The Rock Says...

by The Rock, Joe Layden

The Rock says. . . "Know your damn role--and shut your mouth!" But that simple catch-phrase, embraced by the millions ñand the millions--of The Rock's fans, can't begin to capture the spirit and larger-than-life personality of the most electrifying man in sports-entertainment."

In this action-packed, revealing and outrageously funny memoir, World Wrestling Federation Superstar The Rock recounts his life in and out of the ring with unapologetic honesty and inimitable style. From his boyhood days traveling around the world with his father (professional wrestler Rocky Johnson) to his years as a football player at the University of Miami to his meteoric rise through the ranks of the Federation, The Rock Says... chronicles in vivid detail the life story of one of sports-entertainment's most innovative and best-loved personalities.

The Rock will take fans on a guided tour of big-time professional wrestling, a highly competitive business in which a handful of gifted and lucky performers dominate, and all others dream of a moment in the spotlight. He provides a breathtaking, minute-by-minute account of Wrestle Mania, the Super Bowl of pro wrestling, including an intimate backstage look at rehearsals with his opponent, Stone Cold Steve Austin. And he discusses in heartfelt detail the loss of his friend and co-worker, Owen Hart.

Filled with genuinely touching stories of love and strife, hilarious anecdotes, inside accounts of an industry whose machinations have long been shrouded in secrecy and dozens of previously unpublished photographs from The Rock's personal collection, The Rock Says... is--as The Rock himself might put it--"the coolest thing since the other side of the pillow if you smell what The Rock is cookin'."

Genres: Biography, Nonfiction, Sports, Autobiography, Memoir, Biography Memoir, Collections

281 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1999

Reviews

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

It doesn't matter what I think about this book!

[Asghar Abbas · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting look at behind the scenes of an often undermined industry and interestingly enough look behind the man himself.

What is amazing is that this book ghost written back in 1999, at the end of it the Rock said how he'd love to become a movie star , make a natural transition, and now here we are in 2016 and he is the highest paid actor in the world .

[Mischenko · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's a great read if you love The Rock. I wasn't excited about the way it was written, but it's still funny and interesting. I enjoyed learning about his family as well. Love, love, love The Rock and just look at where he is now. He did it! Awesome.

[Sophie Crane · Rating 5 out of 5]

I bought this book for a laugh, but it is actually really interesting. While it is old and hence a bit out of date, it provides some amazing insight into the The Rock's roots. It is easy to read and hard to put down once you get into it.

There are about 50 pages that are about certain legendary WWF matches and are written from the perspective of the "The Rock"'s ring persona. I did not care for these much, but I'm sure any Wrestling fan (I'm just a Rock fan) will enjoy them.

[Renata · Rating 3 out of 5]

this was honestly p entertaining, despite me knowing nothing about pro wrestling, but wow Dwayne J has GROWN since 2000. it is impossible to imagine Family Entertainer Dwayne Johnson talking about losing his virginity in such a sketchy fashion.

http://www.frowl.org/worstbestsellers...

[Pankaj · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some 15 years ago, I picked up this second hand book in a tiny 6 foot by 6 foot comic shop in a small town in Northern India. The kind of place that even has an option to rent out a book by depositing a security amount. The rent was 4 Rupees per day. I finished this one clean in one day and returned it the next morning. Ahhh...good memories!

[Rob S · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hilarious read.

[Mel Campbell · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have such fond memories of this book! Of course it's ghostwritten. My housemate Sandor had a copy and I read it half-jokingly but found it quite entertaining. This must have been when it first came out, because I only lived with Sandor until 2003. We used to joke about 'The People's Elbow' etc.

It seems so crazy how young The Rock looks on the front cover. His wrestling days seem so long ago now. But he still has a similar goofiness and a physical charisma. I think he's made good career choices. People have definitely smelled what The Rock was cooking.

I only dimly recall the book itself but for me, knowing very little about pro wrestling, it was an interesting insight into the posturing and the professionalism of 'sports-entertainment'.

