE show after nearly three years, via
1469-407: A chase, Max rescues her, but in the struggle, the car is set on fire and forced onto railroad tracks. Max kisses Agent 23 to distract him. Both he and 99 are thrown off the vehicle before it collides with a freight train, killing Agent 23. Analyzing Agent 23's nuclear football, Max realizes the final note of Beethoven 's " Ode to Joy " will trigger the bomb. Rushing to the concert hall, Smart tackles
1582-693: A coded warning from Dalip via American Top 40 , alerting him to Siegfried's plan. He escapes and arrives in Los Angeles to reunite with the Chief and Agents 99 and 23, convincing them he is not the double agent. As the President arrives at the Walt Disney Concert Hall , Siegfried, Shtarker and Dalip plant the bomb there. Agent 23 is revealed to be the real double agent after Max's Geiger counter -equipped watch picks up traces of radiation on him. Agent 23 takes 99 hostage and flees. After
1695-442: A completely new story and we'll see what happens with that somewhere down the line perhaps... Anne Hathaway is definitely in and Alan Arkin, so at some point... we don't have any projected date and the script still needs some tweaking and some rewriting." During 2013, Carell stated that it was unlikely that there really would be a sequel. In December 2013, however, Peter Segal claimed a Get Smart 2 had been close to being made, with
1808-468: A dart again. Bernie Kopell , who played Siegfried in the original TV series, has a cameo as a motorist. Ryan Seacrest made a voice cameo as himself, hosting American Top 40 . Warner Bros. Pictures and Village Roadshow Pictures owned the rights to the television series of the same name , with Peter Segal attached as a director, after directing three of Adam Sandler 's films. According to Segal, he stated in an interview with AMC that he loved
1921-465: A few others, their real name. One notable exception was made for David Otunga because of his real marriage to singer Jennifer Hudson at the time, which gave WWE some mainstream exposure. Low Ki used the alias "Senshi" during his second TNA stint to reserve his primary ring name for other use. A similar example is the team known as The Dudley Boyz in ECW and WWE and Team 3D elsewhere. WWE trademarked
2034-472: A five-time Tag Team Champion , the 2000 Royal Rumble winner, and WWE's sixth Triple Crown champion. Johnson headlined multiple pay-per-view events, including WWE's flagship event WrestleMania six times ( 15 , 16 , 17 , 28 , 29 and 40 ) which includes the most-bought professional wrestling pay-per-view (WrestleMania 28) and main evented the most watched episodes of WWE's flagship television series ( Raw and SmackDown ). Johnson's first film role
2147-508: A flavor of Sierra Mist soft drink dubbed "Undercover Orange" to help promote the film. In Latin America, Get Smart was shown in a Spanish language dubbed version, produced in Mexico. The theatrical posters had a sticker that highlighted the return of Jorge "El Tata" Arvizu , a highly regarded Mexican actor who was returning to the character after a 13-year hiatus, having dubbed Don Adams in
2260-586: A kiss, enabling her to activate the parachute while the assassin crashes into a barn. Arriving at KAOS' chief bomb-maker Ladislas Krstic's mansion during a party, Max and 99 infiltrate his office and trace nuclear material to a KAOS nuclear weapons factory disguised as a bakery in Moscow. They are caught by Krstic and his men, but manage to eliminate them before escaping. At the bakery, Max meets with KAOS boss Siegfried and his second-in-command, Shtarker, both of whom expose him and 99. Smart manages to escape and destroys
2373-487: A lengthy promo, he addressed the fans and started a feud with John Cena . After numerous appearances via satellite, The Rock appeared live on the Raw before WrestleMania XXVII to confront Cena. After he and Cena exchanged insults, The Miz and Alex Riley appeared and attacked The Rock; he fended off Miz and Riley, only for Cena to blindside him with an Attitude Adjustment . On April 3, at WrestleMania XXVII, The Rock opened
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#17327987836852486-457: A match that took place in an arena with 22,000 empty seats where any part of the facility could be used to contest the match. After 20 minutes of chaotic brawling in the ring, the stands, a kitchen, the catering area, an office, the arena corridors and finally a basement loading area, Mankind pinned The Rock using a forklift truck to win the WWF Championship. The two faced off again, at St. Valentine's Day Massacre: In Your House on February 14, in
2599-589: A pre-taped promo shown during Raw . He correctly predicted that Bobby Lashley would defeat Umaga at WrestleMania 23 in Donald Trump 's and Vince McMahon's "Battle of the Billionaires" Hair vs. Hair match. On March 29, 2008, Johnson inducted his father Rocky Johnson and grandfather Peter Maivia into the WWE Hall of Fame . His next appearance was through a pre-taped promo on October 2, 2009, during
2712-725: A real injury sustained during his match with Cena, in which his abdominal and adductor tendons tore from his pelvis . Johnson underwent surgery on April 23 to reattach the torn tendons. Post surgery, it made his abdomen look far less muscular than the rest of his body, notably his arms. Ring name Ring names are much more common in professional wrestling than any other sport; famous examples include Terry Bollea becoming Hulk Hogan , Michael Shawn Hickenbottom becoming Shawn Michaels , Roderick Toombs becoming Roddy Piper , Dwayne Johnson becoming The Rock , Christopher Irvine becoming Chris Jericho , and Phillip Jack Brooks becoming CM Punk . A number of wrestlers adopted their real name or
