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The Rock Reveals Vince McMahon Asked Him To Learn Business Before Demanding Double Pay Than Stone Cold Steve Austin
The Rock has given an explosive revelation by saying that Vince McMahon asked him to learn the business side of wrestling when before demanding higher pay than Stone Cold Steve Austin.
Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson’s life story since 1995, when he left football to get into wrestling, is no less than a dramatic tale. In 1995, he was cut off from the college football team and left with only USD 7 in his pockets.
At that time, he asked his father, Rocky Maivia, to train him in wrestling. However, his veteran WWE superstar father advised him against getting into this business. But The Rock persisted. In 1996, he made his WWE debut as Rocky Maivia on the Survivor Series.
By 1997, Rocky Maivia became The Rock; the rest is history. He was soon the WWE's hottest face and became one of Vince McMahon's most significant assets. However, another big star in WWE was Stone Cold Steve Austin.
So, when The Rock’s contract ended in 1999, he renegotiated a new deal with Vince McMahon and demanded that he get double the pay of his arch-rival, Stone Cold Steve Austin. Vince McMahon was surprised and laughed it off, asking The Great One to learn the business side of wrestling.
The Final Boss made this revelation recently while speaking to Patrick Bet David on his podcast. “I was coming up and my first contract with the WWE with Vince that I signed with him was a five-year contract for $150,000. 150 grand per year is great, [but] when you’re wrestling 250 dates a year, do the math, what you’re getting per match. It was an opportunity for me,” Inside the Ropes quoted The Rock.
He explained that he needed a bigger paycheck because he started when he had USD 7 in his pocket, and from there, he had written an incredible story. For that, he wanted to negotiate with Vince McMahon.
Rock revealed that McMahon even asked him if he wanted to hire an agent for his renegotiation deal, but he declined. He said that he wanted to deal directly with Vince McMahon.
“So he said, great, I love that. I respect it. He said, ‘What are you thinking?’ And I said, ‘Who’s the highest paid, if you don’t mind me asking, between us, who’s the highest paid on the roster?’ He said, ‘Stone Cold Steve Austin.’ I said, Okay. I said ‘If you don’t mind me asking, what’s his guarantee?’ He said ‘A million dollars.’ Okay, I want two,” he said. Vince McMahon started laughing and instead asked Rock to go away and learn the business side of things, and then they’d have another talk over the deal.
Vince even asked him how The Rock reached these figures, to which Johnson said that he respected Stone Cold Steve Austin but wanted more than what he earned because Rock believed that he deserved it.
The former WWE Chairman didn’t go hard on The Rock but instead gave him an option. He told Rock that he would put me with one of his company’s executives and wanted Johnson to take some months off, learn the business and economics of the wrestling industry, and then come back. They would then restart the renegotiation.
After just two weeks, the Rock did as asked and understood the maths, and was ready to accept the same paycheck as Stone Cold Steve Austin. “I went back to Vince, and I thanked him. I gave him a big hug. I said I understand now. I’d like to match it at a million dollars, what Steve is getting,” he recalled telling Vince McMahon.
However, Vince McMahon had a change of heart, and instead of offering the same price, he gave another half a million more to The Rock. “Okay, now that you’ve taken yourself through that, now you understand the business, you’re gonna make $15 million this year,” The Rock recollected Vince McMahon’s words.
He later said that getting that offer from Vince was crazy for him, and it came at a time when wrestling was at its boom. The Rock stayed with WWE until 2004 and then quit the company to pursue his Hollywood career full-time. He returned to WWE seven years later, in 2011.
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