The Rock On Owning ‘The Rock’ Name: I Owe It Everything

For Dwayne Johnson, fully owning the rights to the name of The Rock is very special.

As announced on January 23, Dwayne Johnson has joined the TKO Board of Directors. He has also gained ownership of The Rock.

Speaking on CNBC’s Squawk On The Street, The Rock discussed what it means to him to own the name.

“There’s the business side of that, as we we know. There’s the economic side of that. But also, it goes much deeper than that. 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 name of my dad, Rocky Johnson. He was the first black tag team champions in WWE, a trailblazer, paved the way, man of color, for a kid like me to be embraced in a bigger way when I came along. So this is one of the reasons why this deal is so unprecedented, the one that I was able to do, along with Ari here.”

The Rock: The Name Allowed Me To Be Me

The Rock went on to credit Ari Emanuel and noted that he had a million reasons to say no, but he said yes. “The Great One” stated that family was very important to both of them. He also emphasized how much the name The Rock means to him, even beyond its financial value.

“Again, I want to acknowledge Ari and give him his flowers because at the end of the day, he had a million reasons to say no, but he found a reason to say yes,” The Rock said. “The reason why is because he understood, as he told me face to face, this is your name and it comes from your family. That’s important to me. So family is very important to us, and 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 important than that, it’s something that I earned, I built, and I owe so much to that wild lunatic called The Rock. By the way, I told [Ari] this last night. The greatest benefit of now completely owning the name The Rock, 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.”

Click here to see what R-Truth had to say about The Rock.