With Brock Lesnar and CM Punk both officially on the upcoming UFC fight calendar for the second half of 2016, it’s interesting to speculate what the reaction would have been to the following third well-known WWE Superstar who apparently considered …
With Brock Lesnar and CM Punk both officially on the upcoming UFC fight calendar for the second half of 2016, it’s interesting to speculate what the reaction would have been to the following third well-known WWE Superstar who apparently considered making the transition as well.
Former WWE Superstar and Hollywood A-lister Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson appeared on the second episode of the new “UFC Unfiltered” podcast with Jim Norton and Matt Serra and spoke about the time he contemplated making a move towards the Octagon.
“There was a time there where I thought, man, I achieved everything I wanted to achieve in WWE, my movie career is floundering a little bit, what do I do?” Johnson said. “I was relatively still young, I think I was 34. I thought, oh well maybe UFC. Maybe I should do something like that.”
As The Rock explained, the idea of a move to the UFC never got far past the mulling-over point.
“In my head, I felt like it was at least a two-year process for me to even get in the [cage], let alone the UFC,” Johnson said. “I wasn’t quite too sure what to do or what kind of people to put around me at the time, so the idea kind of fizzled out and I continued to stay on the path of movie making.”
Johnson, who also spoke about his former WWE colleague Brock Lesnar returning to fight Mark Hunt at the upcoming landmark UFC 200 event, concluded.
“Still a big fan and love the sport,” Johnson said. “But at one time, I did consider it.”
Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson currently stars alongside Kevin Hart in the film “Central Intelligence,” which is in theaters now.
Episode two of the new “UFC Unfiltered” podcast, which features The Rock and CM Punk, is available now at UFC.com.
Dwayne Johnson, known to WWE fans by his ring name The Rock, is a very busy man. That said, he managed to carve out some time in his schedule to call out UFC heavyweight champ Fabricio Werdum…to a nice lunch.
Check out his Sunday post on Twitter (via…
Dwayne Johnson, known to WWE fans by his ring name The Rock, is a very busy man. That said, he managed to carve out some time in his schedule to call out UFC heavyweight champ Fabricio Werdum…to a nice lunch.
Check out his Sunday post on Twitter (via UFC’s Twitter account):
“Heavyweight champion Fabricio, the Rock is coming to take you. I’m coming to take you right to lunch, because I like where my face is at. Congratulations, champ,” he said before thanking UFC President Dana White and UFC fans for their support of his upcoming television series Ballers.
Werdum, of course, captured the UFC heavyweight title last week at UFC 188 by beating the seemingly unstoppable (but oft-injured) Cain Velasquez. Werdum became a household name for MMA fans by beating FedorEmelianenko in 2010 in the now-defunct Strikeforce promotion. Long regarded as a Brazilian jiu-jitsu specialist, he built up a strong arsenal of strikes and used them to batter Velasquez before finishing him with a third-round guillotine choke.
Johnson is best known for his run in the WWE (WWF at the time), where he had legendary rivalries with the likes of Stone Cold Steve Austin and Triple H. He has made sporadic appearances ever since and has amassed a huge number of accolades, including eight world heavyweight titles, five tag team titles, two intercontinental titles and a win in the 2000 Royal Rumble match.
Johnson is a familiar face for UFC fans, regardless of whether they are into professional wrestling, and can be regularly spotted at UFC events and discussing fights on social media. Even when he is shooting films, he attracts fighters such as Gina Carano and Ronda Rousey (the latter starring alongside him in the two most recent installments of The Fast and the Furious). He also does great work staying abreast of UFC goings-on and associating himself with top names in the promotion.
Here’s hoping Werdum has the opportunity to take him up on the offer.
You can count professional wrester-turned-A-list actor Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson among fans of the UFC’s breakout featherweight star, Conor McGregor. Speaking with Ireland’s Entertainment.ie during his media rounds for the film San Andreas, Johnso…
You can count professional wrester-turned-A-list actor Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson among fans of the UFC’s breakout featherweight star, Conor McGregor. Speaking with Ireland’s Entertainment.ie during his media rounds for the film San Andreas, Johnson said he saw a bit of himself in the trash-talking striker.
“I love that guy,” he said. “I love Aldo too…In Aldo, there’s a quiet confidence and in Conor the confidence is not quiet and it reminds me of how I was in the WWE. I was just bold, talking [expletive] and there was nothing I wouldn’t say.”
A year ago, McGregor became one of the UFC’s top stars when he was penned to headline a card in his hometown of Dublin, Ireland opposite Cole Miller (who was later replaced by Diego Brandao). The event’s success instantly had fans around the world buzzing over the Dublin-born fighter and he was quickly anointed as one of the most exciting potential opponents for Aldo, the long-reigning featherweight champion.
Aldo is undefeated since 2005 and has had little difficulty in maintaining that streak. He captured the WEC featherweight belt in 2009 (which would become the undisputed UFC featherweight title in 2010) and has defended his crown nine times, most recently from Chad Mendes at UFC 179.
Johnson, of course, is best known by sports fans for his career in the WWE where he won the WWE World Heavyweight Championship eight times and had history-making rivalries with Steve Austin and Triple H. He has been a fairly regular sight for MMA fans, however, as he appears at events, discusses the fights on social media and occasionally stars in movies alongside women’s MMA pioneers.
McGregor is, of course, poised to face Aldo in July at UFC 189 and Johnson is excited for the fight. “I think the fight is going to be incredible,” he said. “At times I think I have seen, we’ve all seen that by the way, Conor getting under Aldo’s skin, it becomes an edge.”
Aldo vs. McGregor is one of the biggest rivalries in recent UFC history, and has shined a new light on the featherweight division that wasn’t there 18 months ago. The fight will headline the UFC’s International Fight Week 2015 card alongside the welterweight title bout between Robbie Lawler and Rory MacDonald.
