The Rock Comments After Rare Early Career Footage Emerges

Written by Craig Ballantyne • Published 8th October 2023
The Rock on WWE SmackDown

The Rock has commented on “incredible” footage of his second-ever match.

In 1996, long before he rose to become an entertainment megastar, Dwayne Johnson was just starting out in pro wrestling and using his real name. In March of that year, he had his first-ever match when he defeated the Brooklyn Brawler on an episode of the then-WWF TV show Superstars.

The following night, he had a much less well known bout when he took on Skip of The Bodydonnas – better known to many as Chris Candido. This time, the future Rock was defeated and wouldn’t be seen in the WWF again for several months.

A social media user recently posted about the match and included a screenshot of the bout. The Great One himself saw the post and commented on how incredible it was that fans could see such inside footage. He also paid respect to Candido, who sadly passed away in 2005.

“Incredible you’re able to see this inside footage. Wow
This was my second match ever.
24hrs earlier I had my first match ever in Corpus Christi
God Bless Chris Candido”

Following his defeat, Johnson went on to get more experience by wrestling in the USWA where he was known as Flex Cavana and worked with the likes of Jerry Lawler, Bart Sawyer, and The Moondogs.

He made his return to WWE at that year’s Survivor Series as Rocky Maivia, teaming with Jake Roberts, Marc Mero, and Barry Windham to defeat Crush, Goldust, Jerry Lawler, and Triple H.

When was The Rock last on WWE TV?

The Rock last made an appearance on WWE TV at the September 15th edition of SmackDown. There, the People’s Champion came to the aid of Pat McAfee in confronting Austin Theory.

Johnson made short work of Theory before landing a People’s Elbow, McAfee then followed up with his own version of the move to add an exclamation point.