2825-489: A rematch of the previous WrestleMania match between the two at WrestleMania 29 , only this time with the WWE Championship on the line. On April 7, at WrestleMania 29, The Rock lost the WWE Championship to Cena, ending his reign at 70 days. Despite being advertised for Raw after WrestleMania, where it was stated that The Rock was still entitled a rematch for the WWE Championship, The Rock did not appear because of
2938-579: A traditional 5-on-5 Survivor Series tag team match, teaming with Cena at Survivor Series in November. But on the October 24 episode of Raw SuperShow , Cena instead suggested The Rock be his partner in a standard tag team match against The Miz and R-Truth , a team called Awesome Truth , which Rock agreed to the next week. On November 14, during the special Raw Gets Rocked , The Rock appeared live, delivering Rock Bottom s to Mick Foley, who had been hosting
3051-754: A variation of it, sometimes modifying the spelling to better fit their gimmick , such as Dave Bautista becoming Batista (later reverting to his real name for his Hollywood acting career), Patricia Stratigeas becoming Trish Stratus , Jonathan Good becoming Jon Moxley , Bryan Danielson becoming Daniel Bryan (when he wrestled in WWE), Richard Fliehr becoming Ric Flair and Randall Poffo becoming Randy Savage . Others simply use part of their name, such as Bill Goldberg using Goldberg , Nicole Garcia-Colace using Nikki Bella , Mike Mizanin using The Miz , Cody Runnels using Cody Rhodes , and Michael Wardlow using Wardlow . Many female wrestlers go solely by their first name such as. It
3164-542: Is Samoan . His father and Tony Atlas were the first black tag team champions in WWE history, in 1983. Johnson's uncle Ricky was also a wrestler. His mother is the adopted daughter of Peter Maivia , who was also a professional wrestler. Johnson's maternal grandmother Lia was one of the first female pro wrestling promoters , taking over Polynesian Pacific Pro Wrestling after her husband's death in 1982 and managing it until 1988. Through his maternal grandfather Maivia, Johnson
3277-406: Is War , The Rock successfully defended his title against Shane McMahon in a Steel Cage match. On May 21, at Judgment Day , The Rock faced Triple H in an Iron Man match with Shawn Michaels as the special guest referee. With the score tied at five falls each, and with seconds left on the time limit, The Rock was disqualified when The Undertaker attacked Triple H, thus giving Triple H the 6–5 win and
3390-474: Is a 2008 American spy action comedy film directed by Peter Segal , written by Tom J. Astle and Matt Ember and produced by Leonard B. Stern , who was also the producer of the original series. The film is based on Mel Brooks and Buck Henry 's television series of the same name . The film stars Steve Carell , Anne Hathaway , Dwayne Johnson , and Alan Arkin , with Terence Stamp and James Caan in supporting roles. Bernie Kopell , who played Siegfried in
3503-646: Is a highly respected tradition in Mexican lucha libre for performers to hide their true identities, usually wrestling under masks, and revealing a luchador's identity without their permission is considered a serious offence with real-life consequences. Professional wrestlers are often referred to by their contemporaries by their ring name. In interviews, Bret Hart regularly referred to Mark Calaway, Curt Hennig, and Kevin Nash by their ring names ( The Undertaker , Mr. Perfect , and Diesel ). Ring names are often trademarked by
Dwayne Johnson - Misplaced Pages Continue
3616-852: Is a non-blood relative of the Anoaʻi wrestling family . In 2008, he inducted his father and grandfather into the WWE Hall of Fame . Johnson attended Montclaire Elementary School in Charlotte, North Carolina , and then moved to Hamden, Connecticut , where he attended Shepherd Glen Elementary School and then Hamden Middle School. He attended President William McKinley High School in Honolulu and then Glencliff High School and McGavock High School , both in Nashville, Tennessee , and then Freedom High School in Bethlehem Township, Pennsylvania , in
3729-448: Is also common for wrestlers of all genders to use a nickname in addition to their real name for marketability and other reasons. Ricky Steamboat is an atypical instance of a wrestler adopting a ring name to sound less intimidating, as his legal name of Richard Blood was considered unfitting for his babyface persona. Some (mostly independent ) wrestlers still go to great lengths to ensure that their real names are not publicly known. It
3842-485: Is arrested by the Air Marshal after he mistakes his attempts to clean his shoe for a bomb attempt. Detained in the bathroom, he manages to break his ties with a specialized Swiss Army knife containing a mini-crossbow. However, one of the darts hits the "eject" button, sending Max plummeting to earth. Agent 99 jumps after him with a parachute and retrieves him, but is followed by a KAOS assassin, whom she distracts with
3955-588: Is the double agent. Siegfried reveals to Shtarker that he plans to detonate a nuclear bomb in Los Angeles while the President of the United States is there. Siegfried contacts the U.S. government and threatens to release nuclear weapon detonator codes to hostile countries unless given $ 200 billion. However, he is ignored by everyone except the Chief. Detained in a CONTROL holding cell, Max receives
4068-462: The Decade of SmackDown . On September 30, 2009, the Rock appeared at a World Xtreme Wrestling (WXW) show to support the professional wrestling debut of Sarona Snuka , the daughter of his longtime friend and mentor Jimmy Snuka . On February 14, 2011, The Rock was announced as the host of WrestleMania XXVII on April 3, 2011, appearing live on Raw for the first time in almost seven years. During
4181-779: The Attitude Era . He wrestled for the WWF full-time for eight years before pursuing an acting career. His films have grossed over $ 3.5 billion in North America and over $ 12.5 billion worldwide, making him one of the world's highest-grossing and highest-paid actors . He is a co-owner of the United Football League , a member of the board of directors of TKO Group Holdings —the parent company of UFC and WWE—and co-founder of Seven Bucks Productions . After accepting an athletic scholarship to play football at
