Young Rock Season 2 finally got to the start of Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson’s professional wrestling career during this week’s episode. Set in 1996 after leaving the Canadian Football League, the episode sees Johnson in his early twenties (played by Ole Latukevu) debating whether or not he wants to get into the family business. After refusing to return to the CFL, Johnson announced that he wanted to start wrestling much to the delight of his mother and grandmother. But his father, Rocky Johnson (Joseph Lee Anderson) initially refused to train him. He later clarifies that he doesn’t want his son to have to deal with the same problems he had at work, but that he eventually softens.
Then we see Rocky and Rock rehearse in a boxing ring, as “The People’s Champ” learns the importance of facing shocks and selling to all the fans in the crowd. After some arguing about “old school” vs. “new school” wrestling, Rock eventually called Pat Patterson and asked him to fly down and see if he had any talent. Patterson watches him work with his father and tells him to keep working. The episode then ends with Patterson calling Johnson’s house to tell Rock that the WWF wants to give him a test match in Corpus Christi, Texas. That match, to be played on March 10, 1996, would see Johnson defeat the Brooklyn Prowler. He then competed in another dark match before going to work at the USWA Jerry Lawler Show in Memphis throughout the summer of 1996.
In an interview with ComicBook before the start of Season 2, Executive Producer Brian Gewirtz talked about how the show will tackle the complex relationship between Rocky and Rock.
“It all starts with Dwayne himself and he wants to be honest about the situation and the truth is that Rocky wasn’t immediately into the idea of Dwayne going into show business, the wrestling business, for a variety of reasons. In the end, his mindset was, ‘Well, if I can’t stop you, I’m I’m sure no one else will be training you as the hell. We’ll do it together and we’ll do it my way. Yeah, it’s also clear that for the purposes of the TV show, this struggle in real life creates a lot of drama and creates stories and creates some hilarious situations as well. You’ll see. Joe [Lee] Anderson, who plays Rocky, is charming and lovable by nature. It’s not necessarily the easiest thing on paper for Rocky to be so combative and almost like an opponent, but we want to stay true to the real story.”
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