Quoted By:
>A lot of fresh faces had come in the few months I’d been gone; some I’d only met once or twice. The one who immediately stood out was Dwayne Johnson, pro wrestling’s first third-generation worker. His grandfather, Peter, a tough Samoan powerhouse, had been a very close friend of Stu’s. I told Dwayne that I remembered him as a little kid running around the dressing room when I worked in Hawaii back in the 1980s. He was shy around me, a nice, bright kid who was still innocent as far as wrestlers went. He was a handsome blend of black and Polynesian, well built and a real athlete; he’d played some CFL with the Calgary Stampeders just a couple of years earlier. Like me, he’d resigned himself to trying his hand in the family business and was anxious to learn. I wanted to see this kid make it, and I told him I’d help him all I could. I watched him in the ring that night, wrestling under the ring name of Rocky Maivia, and I remember coming back to the dressing room and saying to everyone, “Mark my words, three or four years down the road that kid will be the franchise.” He already had the look and the skill. If he learned to talk, he could be great.