[Heather Kelly · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ok so I'm still pregnant and up in the middle of the night as I read random books I find in my husband's collection. Since I read the Andre the Giant biography, I figured I should read about Dwayne Johnson as I am always claiming to be a fan of him (more as an actor and person since wrestling is not my thing). Still love Dwayne as entertainment of course, but this book was not near as fascinating as Andre's life. I love reading anyone's life story, but this was more of a sell and too much of a cheesy pat on the back. I still laughed at a few parts though and don't regret reading it.

[Luke Koran · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ah, yes, another one of the wrestling autobiographies that followed in the wake of Mick Foley's nationally-renowned book, "Have a Nice Day", which prompted WWE to "force" all of their top wrestlers in producing a biography of their own in order to make as much quick, easy money as possible. Most of them were surprisingly good (Ric Flair, Eric Bischoff, and Eddie Guerrero), while one man could hardly recall any of his wrestling career (Hulk Hogan). This book is definitely not on the same level as the first three, let alone Foley's. Not only was this book rushed into production in 1999, it covers the life and career of one of WWE's NEWEST superstars, "The Rock" Dwayne Johnson. Don't get me wrong, I thoroughly enjoyed hearing my childhood idol reveal how he grew up around the professional wrestling scene by tagging along with his father, Rocky Johnson, along with his college and professional football career. But the fact that these aspects take up the vast majority of these pages really spoke to me this: The Rock hadn't really done anything yet in the WWE. He hardly had anything to share about this new time in his life.

Furthermore, the way that he covered his brief time in the WWE mostly came through the use of his Rock persona, which is entertaining but does not reveal too much. The constant switching of his voices from Dwayne to The Rock is the biggest difference in why I enjoyed Kurt Angle's autobiography more. Even though Angle went the exact same route as this book, as he hadn't accomplished much in WWE at the time of publishing - so he compromised by talking aplenty regarding his upbringing and amateur wrestling career, Angle proved that he was a much better communicator (at least in the written word) than the Rock. Shocking, I know. But Angle proved that there is a path in writing a book that features a new superstar as long as one separates themselves from their WWE character and revealed as much as possible about their off-screen persona.

This autobiography still is worthy of being read (it's about the pre-WWE career of one of the greatest wrestlers, for Pete's sake!), though don't expect to learn anything about The Rock concerning his wrestling (and NONE of his acting) career. I hope life for Dwayne is slowing down soon so the world can finally get the chance to read his second book, which MUST adequately cover his two stints in the WWE (as well as his life in Hollywood, I suppose). And hopefully, this time it's ENTIRELY Dwayne speaking, not the voice of The Rock. Rocky, listen to the people. We want MORE!

[Samuel · Rating 5 out of 5]

CAN YOU SMELL WHAT THE ROCK IS COOKIN!?
IT'S ABOUT DRIVE
IT'S ABOUT POWER
WE STAY HUNGRY
WE DEVOUR
BLACK AND SAMOAN IN MY VEINS
MY CULTURE BANGIN WITH STRANGE
I CHANGE THE GAME
SO WHATS MY MOTHERFRICKEN NAME
(ROCK)
DESECRATION, DEFAMATION, IF YOU WANNA BRING IT TO THE MASSES
FACE TO FACE, IM ESCALATIN, WHEN I HAVE TO PUT BOOTS TO ASSES
MEAN ON YA, LIKE WHEN IM RUMBLIN YOU'RE GONNA SCREAM MAMA
I'LL BRING DRAMA TO KING BRAHMA
COMIN AT YOU WITH EXTREME MANA

Thank you brotha Tech9
Thank you Teramana
One take, Thats a rap
Face off

[Suleman Ali · Rating 1 out of 5]

The Rock, aka Dwayne Johnson, tells all (not that there is much to tell) in his biography from his wrestling days.

Having read both Chris Jericho's and Mick Foley's biographies, you can tell from the off that this one is definately NOT in the same class. Its not bad, but the Rock just didnt have the same climb to the top that the others had. It was somewhat straightforward with little of the look into the bizarre and depressing world of wrestling as fleshed out in the other biographies mentioned above.

If you're looking to read a wrestling biography, this should not be at the top of your list.