4294-592: The Disney animated film Moana (2016). Johnson produced and starred in the HBO comedy-drama series Ballers (2015–2019) and the autobiographical sitcom Young Rock (2021–2023). His autobiography, The Rock Says , was released in 2000 and was a New York Times bestseller . In 2016 and 2019, Time named him as one of the world's most influential people . Johnson was born in Hayward, California , on May 2, 1972,
4407-640: The Lehigh Valley region of the state, where he graduated in 1990. At Freedom High School, Johnson initially struggled and was drawn into a culture of conflict and petty crime. By age 17, he had been arrested several times for fighting, theft, and check fraud, and was suspended two weeks for fighting. An article in the local newspaper labeled him "a troubled teenager with a history of run-ins with police." But Freedom High School football coach Jody Cwik saw athletic potential in Johnson, and recruited him to join
4520-810: The Miami-area community, frequently delivering positive messages about his own struggles and encouraging students to remain in school and avoid the dangers of drug use. After graduating, Johnson was signed by the Calgary Stampeders of the Canadian Football League . Calgary moved him from defensive tackle to linebacker . He was assigned to Calgary's practice roster, but was cut two months into Calgary's 1995 season. Mid 20th Century 1970s and 1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s and 2020s After being cut by Calgary, Johnson began his professional wrestling career
4633-800: The Raw brand. There, he had various small feuds, including one with The Hurricane . He also began performing "Rock Concerts", segments in which he played the guitar and mocked WWE performers and fans in song. After failing to win a number one contendership for the World Heavyweight Championship , The Rock went into another program with Stone Cold Steve Austin. This led to a match at WrestleMania XIX on March 30, 2003, which called back to their previous two WrestleMania encounters, both of which Austin had won. The Rock won after delivering three consecutive Rock Bottoms , ending their long-running rivalry in what turned out to be Austin's final match, until WrestleMania 38 . The next night, Raw
Dwayne Johnson - Misplaced Pages Continue
4746-484: The USWA tag team championship twice with his partner Bart Sawyer in the summer of 1996, Johnson was signed to a WWF contract. He received additional training from Tom Prichard , alongside Achim Albrecht and Mark Henry . Johnson made his WWF debut as Rocky Maivia, a combination of his father and grandfather's ring names, although announcers acknowledged his real name. He was initially reluctant to take this ring name but
4859-485: The University of Miami , Johnson was a member of the 1991 national championship team but was largely a backup player. Despite aspirations to professional football, he went undrafted in the 1995 NFL draft , and briefly signed with the Calgary Stampeders before being cut in his first season. In 1996, his father assisted in helping him secure a contract with the WWF. Johnson quickly rose to global prominence, aided by
4972-443: The conductor just before the final note, saving everyone. Siegfried, dismayed after realizing his plan has failed, insults Dalip’s wife and is thrown off by Dalip into a river, to Shtarker's delight. Max is formally inducted as a spy and is honored at CONTROL headquarters, with Agent 99 giving him a puppy. Upon leaving, Max attempts to fix a jammed door but gets stuck between the sliding doors and shrieks in pain after being struck by
5085-437: The promotion that creates a character or gimmick for a performer. It is common to see one performer use a variety of ring names throughout their career, even if their overall persona remains similar. This is especially true in WWE , which has largely forced most wrestlers that have debuted since 2006 to use a WWE-owned ring name instead of a ring name that they used on the independent circuit or, such as with Daniel Bryan and
5198-737: The "Dudley Boyz" name, leading them to have to change their name when they went to TNA. The members' individual names were also trademarked by WWE, forcing them to have to change their names. WWE partially repealed the policy in 2015, allowing wrestlers who were well known in other promotions such as Samoa Joe , A.J. Styles , Shinsuke Nakamura , Austin Aries , Bobby Roode , and Eric Young to use their long-standing ring names (or, in Nakamura's and Roode's cases, their real names) as well as wrestlers who sign "Tier 2" NXT brand contracts such as Johnny Gargano and Tommaso Ciampa , who wrestle both on NXT and
5311-668: The 'Taker , he lost to Savio Vega by countout but retained the title. Audiences became increasingly hostile toward Maivia, with chants of "die, Rocky, die" and "Rocky sucks" being heard during his matches. After losing the Intercontinental Championship to Owen Hart on the April 28 episode of Raw Is War , Maivia suffered a legitimate knee injury in a match against Mankind in June and spent several months recovering. Upon returning in August, Maivia turned heel for
5424-401: The 1960s TV series and again in the short-lived 1990s Get Smart TV series starring Andy Dick . On Rotten Tomatoes , Get Smart has a 51% rating based on 223 reviews with an average rating of 5.60/10. The site's critical consensus reads " Get Smart rides Steve Carell's considerable charm for a few laughs, but ultimately proves to be a rather ordinary action comedy". Metacritic gave
