When it comes to new owners, XFL really couldn’t be in better hands. Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson is not a man who has ever done anything by halves in his life. Everything he has taken on, he has taken to the max, from sports to cinema, and from publishing to personality.
Johnson leads the consortium that has taken over XFL, and as you might expect, he has big ambitions for the franchise. XFL will return in the spring of 2022, giving fans the chance to watch games and enjoy some sports betting online before the NFL season starts. Ahead of this much-expected return, let’s take a look back at the incredible milestones in Johnson’s career.
College football champion
Dwayne Johnson is uniquely placed to support XFL, having almost become a successful pro-footballer himself. He won a full football scholarship to the University of Miami, winning a National Championship in 1991, but injuries worked against him getting much further in the sport.
He was not selected in the 1995 NFL draft and only lasted a couple of months in the Canadian league before he was let go. For many aspiring athletes, this would be the end of the line, but not for Dwayne Johnson.
Wrestling icon
The son and grandson of pro-wrestlers, Johnson returned to the ‘family business’ by joining the forerunner to the WWE, the WWF, in 1996. It took him just two years to win his first World Championship, and he went on to win nine more, along with a host of other titles.
By the end of his wrestling career, he was the most well-known wrestler in the world. Again, this would be more than enough for most people, but it was just the beginning.
Movie star
Johnson’s movie career began in 2001 and he was such a hit as The Scorpion King and in The Mummy Returns that he not only got his own spin-off movie in 2002 but was also paid the highest ever fee for a first starring role. This launched a career that spanned countless films across a wide range of genres, showing both talent and fearlessness in taking on new and challenging roles.
From action hero, in blockbusters like Rampage, Skyscraper, and San Andreas, to comedy star, in films like Jumanji and Central Intelligence, Johnson proved a huge draw. He even boosted what was already a huge movie franchise, joining the Fast and Furious team from Fast Five onwards, once again getting his own spin-off series with Hobbs and Shaw.
TV producer and best-selling author
Not content with big-screen success, Johnson has also conquered the small screen with the HBO show, Ballers, in which he was both the star producer of the show. With Johnson involved, naturally Ballers became a record-breaker, becoming the most popular comedy the channel had shown for many years.
Dwayne Johnson has even conquered the publishing world. Although his autobiography, The Rock Says, was written before his film star success, it was still a massive hit. It debuted at number one on the New York Times bestseller list, exactly as you would expect from the man who never settles for second place.
Money and influence
College football champion, world wrestling champion, and star of the big and small screen, Johnson has achieved more in multiple fields than most people would just one of them. And the superlatives just keep coming.
He was named as Forbes top-earning film star in the world in 2019, raking in $89.4million, and he repeated the feat in 2020, making another $87.5million. He has also been named one of the top 100 most influential people in the world by Time magazine, not once but twice, in 2016 and 2019.
If Dwayne Johnson can bring even a fraction of this hunger and ambition to the XFL, then who knows where he can take the league. One thing is for sure, he won’t be doing anything by halves.