[Jack Fish · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was my second time reading this book, and as I recall, I came away from reading it the first time around unsure of how I felt about it. Having read through again, I have to say as a fan of The Rock as a wrestler and someone who respects Dwayne Johnson as an actor and a person, I felt someway disappointed by this autobiography.

Part of the problem is that the voice throughout is very much unlike the subject’s. Many “as told to” books often suffer from this disconnect, but this came off as egregiously inauthentic. I’m not trying to say Johnson is a liar; there are many instances of his openness about his depression, his experiences with racial discrimination, and controlling his anger. But there are also scenes that seem embellished, such as his run-in with a bully who evidently brought along thirty other teenagers to lay the Smackdown on a young Dwayne Johnson. Scenes like this feel straight out of a movie, and gave me some pause as to whether or not these more cinematic passages were crafted by a particularly imaginative ghostwriter.

The major problem with this book is the sections written in-character. As ridiculous as it sounds, there really are passages written from the perspective of The Rock, the onscreen persona, a including third-person perspective and numerous insults thrown towards his on-screen foes. This gets old as soon as you would think. By the second in-character chapter, I had already decided to skip the rest of these. It’s disappointing as a wrestling fan to see some major moments in The Rock’s career to be retold in a fashion straight out of an episode of Raw is War.

Admittedly, Johnson has an intriguing story and obvious embellishments aside, there are some engaging points in his pre-wrestling life that are well worth reading. Overall, I don’t know if I can really recommend this book; I bought it for about $3 at a collectibles store, and found it to be decent for the price. If you can get a copy under these circumstances, it may be a somewhat interesting read, if nothing else but to learn about how one of the most famous men in show business came to be a success. However, I will say it’s not going out of your way to read.

[J · Rating 3 out of 5]

Although I am not a wrestling fan this is a book that I chose to read on my own as I do like The Rock as an actor and thought that I could get a better insight into the man. My hope was that it wouldn't be as bad as the one I had just read by Mike Foley, which although not bad wasn't exactly the most interesting thing to read as it focused on how to make one angle then how to get it done even with Vince McMahon not assisting to keep the angle as you see it.

In this particular story Dwayne and his ghost writer takes the reader on what it took to turn from a 3rd gen wrestler's kid to becoming one of the more recognizable names in the wrestling business. As a result there is a bit of everything family life, failures, successes, challenges and the true grittiness of being a traveling performer trying to make a name as this all takes place before his Hollywood debut. As a result even for a non-wrestler I found it quite interesting, especially with the respect that he shows some of his fellow wrestlers.

There were parts of the book that did seem largely fictionalized or of legendary status but they don't take away from the story as much as one would think. The Rock just seems to use these parts to show much of a cocky jerk he was before transforming into the donkey with the attitude that his wresting persona is thus giving credence to the fact that The Rock is just an extension of who he was. But also in keeping with this portrayal the reader also has to deal with sections in which The Rock personally comes out to play with all of his potty language, his cockiness and take no prisoner attitude, which may be offensive to those who want a clean read.

At the same time there are plenty of pictures with the color inserts having captions while all the captions for the black-and-white pictures are in the back, which means constantly flipping if you want to know more. Otherwise all in all this will make for an interesting read, especially for WWE fans who like The Rock as he is.

[Little Sheepling · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is quite a bit different from some Wrestling biographies/autobiographies, since for some of it, The Rock basically talks as his character, and it becomes one long promo, and the other half he talks as normal (as Dwayne).

It's still and interesting read (especially if you're a fan), but still feels like a lot of stuff is missing - his childhood is barely covered for example, and reasons why he took such liberties with Mick Foley at Royal Rumble '99 aren't discussed because... well that's just another promo in here, which is a shame because I wanted to know about his take on this event, and many other things.

Found his stories of his Football career very interesting, especially since I know so little about it, and how tough it can be to make it in the big leagues, and also his love conquests? especially his first relationship? ... really was a different time it seems? plus his reflections on Owen Hart were really touching, it felt so genuine, which isn't always the case when it comes to this awful tragedy.

Some things that annoyed me were the pictures. There were so many that broke up the flow of the conversation, plus some just weren't very nice looking and badly printed, just felt like they were there to take up space.