5537-544: The Attitude Era involving steel chairs had at most 2 or 3 shots to the head). After the fifth shot, Mankind was still ringside instead of two-thirds up the entrance ramp where he was supposed to be, and after the eleventh shot, which knocked Mankind out, a recording of Mankind saying "I Quit" from an earlier interview was played over the public address system. On January 31, during an episode of Sunday Night Heat , The Rock and Mankind participated in an Empty Arena match ,
5650-629: The December 8 episode of Raw to help Mick Foley against La Résistance . In 2004, The Rock aided Mick Foley in his feud against Evolution , leading to a reunion of the Rock 'n' Sock Connection. They lost against Ric Flair , Randy Orton , and Batista in a handicap match at WrestleMania XX on March 14, 2004, when Orton pinned Foley after an RKO . This was Johnson's final wrestling match until November 2011. The Rock appeared in WWE sporadically following WrestleMania XX. He made returns to provide support for Eugene against Jonathan Coachman and made
5763-480: The Intercontinental Championship. Later that night, he entered the Royal Rumble match and lasted until the final two before he was eliminated by Stone Cold Steve Austin. On March 29, at WrestleMania XIV , he defeated Shamrock by disqualification once again to retain the title. The next night, on Raw is War , The Rock debuted a new Intercontinental Championship design and would later overthrow Faarooq as leader of
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#17327987836855876-575: The Intercontinental Championship. The next night on Raw Is War , Austin was ordered by Mr. McMahon to defend the title in a rematch, but forfeited it to The Rock instead, handing him the title belt before hitting him with the Stone Cold Stunner . The Rock feuded with Austin and Ken Shamrock through the end of 1997 and beginning of 1998. On January 19, 1998, at the Royal Rumble , The Rock defeated Shamrock by disqualification to retain
5989-467: The January 30, 2003, episode of SmackDown! to set up another match with Hulk Hogan at No Way Out . Because of negative fan reaction during previous matches as a result of his budding acting career, The Rock turned heel for the first time since 1999. He also started a new persona that has been called Hollywood Rock , with a new look and a shaved head. The Rock defeated Hogan at No Way Out before moving to
6102-574: The McMahons betrayed Mankind. On December 13, at the pay-per-view named after him, Rock Bottom: In Your House , The Rock had a rematch with Mankind for the WWF Championship. Mankind appeared to win the match when The Rock passed out to the Mandible Claw submission move, but Vince McMahon ruled that since The Rock did not tap out, he retained his title. In the main event of the January 4, 1999, episode of Raw Is War , Mankind defeated The Rock for
6215-539: The Nation of Domination to spark a feud between the two. He then successfully defended the Intercontinental Championship against Faarooq at Over the Edge: In Your House on May 31. The stable would then refer to themselves as simply "The Nation". The Rock and the Nation then feuded with Triple H and D-Generation X (DX), with the two stable leaders first meeting in the quarter-final of the 1998 King of
6328-520: The New Age Outlaws on the October 14 episode of SmackDown! before losing the titles to The Holly Cousins on the October 18 episode of Raw is War . At the Royal Rumble on January 23, 2000, The Rock entered the Royal Rumble match and was one of the final two remaining, along with Big Show. In an attempt at a "false finish", Big Show intended to throw The Rock over the top rope in a running powerslam -like position, before The Rock countered
6441-465: The Ring tournament , which The Rock won. At King of the Ring on June 28, The Rock defeated Dan Severn in the semi-final match and lost to rival Ken Shamrock in the final. The Rock then resumed his feud with Triple H, as the two had a two out of three falls match at Fully Loaded: In Your House on July 26 for the Intercontinental Championship, which The Rock retained in controversial fashion. This led to
6554-544: The Rock to join their team. The Rock then aligned with McMahon and the WWF. The next month, the Rock defeated Booker T at SummerSlam on August 19 to win the WCW Championship for the first time. He later lost the title to Chris Jericho at No Mercy on October 21. The next night on Raw , he teamed with Jericho to win the WWF Tag Team Championship from The Dudley Boyz . The two then lost
6667-617: The Rock, but Kurt Angle revealed his true allegiance by attacking Austin. The Rock then pinned Austin, giving Team WWF the victory and forcing The Alliance to disband. The Rock's WCW Championship was renamed the unbranded "World Championship" following the Alliance's loss. At the next pay-per-view, Vengeance on December 9, The Rock lost the World Championship to Jericho, who would then unify the WWF and World titles later that night. The Rock then unsuccessfully challenged Jericho for
6780-550: The WWE Championship at the Royal Rumble pay-per-view. During the show, he encountered then-reigning WWE Champion CM Punk , Daniel Bryan , and John Cena, all of whom expressed a desire to face him. The Rock later saved Cena from an assault by Big Show , only to be laid out by CM Punk. On the January 7, 2013, episode of Raw , The Rock returned to confront his Royal Rumble opponent CM Punk. On January 11, he made his first SmackDown appearance in ten years, getting into an altercation with Team Rhodes Scholars, resulting in him delivering
6893-537: The WWE Championship. On January 27, at the Royal Rumble , CM Punk would seemingly defeat The Rock after the arena lights went out and someone attacked The Rock. Vince McMahon then came out and was about to strip Punk of the championship, however, at The Rock's request, he instead restarted the match. This culminated in The Rock defeating Punk to win his eighth WWE Championship. Punk received a title rematch with The Rock, at Elimination Chamber on February 17, 2013, with
