The Rock reveals what Vince McMahon told him at the start of his WWE career

During an interview with Sports Illustrated, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson watched footage of himself from WWE WrestleMania 13 in 1997. Here is what Rock said about the start of his WWE career…

“This was very definitive for me. I was in the company not even a year—I was a rookie—and Vince McMahon told me very early, ‘You’re going to become the youngest Intercontinental Champion, but you have to smile all the time. When you go out, your music plays, you’ve got to smile. As you come back, you’ve got to smile.’ I remember telling him, ‘Man, that doesn’t feel real or authentic.’ And he goes, ‘Yeah, but I want to make sure people know that you’re grateful to be here.’ I thought, ‘God, I wonder if there’s another way—but he’s the boss.’ And you don’t know what you don’t know.

So what you’re seeing there at WrestleMania 13 is the culmination of months of being inauthentic, not being real, smiling. I mean, dude, I used to go out, my music would hit, and fans would be like, ‘You suck.’ And I’d have to smile.”