Not the most complete Rock (The) book, as it only reaches early 1999, and not the most complete book for all the dirt/stories etc, but okay for what it is.

[Abigail · Rating 3 out of 5]

Wrestling wasn't in my family culture growing up, though I did have friends who watched and knew some things about The Rock because they became cultural. I do however like Dwayne Johnson as an actor and my husband, who did grow up with wrestling as part of his family culture, has talked to me about how it works. As some one who grew up in a family that appreciated art and theater, I appreciate the performance and story aspects of professional wrestling. Having said all that, reading more about the rise of The Rock and about professional wrestling was interesting.

Dwayne Johnson is first and foremost an entertainer and I think that's what makes him a good actor as well. It was interesting to learn about his background and a little terrifying to hear about his anger issues. I would like to see an updated version of this book that talks about his exit from wrestling and his jump to acting. 

The main thing I wasn't the biggest fan of was how once it got to the point of his life where he became The Rock the chapters olwere essentially play by play recaps of matches. While I can appreciate getting background on his rivalry with Steve Austin, I was much more interested on the backstage parts that came up in this third of the book. Would have liked to see more of that.

[Whimsy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I grew up watching WWE when it was still known as the WWF. I still consider it the glory days of wrestling. The bullshit "talent" they've got now - aside from the wrestlers from the WWF days - are all a bunch of boring pissants with abs. It's cringey to watch.

Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson was one of those wrestlers I grew up watching. I was supposed to be asleep on the lounge (about five to seven people - depending on the time period - were crammed into a two bedroom house, so my cousin and I usually slept on the lounges) but when the WWF came on I watched with my cousin and I would never be able to sleep until it was over. I had to watch what was coming next!

I enjoyed reading this book because it chronicles Dwayne Johnson's road to becoming The Rock on the WWF. His struggles - particularly looking like an adult when he was 13 and getting the crap beaten out of him by a few seventeen-year-olds - and his budding career as a football player were all interesting aspects of his life. This book was written in 1999. It's interesting to see how his life has changed in the twenty years since.

For anyone that's a fan of Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, I highly recommend this book!

[Akhlaq · Rating 3 out of 5]

For the price I paid for this book (which was not very much) it was fully worth the read. I'd heard Rock had written an autobiography that was a New York Times best seller and believed this book was cartoonish similar to the arena that is professional wrestling. However, I was left pleasantly surprised by elements of Rock's childhood and specifically how his father came to his aid when he was viciously beaten up at high school and visualising what a scene it was. I was familiar with his life story via interviews he's done but this book adds additional information on how he met his first wife (now ex-wife) and his college football career. Despite it being a book pushed by WWE, Rock does give behind the scenes insight into the wrestling world without being explicit about it - such as his trials for the company, working out the matches, scripting etc. None more so descriptive was his battles with Stone Cold Steve Austin. All in all, it's a fun read and I hope Dwayne Johnson's second book, that is reportedly in the pipeline, will be another informative, entertaining read from the self-proclaimed People's Champion

[Rey Quraishi · Rating 3 out of 5]

As a long-time fan of The Rock, I was excited to read his autobiography and get a behind-the-scenes look at his rise from football hopeful to wrestling superstardom. There’s definitely some fun in hearing his early stories, his time in the WWE, and the way he carved out his larger-than-life persona. You can feel the charisma and energy that made him such a standout in the ring.

That said, the book feels a bit surface-level at times. It moves quickly through major parts of his life without going too deep, and a lot of the tone leans more toward entertainment than introspection. There’s humour and bravado, but not much emotional depth or vulnerability. It feels very much like a product of its time—more promotional than personal.

Still, for fans of The Rock or wrestling history in general, it’s a fun and easy read. Just don’t go in expecting a lot of soul-searching or literary polish. It’s a solid glimpse into the early days of a superstar, but it leaves you wanting a bit more substance.

