For this week’s article, I was told to write about the biggest mentor in my life. I struggled for a long time to find someone worthy of putting in the paper until I remembered my childhood. I was constantly surrounded by a multitude of family and friends, which is why I have decided to pick Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson.
I bet you didn’t see that one coming.
When I was young, my dad and I watched wrestling all the time, and this was an era where some of the greatest wrestlers of all time emerged. You had people like Stone Cold Steve Austin, Kane, The Undertaker, The Big Show and the People’s Champion: The Rock.
I know what you’re saying to yourself. You’re saying, “Chuck, how can you possibly say that The Rock is your greatest mentor if you have never met him?” To this I would say the same thing that Dwayne Johnson would say in the ring, “IT DOESN’T MATTER WHAT YOU THINK!” Sure, I’ve never met the guy. But do I look at old clips of his wrestling days on YouTube and watch all of his movies? Yes. I do, and if you don’t…then shame on you.
The Rock would come out before a match and just roast everybody before he gave them “the people’s elbow.” In many ways, he taught me how to be a man. Before you beat someone, you should make them feel bad on an emotional level. Genius. He would also ask people to introduce themselves into the microphone, and before they could say their name he would grab the mic and yell, “IT DOESN’T MATTER WHAT YOUR NAME IS!” It was awesome.
To be real for a second, most wrestlers are roid-raging bags of insanity, but when I was a kid, they taught me how to have a spine. They dealt with their problems, not with diplomacy or compromise, but by utterly destroying them and everything they ever loved. It’s kind of beautiful if you think about it.
I’m not sure why I liked The Rock more than anybody else; it was probably because the guy was a winner. He won a national championship when he played for the Miami Hurricanes, he was the first third-generation wrestler the WWE ever had and he was a triple crown champion, holding the World Heavyweight Championship, the Tag Team Championship and the Intercontinental Championship. Basically, he was the GOAT.
I was amazed. I was like the kid in the Nintendo 64 YouTube video when he came out for a match. I was up in arms every time he was in a TLC match, which doesn’t stand for tender loving care. It stands for tables, ladders and chairs.
As he moved on to movies, I was a little disappointed because the first couple were piles of garbage, but eventually he became really good. At the time, people told him that he couldn’t act, and I will admit that even I was skeptical. But this year he was listed as the highest paid actor of 2016. Time named him one of the 100 most influential people in the world for this year, and a popular muscle magazine named him “Man of the Century.”
The Rock is the best teacher for perseverance. Everybody said that he couldn’t act, and now he’s making millions of dollars. So if someone tells you that you can’t do something similar, you should imitate The Dwayne by putting on some spandex, throwing on your Ray Bans, raising one eyebrow and yelling “IT DOESN’T MATTER WHAT YOU THINK!”
Basically, If you don’t like The Rock, I don’t like you.
– Chuck Farmer, Staff Writer
