Quick Links

Dwayne Johnson or The Rock has certainly come a long way in his life. He stated how he once had only seven dollars in his bank account and how he was determined to change his life. Well, he certainly has done that. He’s someone who came from nothing and changed his life, first becoming a famous wrestler and now a huge action star in Hollywood.

These days he’s up there with Tom Cruise as one of the highest-earning actors in Hollywood. That's saying a lot about his incredible life story. But his life wasn’t always perfect and he hasn’t always been the nice guy that we all know him to be now.

There’s been talk about Dwayne Johnson wanting to run for president or working in politics somehow. We’re really not sure why anyone would want to trade a celebrity life in for politics, but changing the world sure isn’t a bad quest.

He’s going to have a lot of stumbling blocks from his past, however, and there were a lot of questionable things that The Rock did in his past that people in politics aren’t likely going to allow him to forget. There are probably a few things from his past that he would rather forget about but if that’s the case, he might want to avoid politics altogether. Check out these 15 most questionable things The Rock has ever done that he wants to forget.

Sometimes He Steals Other People’s Ideas

All is fair in love and war, they say and sometimes when it comes to being a celebrity, taking a good idea is a great way to promote yourself. We all know Dwayne Johnson to be a good guy, but he has done some questionable things. He once did a promo in 2016 where contestants could submit promos to win a Rock The Promo Championship belt. It was a weekly contest on YouTube that was hugely popular for The Rock. The only problem was that he stole the idea from former wrestle Taz who was already doing a promo like it called Hump Day Promo. Taz ended up calling The Rock out on Twitter about the issue. It’s surprising that celebrities rip off other people’s ideas because when you’re in the limelight, it’s hard to hide something like that.

He Stole Snicker Bars For Energy

Seriously, haven’t we all? We probably all have a story about stealing a candy bar from a store at one time or another. If you grew up poor, then it pretty much sucked. On Jimmy Kimmel Live Dwayne Johnson talked about how he did a few things in his youth that he wasn’t proud of. It’s nice to see a star acknowledging the wrong that they did in the past. He was always into fitness and he used to walk five miles to the gym every single day. That would be a workout in itself. “Midway point to the gym is a 7-Eleven,” he explained.

“I used to stop at this 7-Eleven, I swear, every day. I used to steal a king-size Snickers bar — for energy.”

Every day. Now that’s a lot of stolen Snickers bars.

He Made Questionable Comments To Lana

There is one thing that you will be roasted for these days is s*xism. Many celebrities and Hollywood execs have had their lives ruined over the last year due to all the women and some men who have come out with abuse allegations against Hollywood. These days, it would not be a good thing to make misogynistic comments toward women because you’re likely to hurt your career. But there certainly was a time when men could say and do whatever they wanted. The Rock wasn’t always a gentleman to the ladies. During a scene backstage on Raw, he mentioned how he and Lana had “exercised” in a hotel room and how she had shown him “the one-legged Russian vacuum” and he showed her “the Wisconsin wheelbarrow.” Classy!

He Had Some Rough Experiences

The Rock came from poverty and he experienced a lot of heartbreaking things as a young boy. There was a time he would show up at his home and see an eviction notice on the door. His mother was often seen crying and that would be hard for any young man to witness. The financial failures that he saw as a youth led him down a destructive path. “In Waikiki, there are a couple high-end blocks where there’s your Prada, Chanel, Gucci, Armani, jewelry stores, plenty of jewelry stores,” he said.

“There are a lot of tourists that come into Waikiki and there’s a lot of money. A lot of foreign money that comes in, and we were part of a theft ring that would target those groups.

We would target the money, we would target the high-end clothes and we would target the jewelry — turn around and sell it, best we could.”

There Are Times When He Was Too Much 

There are plenty of awesome ways to get yourself into the Guinness Book of World Records but being in there because you took too many selfies is not one of those ways. As great as Dwayne Johnson seems at times he’s certainly done a few things over the years that made him look like a complete douche.

He set the record one time for taking the most selfies in the span of three minutes.

Not the greatest accomplishment in life and probably something that would be embarrassing to come out during a political campaign. He did the task while on the red carpet for the movie premiere for San Andreas, his goal was to take 105 selfies in three minutes. Why he would even want a world record like that one, we’re not sure, but he made himself look ridiculous.

That Time He Went Too Far In The Ring 

During The Rock’s career as a wrestler, he was known to go a little too far when it came to his performances. He often behaved like a complete douche which often would upset other wrestlers. No one wants to be seriously hurt when wrestling because it’s going to affect their career in the long run. In 1999 during a Royal Rumble, Mankind had to go up against The Rock in an “I Quit” match and it didn’t end well for him. The Rock went a little too far with one of his attack moves and Mick Foley (Mankind) ended up walking away with a broken jaw. Most fighters and wrestlers will say that it’s all part of the job, but wrestling isn’t the same as MMA and there should really be no need for injuries like that one.

He Got In Trouble Multiple Times As A Teen

The Rock was getting into all kinds of trouble when he was a teenager and he claimed to have been arrested between 8 to 9 times before he was 17. He was often arrested for fighting, theft, or other “stupid (expletive) things.” Regardless of what bad things he was up to, however, he never missed the gym.

''But, I still found time to go to the Boys Club every afternoon to hit the speed bag, hit the heavy bag, hit the iron. 