Do you smell what Ronda Rousey is cooking?
Hollywood casting directors have certainly picked up the scent, and they obviously can’t get enough of the UFC women’s bantamweight champ.
She’ll appear alongside a slew of legendary action-m…
Do you smell what Ronda Rousey is cooking?
Hollywood casting directors have certainly picked up the scent, and they obviously can’t get enough of the UFC women’s bantamweight champ.
She’ll appear alongside a slew of legendary action-movie icons like Sylvester Stallone, Jet Li, Jason Statham and Wesley Snipes in The Expendables 3 on Aug. 15. She just wrapped up filming roles in next year’s Fast & Furious 7 and Entourage movies. Warner Bros. is also working to acquire the rights to The Athena Project and cast Rousey in a leading role that could potentially spawn sequels.
Hollywood is in dire need of a bona fide female action star, and Rousey is completely confident she fits the bill. When speaking with The Hollywood Reporter, she said she hopes to be a mix between The Rock and MillaJovovich:
I never thought that being an action movie star was in the cards for me. My agent, [WME’s] Brad Slater, kept telling me, ‘You’re going to be the female Rock.’ Then I started to believe it could be a reality. I don’t half-ass anything. If I’m going to do something, I’m going to do it to be the best in the world at it. A lot of actresses appear in action movies, but there aren’t any female action stars. I love Angelina Jolie, but … it’s about believability for me. MillaJovovich is one of my favorite actresses — The Fifth Element really opened my eyes, and the Resident Evil franchise was amazing. So definitely a mix of MillaJovovich and The Rock is what I’m going for. People love chick fights. They love tough, empowered women. And there is a demand. People just don’t know it.
Along with appearing in multiple Hollywood roles, Rousey continues to devote a large chunk of her time to training and defending her UFC title.
Her walk to the cage took longer than her last two fights did combined. Georges St-Pierre was in the cage longer against Johny Hendricks than Rousey has been in her entire professional career. Just let those stats sink in for a moment. On Wednesday night, she was awarded an ESPY for Best Female Athlete.
Rousey’s continued success on the mainstream stage bolsters UFC President Dana White’s claim that she is the biggest star the UFC has ever had. No other qualifiers were offered from White when making that statement at a media luncheon, according to MMAWeekly.
To think, Rousey was just an unknown contender vying for a shot at Miesha Tate’s Strikeforce title a little over two years ago.
In as little time, she has completely revamped the way the world views women’s MMA, and she could one day do the same for modern-day action films.
JordyMcElroy is a featured columnist for Bleacher Report. He is also the MMA writer for Rocktagon.
At least wrestling allows us to tune in and out, without the pressure of having to watch every single event. The reason we love pro wrestling so much is because, like David Wooderson says about high school girls in Dazed & Confused, we get older and they stay the same age.
If anything, pro wrestling has become more mature than its fanbase, despite the WWE’s PG-rating. One thing we have to deal with less are the bad costumes — painted-on gimmicks that were never going to work, no matter how hard they were forced down our throats.
Here are 15 of the most senseless and detestable costumes inflicted upon some good wrestlers, and some really bad ones.
15. The Goon
Guys like Tie Domi and Bob Probert were NHL sluggers in the mid-1990s, so maybe that explains The Goon’s odd inclusion into the world of pro wrestling. It would have been cool if this guy came to the ring in actual skates, instead of those platform boots that are mostly favored by goth teenagers and drag queens these days.
14. Rocky Maivia
(Nothing says “tough guy” like fake muscles and a landing strip.)
At least wrestling allows us to tune in and out, without the pressure of having to watch every single event. The reason we love pro wrestling so much is because, like David Wooderson says about high school girls in Dazed & Confused, we get older and they stay the same age.
If anything, pro wrestling has become more mature than its fanbase, despite the WWE’s PG-rating. One thing we have to deal with less are the bad costumes — painted-on gimmicks that were never going to work, no matter how hard they were forced down our throats.
Here are 15 of the most senseless and detestable costumes inflicted upon some good wrestlers, and some really bad ones.
15. The Goon
Guys like Tie Domi and Bob Probert were NHL sluggers in the mid-1990s, so maybe that explains The Goon’s odd inclusion into the world of pro wrestling. It would have been cool if this guy came to the ring in actual skates, instead of those platform boots that are mostly favored by goth teenagers and drag queens these days.
14. Rocky Maivia
He’s one of the most popular wrestlers to ever live and he could be the greatest of all-time, but unfortunately, Dwayne Johnson’s pre-Rock costume screams “lead role in a porn spoof of Braveheart.” Seriously, what in the name of Christ were the wardrobe specialists trying to do here? No wonder fans wanted him to die. Although when it’s all said and done, the joke’s on us for not making $44 million a year to star in a profusion of C-list movies.
The most frustrating thing about Phantasio was that his build could have led to something further down the road. I’m not sure he was a good wrestler, because I can’t really remember and the last thing I want to do is give him three minutes more of my time on YouTube, but had they ditched the Phantom of The Opera shtick, this guy could have, well, been someone else. He’s just so creepy, like someone who strangely appears at the end of your wet dream for absolutely no reason.
11. Shark Boy
When TNA wasn’t worse than a Friends spinoff, they were pretty fun to watch. One of their wrestlers, Shark Boy, had commenced his gimmick in the later stages of WCW (what better place to start) and thrived under the Tennessee-based company. He was more or less a really skinny dude who wore a shark mask and spandex that looked as if he was trying to be a shark. Never has a wrestler gone so far with a child’s dollar-store Halloween costume.
Dwayne Johnson, known to 