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#17327987836857006-521: The WWE Undisputed Championship to Lesnar along with the record for the youngest WWE Champion, which he had set in 1998. In 2018, writing for ESPN.com , Sean Coyle noted in a retrospective review of the event, that following his victory over Hulk Hogan at WrestleMania X8, The Rock "started to see a dip in fan support" and "that dip turned into a plunge" by the time The Rock had his match with Lesnar at SummerSlam because fans knew he
7119-469: The WWF Championship to Kurt Angle at No Mercy on October 22, 2000. The next month, The Rock feuded with Rikishi and defeated him at Survivor Series on November 19. The Rock wrestled a six-man Hell in a Cell match for the WWF Championship at Armageddon on December 10, which Angle won to retain the title. On the December 18 episode of Raw is War , The Rock won the WWF Tag Team Championship with The Undertaker, defeating Edge and Christian , before losing
7232-469: The WWF Championship was then put on the line against Big Show at No Way Out on February 27, which Big Show won after Shane McMahon interfered. The Rock then defeated Big Show on the March 13 episode of Raw Is War , to regain the right to face the WWF Champion, Triple H, at WrestleMania 2000 on April 2, in a Fatal Four-way elimination match , also including Big Show and Mick Foley. Each wrestler had
7345-599: The action comedy films Get Smart (2008), Central Intelligence (2016), Baywatch (2017), and Red Notice (2021). His role as Luke Hobbs in the Fast & Furious films, beginning with Fast Five (2011), helped the franchise become one of the highest grossing in film . He joined the DC Extended Universe by playing the title role in Black Adam (2022). He is also known for voicing Maui in
7458-506: The added stipulation that if The Rock was disqualified or counted out, he would still lose the WWE Championship. The Rock would pin Punk to defeat him and retain the championship. The following night on Raw , The Rock unveiled a new WWE Championship design, with a different center plate and removable customizable side-plates which had his "Brahma Bull" logo. The Rock then resumed his rivalry with John Cena, who won that year's Royal Rumble to set up
7571-465: The championship after interference from Stone Cold Steve Austin. Then at the Royal Rumble on January 24, The Rock regained the title in an "I Quit" match , a type of submission match that only ends if one of the combatants says "I quit" on a microphone. Intended to show a vicious streak in The Rock's character, The Rock hit Mankind in the head with a steel chair 11 times instead of the scripted five, five shots already being risky (most wrestling matches in
7684-428: The depth chart, including future NFL star and Pro Football Hall of Fame inductee Warren Sapp , and appeared mostly in backup roles. In his time at Miami, Johnson played in 39 games with one start. He recorded 4.5 sacks and 77 tackles. In 1995, Johnson graduated with a Bachelor of General Studies and a dual major in criminology and physiology . He was also one of the university's most prolific student speakers in
7797-493: The episode, The Rock continued his feud with The Corporate Ministry. This led to a match with Triple H, at Over the Edge on May 23, which The Rock won, and a match for the WWF Championship against The Undertaker, at King of the Ring on June 27, which The Rock lost. The Rock then lost a number one contender's match to Triple H, at Fully Loaded on July 25, after interference from "Mr. Ass" Billy Gunn . The Rock then defeated Gunn in
7910-514: The factory, but he and Agent 99 are confronted by the assassin from the plane. Smart recognizes him as Dalip from his research and counsels him on his failing marriage, prompting Dalip to let them go. Agent 23 is sent to observe the factory cleanup, but fails to find evidence as KAOS had snuck the weapons out beforehand. As Smart was alone during his key discoveries, CONTROL believes he is a double agent . Agent 99, who has developed feelings for Smart, takes him into custody, just when he suspects that she
8023-471: The film a score of 54 out of 100, based on 34 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale. The film received positive reviews from Roger Ebert and Lisa Schwarzbaum from Entertainment Weekly . Richard Roeper of the Chicago Sun-Times also gave the film a thumbs up, saying that it was "one of
8136-529: The film grossed $ 38.6 million in 3,911 theaters in the United States and Canada , ranking #1 at the box office and averaging $ 9,891 per venue. The film was released in the United Kingdom on August 22, 2008, and opened on #3, behind Hellboy II: The Golden Army and Mamma Mia! . Get Smart was released on DVD and Blu-ray on November 4, 2008 by Warner Home Video . Two versions of
8249-559: The film were released: the theatrical version and an enhanced version that allows viewers to view alternate takes and deleted scenes placed within the context of the film. The film was released on DVD in the United Kingdom on February 23, 2009. Approximately 2,088,163 DVD units were sold, translating to revenue of $ 34,652,714 (Blu-ray sales/rentals not included). A spin-off film, Get Smart's Bruce and Lloyd: Out of Control (featuring Oka, Torrence, Miller, Warburton, Crews and
8362-701: The first time in his career by lashing out at fans who had been booing him and joining Faarooq , D'Lo Brown and Kama in the stable called the Nation of Domination . He then refused to acknowledge the Rocky Maivia name, instead referring to himself in the third person as The Rock, though he would still be billed as "The Rock" Rocky Maivia until 1998. The Rock would then regularly insult the audience, WWF performers, and interviewers in his promos . At D-Generation X: In Your House on December 7, Stone Cold Steve Austin defeated The Rock in under six minutes to retain
