When Young Rock made its debut in February 2021, fans of Dwayne Johnson’s career immediately started to wonder just how truthful the NBC sitcom was to the former wrestler’s real life. As Young Rock season 3 is about to explore even more of the actor's backstory, we did some digging to help set the record straight.
While Young Rock actually revolves around a fictional Johnson in 2032, where he is running for president, the show uses flashbacks to tell various stories from three hugely important parts of Johnson’s life. These are his time as a 10-year-old in Hawaii, a high school student in Pennsylvania and in college at the University Of Miami.
In an interview with USA Today ahead of the show’s release, Johnson insisted that "everything that people see in this first episode and throughout the season, everything happened." However, he was quick to then add the caveat of, "Now, what we do is, maybe it happened in a different year, maybe it happened in a different city."
So, which storylines from Young Rock are actually fact? And which are fiction?
Did The Rock know Andre The Giant?
Iconic wrestler and actor Andre the Giant played a key role throughout Young Rock's first two seasons, regularly passing down advice and being a father figure to the young Johnson. It’s certainly true that Johnson would see the Giant a lot in his youth in real life, too.
The Rock’s grandfather, the High Chief Peter Maivia, was best friends with Andre the Giant. He’d regularly visit Hawai’i, where Maivia ran a wrestling training center.
The Rock has posted plenty of pictures of him and Andre the Giant onto social media, all of which proves just how close the pair genuinely were.
Did The Rock play football?
Clearly, The Rock is a man of many talents. That’s why he was able to transition from being one of the most popular wrestlers of his generation to one of the most popular actors in the world in a heartbeat. As Young Rock shows, The Rock’s talents also extended to football.
Johnson was such a good defensive linesman for Freedom High School in Bethlehem Township, Penn., that he got a full athletic scholarship to the University of Miami. However, despite winning the 1991 national championship there, by the end of his time at college, Johnson had dropped down the pecking order. After graduation, he was only recruited by the Canadian football League’s Calgary Stampeders.
Two months into the 1995 season, he was cut, leaving him with just $7 in his pocket. That’s when he turned his attention to wrestling. The rest, as they say, is history.
Did a homeless man die in The Rock’s first car?
No, he did not. But a lot of the story is true.
In the very first episode of Young Rock, entitled "Working the Gimmick," we see Johnson buying a car for $103 from a very sketchy individual while working in a pizzeria. When he drives it away, though, a homeless man wakes up in the backseat.
Over the course of the episode, the homeless man buys The Rock and his friend alcohol, they have a fun night, only for him to suddenly die in the backseat. The Rock then abandons the car at a fast food restaurant, calls the police and leaves an anonymous message that he’s dead.
In real life, though, Johnson bought the car when he was 15 for $75 and drove it halfway down the road. That’s when the homeless person in the back woke up. According to an old interview dug up by CinemaBlend, Johnson kicked him out of the car and he never saw him again. Johnson then realized he didn’t have the "gas key" for the car, so he left it outside a Burger King.
Did Cyndi Lauper and Liberace attend Wrestlemania?
In Young Rock season 3, some of The Rock’s early brushes with celebrities are going to be shown. This includes legendary singer Cyndi Lauper, who after the success of her singles "Girls Just Want To Have Fun" and "Time After Time," found herself involved in the WWE.
While Lauper herself wasn’t a wrestler, on March 31, 1985, at Wrestlemania I, Lauper managed Wendi Richter, who defeated Leilani Kai to win the WWF Women’s Championship.
Another celebrity set to appear in Young Rock season 3 is Liberace. Like Lauper, Liberace appeared at Wrestlemania I.
Rather than getting in the ring, though, the legendary musician/actor was the guest timekeeper for the main event, which saw Hulk Hogan and Mr. T defeat Roddy Piper and Paul Orndorff.
During the promotion for Wrestlemania, Liberace even sat next to Muhammed Ali and Hulk Hogan and spoke about his late mother’s love of wrestling.
Will The Rock run for president?
Of course, one of the great unknowns regarding Young Rock is whether or not Dwayne Johnson will actually run for president in 2032. We still have to wait a few years to find out whether or not that’s fact or fiction.
There were reports in 2022 that quoted Johnson as saying that a presidential run was "off the table," but in an interview with CNN, while he said that a future political career is not his focus right now, it is something that he may still consider down the line.
Young Rock season 3 airs Friday nights at 8:30 pm ET/PT on NBC. All new episodes are available next day on-demand via Peacock.
