Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson isn’t afraid to share awkward pictures and memories from his pre-beloved megastar days. We’ve seen his teenage porn ‘stache, his turtleneck and chain (and fanny pack) and more, but now he’s taking a look at his WWE TV debut. No, not his match at Survivor Series 1996… his actual TV debut.
In an Instagram post, The Rock talked about his informal WWE debut as a kid in the crowd in 1983, and how a bad case of the chicken pox turned what should’ve been a happy moment into a nightmare.
My nightmare aka my very first TV “appearance” when I was 11yrs old. At a WWE TV taping in Allentown, PA. Since my dad was always on the road wrestling, any father/son time we got in was great, so I was super pumped to travel with him. It was backstage that I’d meet a man who years later we’d enjoy tremendous success together and he’d become one of my strongest mentors in business – Vince McMahon. I’ll never forget he shook my hand, looked down at me and said “We gotta get you on camera tonight young man!”. I thought, “WHOA I’m gonna be on TV… can’t wait to tell my friends… AWESOME!”. So I’m sitting there in the crowd, the camera man comes over and tells me he’s getting ready to shoot so be ready.. It was in that defining moment that I just realized something awful… I was just getting over a bad case of Chicken Pox (you can clearly see a few “post pox” on my face) and I thought “Holy sh*t this is terrible! The world will see me for the first time and I look like someone set fire to my face and stomped it out with cleats”. Looking back at this gem of a picture, there’s two things I’ve learned: Things are never as bad as they seem (especially at 11yrs old) and instead of worrying about my Chicken Pox I should’ve been concerned with the world questioning whether I was a boy or a girl. Which, for the record happened all the time to me when I was a kid.
Rock added the following hashtags: #PrePubertyWasABitch, #StopWorryingSweatheart, #GetYourLittleAssInTheGym and #TBT, along with this picture of his “little ass:”
He’s right about not worrying so much about your problems. It doesn’t matter if you’re an awkward 11-year-old with identity problems and chicken pox, things aren’t as bad as they seem, and eventually you’ll turn into the most popular wrestler of all-time and the biggest box office draw in Hollywood. (Results may vary.)