8475-466: The fly based on the crowd's response. After the introduction of the first-ever brand extension , the WWF held a " draft lottery " on the March 25, 2002, episode of Raw . The Rock was the number one overall pick, going to the SmackDown! brand before taking a sabbatical from wrestling. The Rock made a surprise return on a June episode of Raw before going to his assigned brand of SmackDown!. There, he
8588-472: The highest ratings ever for a Raw segment. The two lost the titles back to Undertaker and Big Show on the September 9 episode of SmackDown! and won them back from them on the September 20 episode of Raw is War . The Rock and Mankind then lost the titles to The New Age Outlaws on the very next episode of SmackDown! . The Rock and Mankind would win the tag titles for the third and final time after beating
8701-482: The independent circuit to keep their ring names (or, in Gargano's case, his real name). Gargano and Ciampa have since signed exclusive WWE contracts. "In-house" WWE wrestlers still use WWE-owned ring names. In rare cases, the rights to a wrestler's ring name may be owned by a company with little or no connection to professional wrestling, such as Marvel Comics ' ownership of the name Hulk Hogan until early 2003, which
8814-566: The laughs and amps up the action, resulting in a not very funny comedy joined at the hip to a not very exciting spy movie." It also received negative reviews from Richard Schickel from Time and David Ansen from Newsweek , with the latter stating, "it's not Maxwell who's clueless, but the filmmakers ... Director (Pete) Segal ... is a comedy specialist lacking any apparent sense of humor." Get Smart grossed $ 130.3 million domestically and $ 100.3 million internationally, bringing its worldwide total to $ 230.7 million. In its opening weekend,
8927-407: The main event after countering Cena's attempt at a People's Elbow into a Rock Bottom and pinning Cena. This event broke the record for biggest professional wrestling pay-per-view buyrate. The following night on Raw SuperShow , The Rock praised Cena, calling their match "an honor". He then vowed to once again become WWE Champion. On July 23, at Raw 1000 , The Rock announced he would wrestle for
9040-599: The match, The Rock attacked The Miz and hit him with the People's Elbow . The next night on Raw , The Rock and Cena agreed to a match at WrestleMania XXVIII the next year. They then worked together to fend off an attack by The Corre , which at the time consisted of Wade Barrett , Heath Slater , Justin Gabriel , and Ezekiel Jackson . The Rock appeared live on Raw in his hometown of Miami to celebrate his 39th birthday. On September 16, WWE announced The Rock would wrestle in
9153-638: The more pleasant surprises of the year". Critic James Berardinelli also gave it a positive review. Negative responses came from Glenn Whipp of the Los Angeles Daily News calling it "staggeringly bad" and Mick LaSalle of the San Francisco Chronicle stating that "It couldn't buy a laugh in a nitrous oxide factory with a fistful of clown noses." Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times said "it neglects
9266-411: The move on the ring apron, sending Big Show to the floor before reentering the ring as the winner. But The Rock's feet accidentally hit the floor during the reversal attempt, though those watching the event on television did not see that. This was played up in the storyline as Big Show provided additional video footage showing it and claimed to be the rightful winner. The Rock's number one contendership for
9379-465: The next night's Raw is War , during a steel cage title rematch, Triple H attacked The Rock, allying with McMahon and Austin and helping Austin retain the championship. Austin and Triple H then formed a tag team called The Power Trip , while The Rock was indefinitely suspended in storyline. Johnson used this time off to act in The Scorpion King . The Rock returned in late July when the WWF
9492-428: The next year, in 1996. Veteran wrestler Pat Patterson secured several tryout matches for Johnson with the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) in 1996. Wrestling at first under his real name, Johnson defeated The Brooklyn Brawler at a house show on March 10 and lost matches to Chris Candido and Owen Hart . After wrestling at Jerry Lawler 's United States Wrestling Association under the name Flex Kavana and winning
9605-455: The now Undisputed WWF Championship at Royal Rumble on January 20, 2002. At the next pay-per-view, No Way Out on February 17, The Rock defeated The Undertaker in a singles match. The event also saw the WWF debut of the famed WCW faction New World Order (nWo), which at the time consisted of "Hollywood" Hulk Hogan , Kevin Nash , and Scott Hall . This later led to a match between The Rock and Hogan at WrestleMania X8 on March 17. The match
9718-454: The original series, also appeared in the film. The film centers on an analyst named Maxwell Smart (Carell) who dreams of becoming a real field agent and a better spy. The film was released in North America on June 20, 2008. Get Smart received mixed reviews from critics but was a commercial success, earning $ 230 million on an $ 80 million budget. Maxwell Smart, an analyst for CONTROL, a top secret American intelligence agency, yearns to become
9831-564: The prefix "Stone Cold" Steve Austin. Numerous boxers have used ring names or nicknames as their mode of identification during their professional boxing careers, particularly during the late 19th century and the early 20th century. The ring name "Kid" was particularly popular, indicating the boxer's comparative youth. Since the mid 20th century, ring names for boxers have typically been less common, although nicknames have become more popular in recent years. Famous examples of boxers who used ring names include: Get Smart (film) Get Smart
9944-579: The rope and its attached cowbell could both be used as weapons. The Rock contested this match twice, both times in Texas (vs Triple H in Dallas, and vs Al Snow in Houston). Shortly after SummerSlam, The Rock began teaming with former opponent Mankind and the two became known as the Rock 'n' Sock Connection . They became WWF Tag Team Champions for the first time after defeating The Undertaker and Big Show for