[Nick Jones · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was actually a surprisingly good book right up until the middle point where Dwayne Johnson - who had been telling his actual life story like a normal human - adopted the character of The Rock in the WWF; at that point, somebody decided that the best thing to do would be to have a huge remaining chunk of the book be in-character as The Rock, which was incredibly obnoxious and conveyed no actual information. Occasional portions are still out-of-character, which is jarring when in-character The Rock is talking about "the piece of Texas trailer-park trash" "Stone Cold" Steve Austin treating him like "some roody-poo standing on the corner of Know Your Role Boulevard and Jabroni Drive" and then a couple of pages later out-of-character Dwayne Johnson is recalling the night that Owen Hart died.

[Soho_Black · Rating 2 out of 5]

Dwayne Johnson. Also known as “The Rock”. At present, he’s one of Hollywood’s hardest working film stars, with multiple credits to his name every year.

If this is all you know The Rock for, this isn’t going to be the book for you. It doesn’t touch on his acting career at all, being written before that ever got started. It’s the story of his life up until late June 1999, when he was not an actor in the traditional sense, but a star of the world of sports-entertainment. A star of professional wrestling.

The Rock is not shy about his short-comings in his younger years. Growing up as the son, and indeed the grandson, of a professional wrestler, he was picked on as a child and frequently got into fights. Having a short fuse, he was often causing trouble as well.

The Rock follows his life from school, to college in Miami and his attempts to become a professional American Football player. He says a lot about his family and about Dany, the woman he met at college who was to become his wife. Strangely, though, he says little about his early days as a wrestler, when things weren’t going so well, skipping straight onto when he was in the WWE and his rapid rise to stardom there.

The Rock had a tough act to follow here. At the time of publication, the only other current WWE star to have had their biography published was Mankind. His “Have a Nice Day” was one of the better biographies I’ve ever read, filled with warmth and anecdotes of his life inside and outside the ring. It was also a much bigger book than The Rock’s, reflecting the vast difference in age and experience between them.

The Rock’s biography makes an interesting contrast to Mankind’s, in that the focus is in a completely different place. Admittedly, all of Mankind’s life was wrestling, and his book reflected that. But The Rock’s career, at the point the book was written, was twenty years shorter than Mankind’s, so there has to be a lot about his life to cater for there being less wrestling to talk about. For the non-wrestling fan, this is likely to make it a lot more interesting. For the wrestling fan who is only reading the book to read about “The Rock” and not about Dwayne Johnson, it’s likely to come as something of a disappointment.

However, about half way through the book, when The Rock starts to make it within the world of sports-entertainment, the focus and the style of writing change completely. It’s almost as if there’s a cut off point where the ghost writer, Joe Layden, steps back and lets The Rock take over. Virtually the whole story from this point onwards is written as a wrestling promo. There’s a distinct cut off where the story of Dwayne Johnson ends and the story of The Rock begins, As The Rock doesn’t, or didn’t at the time, exist anywhere but in the world of sports-entertainment, this means it gets pretty boring and pretty samey very quickly.

If you’re not a wrestling fan, you’ll not be able to follow what’s going on. The character of The Rock is pretty arrogant and always speaks in the third person, which makes it pretty difficult to read and him a difficult person to like. As Dwayne Johnson, his love for his family is obvious, but as The Rock, there is no emotion conveyed at all. If you’re a late 1990s era wrestling fan, you’re likely to know exactly what The Rock is like and love it. Otherwise, the novelty wears off pretty quickly.

The other major problem with “The Rock Says…” is in the pictures. Not the big, glossy colour pictures that seem to decorate the middle of virtually every biographical work, but the black and white pictures that decorate the starts of chapters and are added throughout the text. Some of these are simply handwritten slogans of The Rock’s, which again seems pretty pointless for the non-wrestling fan that may have picked up this book. But many of the actual pictures are greatly stylised, with lumps taken out of them or cut off. This draws the eye away from the main body of the picture to the edges, as well as meaning that parts of the picture are cut off, giving them less impact that they could have done.

Unlike Mankind’s book, which had a wider appeal, this is really one written purely for the wrestling fan. If you’re not into wrestling and you’re not into The Rock, this really isn’t something that will hold your attention for very long. If you’ve come across Dwayne Johnson as an actor and wondered what he did before, this will answer that question, but you may find yourself not actually caring very much by the end.