I was building my body because again, it's that eviction mentality. But, I would still (expletive) around, get in trouble and get arrested. I got arrested eight or nine times I think by the time I was 17.'' Having a past in crime is certainly going to be brought up if he ever does decide to run for the presidency, but stranger things have happened.

He Insulted People 

It definitely wouldn’t be the first time that a celebrity said something stupid on social media. In 2016, he shared a memory with his fans at the MTV Music Awards. He showed a picture of himself from the '90s where we all have to admit he looked ridiculous. Not only does he wear a chain and a turtleneck, The Rock actually wore a fanny pack as well. He joked that he looked like a “buff lesbian.” But considering how vocal LGBT has been lately about their rights, it wouldn’t be a good idea for him to go talking like that anymore. In truth, though, it was a pretty funny comment and one that shouldn’t be taken seriously. There is much to be said about how sensitive the world has become about almost any issue.

He Had a Terrible Attitude Toward Authority Figures

When he was a teen, he admittedly had a terrible attitude and “a chip on his shoulder.” He used to do things at school to disrespect teachers because he was unhappy with things that were going on in his own life. One day he decided to go into the teacher’s lounge to go to the bathroom instead of going to a student bathroom. "A teacher comes in,” Johnson remembers.

“His name is Jody Cwik. Tough guy. He says, ‘Hey, you can’t be in here.’ I kind of pause, look over my shoulder [and say], ‘Okay, I’ll leave when I’m done.’

And I continue to wash my hands. He looked at me, didn’t say a word, but he was fuming.” He did state that he felt terrible about his behavior after and returned to apologize.

He Caused A Brawl in College

It seemed like Dwayne Johnson was causing all sorts of trouble from the time he was young, well into his college career. It’s kind of sad actually that he couldn’t get a handle on himself much earlier. As we said, The Rock often went too far in his career and people got hurt.

But before Dwayne Johnson was The Rock, he was “Dewey” in college when he was part of the Miami Hurricanes.

He didn’t play for the team for very long at the time because he ended up getting hurt. But before he went on to be The Rock, he caused a brawl between the Miami Hurricanes and San Diego Aztecs. We’re not sure what he did to cause the brawl but judging by how he handled his wrestling career we wouldn’t be surprised by anything.

He Lied To The WWE

Next came his wrestling career and when he went in for tryouts, he had never done any wrestling before in his life. They had invited him in thinking that he had experience and he didn’t. He didn’t want to give them the opportunity to turn him away. “For me, I wasn’t just having ‘a tryout match,' because I had never actually had a real match in my life. Ever,” Johnson remembered.

“WWE thought that I already had multiple matches under my belt, but little did they know. What they also didn’t know was that I was broke and didn’t actually own wrestling gear — no boots, knee pads or most importantly, wrestling trunks.

I went to Sports Authority and bought some bright ass white volleyball knee pads, called my uncle and asked if he had any trunks I could use for my tryout.”

John Cena Calls Him Out For Abandoning WWE

You can pretty much assume that anything that goes on in the WWE is scripted. But when it came to the feud between The Rock and John Cena, there was a lot of truth to it. The Rock had been scheduled to fight John Cena in WrestleMania 29, but didn’t show up. John Cena accused him in real life of abandoning WWE to go out and have a Hollywood career in acting. Whether that was true or not we can’t really blame The Rock for doing so. He’s built quite the life for himself because of that Hollywood career. “John had said some things in an interview that I took exception to,” The Rock said in an interview. “He felt they were okay, I felt that they weren’t okay.”

The Rock Tricked Vicki Guerrero

The Rock did a lot of questionable things during his wrestling career and some of the things were mean, while others were just plain awful. The Rock used one of his questionable acts when he serenaded to Vicki Guerrero in the WWE.

He looked like he was singing to the girl and trying to make her blush, but it was just his way of getting her to the ring so that he could call her out. Actually, this sort of maneuver might make him perfect for political life.

It was a practical joke that proved he was a douche and nothing more. He sure loved his elaborate pranks. Guerrero was tricked and when she thought he was being sweet, she was surprised with the proverbial can of worms instead.

He Was Too Busy to Show Up For WWE

Often, during WWE we will see the wrestlers appear via satellite and what that means is that they are off busy doing something else and can’t be right there to call out their opponents. One complaint that John Cena had about The Rock was it seemed he was always being announced as “Finally, The Rock has come back” via satellite. It was part of the problem that Cena had with The Rock. He felt The Rock had abandoned WWE for Hollywood and this was further proof of it. It always seemed like The Rock was too busy to do a job that he was supposed to be doing because he was off in La La Land. He did it so often that it really just made it look like he was too busy even to want to show up for the WWE.

The Dark Cloud Of Rock’s Career With WWE

It's pretty well known that The Rock did a lot of shifty things in his WWE career, whether that will affect his future in politics is hard to say. In 2013, although CM Punk had just come back from surgery, he was pushed into a TLC match with Ryback. The Rock was suddenly making himself available to the WWE and Vince had more interest in that and wanted the CM Punk match out of the way. CM Punk had a lot of accomplishments with the WWE and had held the title for 434 days.

Regardless of that, Vince wanted The Rock in action and told CM Punk to drop the title to him at the Royal Rumble.

CM Punk eventually left the WWE and The Rock looked as shady as ever, although the Rock would never admit that he did anything wrong.

Sources: ew.com, washingtonpost.com