10057-544: The school's football team, where he played defensive tackle , an experience that proved to be a significant personal transformation for Johnson. "My thought process started to change. That's when I started thinking about goals and what I wanted to accomplish", he has since said about his high school football experience. In addition to playing football, Johnson also was a member of Freedom High School's track and field and wrestling teams. By his senior year at Freedom High School, Johnson had played only two years of football, but
10170-632: The show as a kid. Steve Carell was cast as the main character, Maxwell Smart and Anne Hathaway was cast as Agent 99 . This film's score was composed by former Yes guitarist Trevor Rabin , who had previously scored films such as Armageddon , Enemy of the State and Deep Blue Sea . Varèse Sarabande released a soundtrack album of the score. All music is composed by Trevor Rabin In addition to traditional television advertisement and movie trailers , Warner Bros. commissioned Pepsi to produce
10283-542: The show by cutting a promo. After appearing in numerous backstage segments, The Rock came to ringside to restart the main event between Cena and The Miz as a No Disqualification match, after it had ended in a double countout. As revenge for the Attitude Adjustment Cena had given him on Raw , The Rock hit Cena with the Rock Bottom , allowing The Miz to pin him and retain the WWE Championship. After
10396-545: The son of Mataniufeagaimaleata "Ata" Fitisemanu ( née Maivia) and former professional wrestler Rocky Johnson (born Wayde Douglas Bowles). Growing up, he briefly lived in Grey Lynn in Auckland , New Zealand, with his mother's family, where he played rugby and attended Richmond Road Primary School before returning to the U.S. Johnson's father was a Black Nova Scotian with a small amount of Irish ancestry and his mother
10509-424: The stable. The Rock was then entered into the "Deadly Game" tournament for the vacant WWF Championship. The finals occurred at Survivor Series on November 15, where The Rock defeated Vince McMahon's associate, Mankind , to win his first WWF Championship. A "double turn" then occurred as The Rock turned heel again after allying with Vince and Shane McMahon as the crown jewel of their stable, The Corporation, after
10622-407: The status of other cast members had yet to be announced. In July 2010, Steve Carell stated that he had recently been given a potential script for the sequel to Get Smart , but had passed on it. He said that he was still very interested in eventually making a Get Smart sequel, but was willing to wait until a decent script was developed. In 2010, Carell said: "I took a pass at Get Smart 2 , write
10735-417: The tag titles to Booker T and Test on the November 1, 2001, episode of SmackDown! . The Rock defeated Jericho on the November 5 episode of Raw for his second WCW Championship. As part of the WWF's battle against The Alliance, the Rock wrestled in a "winner takes all" five-on-five elimination tag team match at Survivor Series on November 18 where the losing team's company would be dissolved in storyline. He
10848-612: The title. The Rock won the WWF Championship for a fifth time at King of the Ring on June 25 by scoring the winning pin in a six-man tag team match, teaming with Kane and The Undertaker against Shane McMahon, Triple H and Vince McMahon, whom he pinned. The Rock successfully defended the championship against Chris Benoit on July 23 at Fully Loaded . The next month, he successfully defended his title against Kurt Angle and Triple H at SummerSlam on August 27. The Rock had another successful title defense against Benoit, Kane and The Undertaker on September 24 at Unforgiven . The Rock then lost
10961-477: The titles back to Edge and Christian the next night at a SmackDown! taping. The Rock continued to feud with Angle over the WWF Championship, culminating at No Way Out on February 25, 2001, where he pinned Angle to win the WWF Championship for a sixth time. The Rock then feuded with the Royal Rumble winner, Stone Cold Steve Austin, whom he lost the title to at WrestleMania X-Seven on April 1 after Austin allied with Vince McMahon, who interfered on his behalf. On
11074-412: The titles on the August 30 episode of Raw is War . The two performed a number of critically acclaimed comedic skits together, including one called "This Is Your Life", which saw Mankind bring parody versions of people from The Rock's past on television, such as his high school girlfriend and his high school football coach, only to have The Rock insult them. The segment earned an 8.4 Nielsen rating , one of
11187-409: The wrestler's gimmick changes, either subtly or dramatically. After debuting in WWE as the " Connecticut Blueblood " Hunter Hearst Helmsley, Paul Levesque's character later morphed into Triple H . A more drastic change sometimes occurs when a wrestler turns heroic or villainous , such as when Hulk Hogan joined the villainous nWo (New World Order) and became "Hollywood" Hulk Hogan. His new attitude
11300-453: Was a heel. He then lost the title rematch against Stone Cold Steve Austin at Backlash: In Your House on April 25. The next night on Raw is War The Rock was fired from The Corporation after he was betrayed by Shane McMahon, turning him face again and starting a feud with Triple H, The Undertaker and The Corporate Ministry . On April 29, 1999, WWF aired the pilot episode of SmackDown! , a term derived from one of The Rock's catchphrases. In
