Watch Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson Revisit His First WWE Match From 1996
Remember 1996? It was a strange and wonderful time when a Clinton was president, you had to dial into the internet using a phone line and a young wrestler named Rocky Maivia made his debut at WWE‘s Survivor Series teaming up with Jake “The Snake” Roberts and, uh, Marc Mero in a match against Jerry Lawler, Crush and Goldust.
Remember Maivia? He was a good looking guy with a full head of hair (he calls it “a fucking Chia Pet on my head as a haircut”), some really interesting ring attire and was “super, super, super amped” to be wrestling in Madison Square Garden where his grandfather and father wrestled for Vince McMahon Sr. years before he got his first pair of tights.
That guy, of course, would go on to be the People’s Champ, the most electrifying man in sports entertainment, the highest paid male actor in Hollywood and hilarious app founder. You might know him as Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson.
To celebrate the 20th anniversary of the wrestler who – along with “Stone Cold” Steve Austin, the Undertaker and a handful of other WWE superstars – would bring the company to its highest peak in the Attitude Era just a few years later, the Rock took a little time out of his day filming five or six movies at a time to break down the match that started it all. And since it’s the Rock we’re talking about, yeah, it’s fun to watch.