“Hollywood People Would Have No Idea”: Legendary WWE Manager Details Dwayne Johnson’s Humble Start and His Crucial Role in Young Rock

Dwayne Johnson is one of the most popular professional wrestlers of all time. After making his debut at Survivor Series as Rocky Maivia in 1996, he became one of the biggest names in pro wrestling as ‘The Rock’. But like most, ‘The Rock’ also had humble beginnings. A wrestling legend recently narrated how he helped ‘The Great One’ early in his career, including providing him a place to live.

The Rock began his wrestling career in 1996 when he joined United States Wrestling Association (USWA) in Memphis.

During this time, Harvey Whippleman, a pro wrestling manager in the 1990s, took a young Dwayne Johnson in and supported him during his time in Memphis.

Harvey Whippleman mentored Dwayne Johnson

Whippleman, also known as Downtown Bruno, talked about how he helped The Rock in his early days as a pro wrestler.

Speaking on ‘Cafe de Rene with Rene Dupree’, a YouTube show, he revealed that he provided the former WWE Champion with a place to live.

He said, “When Rocky was wrestling in Memphis that’s when I first met him..he came to wrestle as ‘Flex kavana’ in the old USWA here in Memphis..he lived with me in my place in Lakeview in Mississippi my hometown ….like I was living in a trailer in Lakeview and he lived with me.”

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Whippleman further talked about mentoring  The Rock during that time, saying, “I refereed almost all his matches and talked to him through the through the matches and help them you know calm down, don’t don’t sell or keep selling or whatever I would tell them and we would travel together we would we would talk all the way to and from the towns we had an agreement I would drive to the towns and he would drive back so I could drink beer.“

The iconic manager also revealed how Johnson didn’t forget his roots after success. The Rock brought him a brand new Ford F-150 for Christmas in 2020.

Whippleman is also a consultant on ‘Young Rock’

Whippleman said that The People’s Champion even got him on board for the ‘Young Rock’ show for his inputs.

He explained, “He’s got a great actor named Ryan Vincent who plays Downtown Bruno in ‘Young Rock’. And I’m heavily involved in that program too. I’m in the zoom meetings to explain to them about how Memphis wrestling was. And you know things that these Hollywood people would have no idea.. what a small or medium-sized territory was like. And right I’ve been instrumental in teaching Ryan how to sound like me and you know behave like me”.

The Rock looking out and seeking advice from the people who helped him all those years ago is appreciable. Gestures such as these truly make him ‘The Great One’.

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