11413-440: Was a member of Team WWF along with Chris Jericho, The Undertaker, Kane, and Big Show. The Alliance's team consisted of Stone Cold Steve Austin, Kurt Angle, Booker T, Rob Van Dam , and Shane McMahon. In the end, it came down to a one-on-one between the Rock and Stone Cold Steve Austin. The Rock seemed to have the upper hand, until his teammate Jericho entered the ring and attacked the Rock. Austin tried to capitalize on this by pinning
11526-493: Was billed as "The Rock Appreciation Night", in honor of his victory over Austin. That night, he was attacked by a debuting Goldberg . At Backlash on April 27, 2003, Goldberg defeated The Rock, who then briefly left WWE to film Walking Tall . On the June 2 episode of Raw , The Rock joined the Highlight Reel and attacked Christian and Chris Jericho with Booker T , turning face once again. He would later return on
11639-462: Was billed as "icon versus icon", with both men representing the top tier of two generations of wrestling; ultimately The Rock pinned Hogan at WrestleMania X8 to win the match. Despite The Rock portraying a heroic character and Hogan a villain, a portion of the crowd attending the SkyDome was rooting heavily for Hogan. In an interview in 2013, Hogan said he and The Rock changed the style of the match on
11752-596: Was due to Hogan being advertised as " The Incredible Hulk Hogan" early in his career, while Marvel owned the trademark for their comic book character. Sometimes, a wrestler will buy the rights to their own ring name; for example, Steve Borden owns the rights to the name Sting and licenses it to the musician of the same name . The wrestler formerly known as Test took this one step further and legally changed his name to "Andrew Test Martin". Jim Hellwig, known as The Ultimate Warrior , had his name legally changed to simply "Warrior". In many cases, ring names evolve over time as
11865-555: Was enhanced by changing his costume color scheme from his famous red and yellow to nWo's black and white. Steve Williams adopted the ring name Steve Austin to avoid confusion with the then-more established performer "Dr. Death" Steve Williams . Austin would wrestle under that name for several years before signing with the WWF and being given the name "the Ringmaster". This gimmick failed to catch on, and Austin reverted to his established name, reaching his greatest level of success with
11978-470: Was feuding with rival promotions World Championship Wrestling (WCW) and Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) during what is known as The Invasion storyline. In reality, WCW was purchased by Vince McMahon and the WWF, and ECW had gone out of business in early 2001. Many former WCW and ECW wrestlers were then brought onto WWF television and formed The Alliance to compete with the WWF in storyline. The Alliance and Vince McMahon then both attempted to persuade
12091-694: Was in The Mummy Returns (2001). The next year, he played his first leading role in the action fantasy film The Scorpion King . He has since starred in family films The Game Plan (2007), Race to Witch Mountain (2009), Tooth Fairy (2010), Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle (2017), Jumanji: The Next Level (2019), and Jungle Cruise (2021), and the action films Journey 2: The Mysterious Island (2012), G.I. Joe: Retaliation (2013), Hercules (2014), Skyscraper (2018), San Andreas (2015) and Rampage (2018). He also starred in
12204-432: Was leaving WWE to pursue an acting career, as evidenced by the negative crowd response during his match with Lesnar. After SummerSlam ended, The Rock was visibly angry at the crowd reaction. When he tried to do a post-show speech for the crowd, the fans booed him. He eventually cut a short promo, declaring that "sing-along with The Rock is over!" The Rock then took time off to kickstart his acting career. The Rock returned on
12317-480: Was named the number one contender for the WWE Undisputed Championship, which he won for a record-setting seventh time at Vengeance on July 21, by defeating Kurt Angle and then-champion The Undertaker in a Triple Threat match. The Rock successfully defended the title at the Global Warning event on August 10 against Triple H and Brock Lesnar after pinning Triple H. On August 25, at SummerSlam , The Rock lost
12430-544: Was offered a full athletic scholarship offer from the University of Miami , whose football program was beginning to emerge as one of the nation's top-level NCAA Division 1 teams. As he did in high school, Johnson continued to play defensive tackle at the University of Miami , where he was a member of the Miami Hurricanes 1991 team , which won that year's national championship. Despite playing four years there, however, Johnson found himself behind elite players on
12543-487: Was persuaded by Vince McMahon and Jim Ross . He was given the nickname "The Blue Chipper", and to play up his lineage, he was hyped as the WWF's first third-generation wrestler. A clean-cut face character, Maivia was pushed heavily from the start despite his wrestling inexperience. He debuted on Monday Night Raw as a member of Marc Mero 's entourage on November 4, 1996. His first match came at Survivor Series on November 17, in an eight-man elimination tag match ; he
12656-524: Was the sole survivor and eliminated the final two members of the opposing team, Crush and Goldust . On February 13, 1997, he won the Intercontinental Championship from Hunter Hearst Helmsley on a Thursday edition of Monday Night Raw . Maivia then successfully defended the title against Helmsley at In Your House 13: Final Four on February 16. Johnson's first WrestleMania match came at WrestleMania 13 on March 23, where he
12769-419: Was victorious in his Intercontinental Championship defense against The Sultan . WWF fans started to reject his character and push from the company. He defeated Bret Hart by disqualification in a title defense on the March 31 episode of Raw is War . Behind the scenes, Hart mentored Johnson for his first year in WWF and refused to be booked to take the title from him. On April 20, at In Your House 14: Revenge of
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