This is a dreadful shame, as the early parts of the book show Dwayne Johnson as being quite a likeable person, as a man of great honour who loves his family. The Rock, however, is less likeable and the whole point of the book seems to be to present The Rock as a bad guy, which is another wrestling technique and yet another reason why the appeal of this book is so limited.

That's also true because it’s now horribly out of date thanks to being five years old and thanks to the subject having had a complete change of career since it was written. It is possible that The Rock may move on to become a bigger star in the world of film than he was in the world of wrestling, although one would suspect that would have happened by now if it was going to. If you become a fan of his there, your best hope is that someone will write another biography of him in about ten years time and that it will focus on Dwayne Johnson the man, rather than “The Rock”, professional wrestler. That may well be worth reading. But this, unless you’re WWE’s biggest fan, simply isn’t.

This review may also appear under my name at any or all of www.ciao.co.uk, www.thebookbag.co.uk, www.goodreads.com, www.amazon.co.uk and www.dooyoo.co.uk

[ReadinRasslin · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best wrestling autobiographies in my collection thus far. Covers Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson's life and career up to 2000 and creatively blends accounts from both Dwayne and The Rock gimmick, writing passages in character. Johnson's writing style is personable and real, and feels like a genuine retelling of his life. A lot of great photos and visuals splashed on the pages here too. Would love to see a more updated Rock autobiography, there's definitely a lot more ground to cover. Definitely recommend this one.

[JG Books · Rating 3 out of 5]

Here is a book about the Rock. Overal the book was okay, no where near as good as Mick Foley’s “Have a Nice Day”. I enjoyed the first half of the book the most where The Rock talks about his childhood and his career with football. Once he gets to the WWF portion of his life I lost a bit of interest, mostly because there are sections where he talks on character as The Rock and goes over details of specific matches. This format change I did not enjoy, but collectively this is not a bad book. 3 stars!

[JasonReads · Rating 4 out of 5]

Actually read this back when I was in high school and I still remember quite a bit of it. A lot more than I ever expected to. The one oddity of the book is that it shifts between Dwayne Johnson the person and his wrestling persona, The Rock. IIRC, the former covered more serious and important parts of his life, while the latter was basically The Rock cutting promos. Despite this, it was a highly interesting biography and one I would recommend to a fan of professional wrestling.

[Tween Teen Reads · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was one of the 1st WWE biographies that I bought and could not put it down. The Rock is one of my favourites in the ring, and I love how the book is written in 2 voices. Some in Dwyane Johnson voice and the second as The Rock. This book shows the complexity of character both in and out of the ring. It shows where he came from to where he was at that point, with great stories of what goes on the road. This a must for any wrestling fan or budding wrestler.

[A.L. Bellettiere · Rating 1 out of 5]

We had previously bought a lot of these wrestling related books, published by The Rock, Kurt Angle and Chyna and not held onto them. I bought into these larger than life characters at the time and still enjoy them to some degree now but the most obvious assumption is that beyond what The Rock did, i didn't really care. In the last few days, I actually started to ask myself if I really actually cared about the book and that's usually a big sign to me.

[Mary Hann · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of the kids I supervise of probation and I had a deal that if he completed his book report, I would read whatever book he did it on, thus me choosing this book. Having said that, I love the Rock and I watched a lot of professional wrestling as a kid, so I thought the book was a lot of fun. I enjoyed it a lot more than I expected to.

[Kimberly · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this when it was first released. It was a fun read. He had a good life but there were some rough spots. His biggest successes came after this was published. His marriage ended and he now has a new wife and another child. One of Hollywood's hottest actors. His cousins are ready to replace him in the WWE.

[Rob Paczkowski · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 Started decent but once he “turned” into The Rock and started describing move by move his “battles”, he lost me. I am a fan of much of his acting and I like to go back and read old autobiographies of people to see what may have changed or why they got to where they were while most of the memories were fresh. I can see the transition from his early years to what he is now.

[Lori · Rating 4 out of 5]

This had been on my 'to buy' list for ages. Someone turned it in to one of my local thrift stores (brand new!), and I snatched it right up.

Once I got past The Rock's youth and college experience, I enjoyed how he slipped into his Rock persona further into the book.

Definitely adding this to my wrestling bookshelf.