Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson recently appeared as a guest on Speaking with Oprah during her 2020 Vision: Your Life in Focus Tour. Among other things, The Rock spoke with the longtime television personality about the first thing he splurged on when he became wealthy as a WWE Superstar — and how that situation spun out of control in hilarious fashion.
Featured below is an excerpt from the discussion where “The Great One” talks to Oprah about this story.
On the first thing he splurged on: “Okay, so — all right. [laughs] The first thing I splurged on, when I was a kid — 14 years old, 13, 14 years old. In my mind, what it meant to be successful was a Rolex watch. So there was such a valuable lesson out of this. I thought for years, ‘Oh wait. Every successful man has a Rolex watch that has diamonds in it.’ So when I finally was making a little bit of money, and this was in 1999. I thought, ‘Okay.’ And this, by the way, I was still living in an apartment, paying monthly rent. But again … I was just renting. Horrible financial decision. This is what not to do. So I thought, ‘This is it. I’m gonna splurge.’ And I went and got myself a Rolex.”
On what happened with the watch: “And I wore it in the ring, not for for a match, but I was doing an interview in the ring. And I wore it in the ring, and a melee broke out which always happens in the wild world of professional wrestling. One of the wrestlers fell on the Rolex when it came off, it broke. Live TV, and you see me, ‘Oh, my gosh! My Rolex!,’ when I’m supposed to be in the moment and wrestling these other guys. ‘Oh no! My Rolex!’ Like, you can see the tape, I’m trying to get the Rolex and somebody’s is kicking me and they’re trying to get it. So I finally get my Rolex back, I go backstage and I look at it. I’m heartbroken now, this is my thing! And I go home that night, and I remember immediately thinking, ‘This is a sign, and I don’t need it,’ and it wasn’t right for me at that time. And I never got anything like that again.”
Check out the complete Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson interview at OprahMag.com.
