The Rock returns to Hawai'i
By Karen Blakeman
Advertiser Staff Writer
Can you smell what The Rock is cookin'?
Advertiser library photo
Hawai'i's homegrown wrestling and action-movie superstar with the highly mobile eyebrow and line of macho put-down phrases returns to the Islands June 15, headlining a World Wrestling Entertainment bout.
Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson is a WWE superstar and a movie superstar.
"It is one of those things that, as a promoter, you dream about," Tom Moffatt said yesterday. "All you have to do is put the sign out."
That doesn't mean there won't be TV spots. Moffatt said they'll feature the 6-foot-4, 270-pound, chest-thumping wrestler saying: "The Rock is coming home."
The Rock, aka Dwayne Johnson, was born in Hayward, Calif., but attended school in Hawai'i, and was a student at McKinley High before moving to Pennsylvania for his junior year.
His was a wrestling family: his father was Rocky Johnson, a wrestler who, teamed with Tony Atlas, became the first African-American duo to win the World Wrestling Federation tag-team title.
His grandfather, "Samoan High Chief Peter Maivia," was also a big-name wrestler and a wrestling promoter in Hawai'i.
Maivia's wrestling promotion businesses were later taken on by Johnson's grandmother, Lia Maivia, one of the first women in the business.
The Rock became a six-time World Wrestling Federation champion, then expanded to action movies with a role in the remake of "The Mummy Returns" and "The Scorpion King."
At the Blaisdell Arena, he will face off against Chris Jericho in a "no-disqualification" fight.
Tickets, which are $25-$90, go on sale Saturday at the Blaisdell box office and Ticket Plus outlets.
