One prediction for the show Young Rock that’s set to come out sometime this fall is that it will either be seen as a masterful look at Dwayne Johnson before he actually became The Rock, or it will look like a popular action star trying to play up his origin in an attempt to amaze and create an even wider fan base in an attempt at self-aggrandizement. The hope of course is that it’s not seen as the latter, but rather the former since Johnson has had an impressive run towards his place at the top as of now. From his humble beginnings in the WWF, now the WWE, he had earn his way up and was even booed and reviled at one point since his performance in the WWF didn’t win him a lot of fans to start with. When he gained an edge and started going by the name of The Rock he started to notice a definite uptick to his popularity and was instantly inundated with more and more fans calling his name. But he did have a life before all that, and before he even stepped into the ring, as coming from a proud wrestling family he was also a college football player and had a lot of expectations heaped on his shoulders, as one could easily imagine.
At this point the show sounds as though it’s going to showcase him as a young man, perhaps older than the character in Young Sheldon did for Jim Parsons’ character, but it also sounds as though Johnson is going to star in the show as well, though in what role is anyone’s guess at this point. He could be narrating or he could be showing up as an older relative for all we know, but until it’s confirmed it’s better not to really say for certain. Plus, since there hasn’t been an actor named for the titular character yet it feels safe to say that things are still being taken at a slow to moderate pace. One thing that’s tough to figure is how Dwayne has time for all this since he has other projects that he’s been working on that could start up eventually and it’s likely that he’ll be bouncing from place to place for a while, working pretty constantly in order to stay on top and do what he can in order to get everything done. He’s been busy before, but with everything he has coming on his current schedule it does sound as though he might not be getting any rest any time soon.
If it’s wearing on Johnson though he hasn’t said or shown as much considering that he’s still going strong and doing his thing. To be realistic it does feel as though this kind of a show might have been kept tucked away until later in his career, perhaps when he was closer to actual retirement from public life, if that ever happens. But apparently the thought is to get his story out now and who the people how he came up through the business in order to remind them or show them how he became so great and the kind of drive he’s possessed for so long. After all this is a guy that kind of took the WWF by storm once he got his legs under him and became a true contender as well as the People’s Champion and the most electrifying man in sports entertainment. He’s been the heel and a face for the WWE in the past, and once he took off as an actor he had a few slips here and there, as The Scorpion King was a bit of a rockier road than he might have expected. Following this movie though he started making hits that were a lot easier to watch but didn’t always gain as much attention, such as Walking Tall, Faster, The Game Plan, and a few others. When he hit big with movies like Gridiron Gang and several others though it was obvious that he’d stepped his game up and had finally reached a point in his career when his acting in Hollywood had finally matched the intensity he’d brought to the ring. Since stepping away from the wrestling world he’s had to evolve just a bit, but before he even made his way into the ring Dwayne had to evolve just to prove that he could make it. Some people might think that nepotism is how second and third-generation wrestlers get their shot, but that’s not the case. There is a bit of nepotism in the WWE without a doubt, but while he did get the nod because of his heritage, he still had to win over the crowd just like anyone else. If you don’t do that in his business, then there’s no future, no matter who your family is.
With all due respect to Dwayne and his family, and many wrestlers the world over, he and the rest of the cast will have to do the same with Young Rock, they’ll have to win over the audience to make it work.
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