The Rock has elaborated on his recent deals that have rocked the business world.
On January 23rd, TKO Holdings made the announcement that they would be adding 2 more spots on their board of directors, with one of those being The Rock. In addition to this, the Hollywood star, real name Dwayne Johnson, has gained the rights to the trademark of his WWE name, which had been previously owned by the company.
Speaking with CNBC, the former World Champion detailed what his wrestling name means to him and how it has catapulted him into the megastar that he is today:
“There’s the business side of that, as we know. There’s the economics and the Math side of that. But also, it goes much deeper than that. And this idea, the name of The Rock, for me, I owe that name everything. Without that name, there would be no wrestling career.
“There would be no Hollywood career. But also that name was a derivative of my dad Rocky Johnson who was one of the first Black tag-team champions in WWE. A trailblazer paved the way, a man of color. For a kid like me to be embraced in a bigger way when I came along [he was inspirational.]”
Johnson continued, crediting Ari Emanuel for taking a chance on him and how much being in control of his brand will be beneficial moving forward:
“I want to acknowledge Ari [Emanuel] and give him his flowers because at the end of the day, he had a million reasons to say no but he found the reason to say yes. And the reason why is because he understood, as he told me face to face ‘This is your name and it comes from your family and that’s important to me.’ So family is very important to us.
“The name ‘The Rock’, this is why it becomes invaluable. The street valuation of the name ‘The Rock’, it’s got some heft behind it. But more importantly than that, it’s something that I’ve earned, I built, and I owe so much to that wild lunatic called ‘The Rock’.
“And by the way, and I told him this last night. The greatest benefit of now completely owning the name ‘The Rock’ [with] no gimmicks, no BS, across the board, full ownership [is] the name ‘The Rock’ years ago, really allowed me to be me, and that’s very special. Thank you Ari.”
The Rock’s Insane Earnings Revealed
Following the announcement that The People’s Champion would be a part of the Board of Directors, official amendments detailed the financial bonus that Rock would be receiving for joining the company. Along with The Rock’s unbelievable bonus that he is set to receive, it was further detailed how much The Great One received in royalties over the past year and if he is still able to receive royalties now that he is in an executive position.
While this was a day to celebrate at the time, new events have placed a dark cloud on the company. Continuing the steps to erase Vince McMahon from the company, The Rock erased McMahon from the event.
H/t to SEScoops.