Claim: Dwayne Johnson was cut from a football team in 1995.

Dwayne Douglas Johnson -LRB- born May 2 , 1972 -RRB- , also known by his ring name , The Rock , is an American actor , producer , and professional wrestler . He holds both American and Canadian citizenships .   Born in California and raised in New Zealand and the U.S. states of Hawaii and Pennsylvania , Johnson was a college football player for the University of Miami , where he won a national championship on the 1991 Miami Hurricanes football team . He later played for the Calgary Stampeders in the Canadian Football League and was cut two months into the 1995 season . This led him to become a professional wrestler like his grandfather , Peter Maivia , and his father , Rocky Johnson , from whom he also inherited his Canadian citizenship .   Currently signed to WWE on a part-time contract , Johnson gained mainstream fame in the World Wrestling Federation -LRB- WWF , now WWE -RRB- from 1996 to 2004 as a major figure in the company 's Attitude Era , and was the first third-generation wrestler in the company 's history . He returned to wrestling part-time for WWE from 2011 to 2013 and continues to make sporadic non-wrestling appearances for the company . Johnson has 17 championship reigns in WWE , including 10 as a world champion , winning the WWF/WWE Championship eight times -LRB- seventh reign was as WWE Undisputed Champion -RRB- and the WCW/World Championship twice . He won the WWF Intercontinental Championship twice and the WWF Tag Team Championship five times . Johnson is the sixth Triple Crown Champion in WWE history and won the 2000 Royal Rumble . He is widely regarded as one of the greatest professional wrestlers of all time .   Johnson 's autobiography The Rock Says ... , co-written with Joe Layden , was published in 2000 . It debuted at No. 1 on The New York Times Best Seller list , spent 20 weeks on The New York Times bestseller list , and sold 720,000 copies in hardcover alone .   Johnson 's first leading film role was in The Scorpion King in 2002 . For this role , he was paid US$ 5.5 million , a world record for an actor in his first starring role . He has since appeared in various films , and become known for his ability to reinvigorate film franchises . One of his more prominent roles is Luke Hobbs in The Fast and the Furious franchise ; its most recent film , The Fate of the Furious , was released in 2017 and has grossed over $ 1.1 billion worldwide , making it the second highest-grossing film of 2017 and the twelfth highest-grossing film of all time . He hosted and produced The Hero , a reality competition series ; and has since continued to produce TV series and films through his production company Seven Bucks Productions , each of which he also stars in . Forbes listed Johnson No. 25 in the Top 100 Most Powerful Celebrities in 2013 . He was the world 's highest-paid actor of 2016 . Time named him one of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2016 .  In 2015 , Muscle & Fitness named Johnson their `` Man of the Century '' .