Ray Lewis and Warren Sapp nearly joined their former Miiami Hurricanes teammate Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson in the ring at Wrestlemania several years back.

Johnson, who is reliving his football days in the new HBO show 'Ballers,' told Dan Patrick on his radio show last week that both Lewis and Sapp came close to partaking in a tag-team match, perhaps along with 'Stone Cold' Steve Austin. 

"We'd gotten very close with having a big match, bringing in Ray Lewis," Johnson said. "And we were gonna have a big tag-team match with myself, Ray Lewis as tag-team partners against whoever the top heels were at the time."

Johnson added that scheduling hurdles couldn't be overcome with the two future Hall of Famers, but noted that both would have been naturals in the ring. 

"Both those guys would've done great in the ring," Johnson said. "And just really, really exceptional athletes."

You can catch the full spot here via The Dan Patrick Show. 




(foxsports.com)

Dwayne Johnson, aka The Rock, is a wrestling legend and an entertainment icon in Hollywood, but before all of that, he was a Miami Hurricanes football player.

Johnson was lucky enough to be a part of a great Hurricanes squad in Dennis Erickson's first class. He played with Jessie Armstead, Gino Torretta, Mike Barrow, Darryl Williams, Ray Lewis. Also on the list? Warren Sapp.

Johnson's first run-in with Sapp was a memorable one and The Rock shared the behind-the-scenes backstory with Dan Patrick on Friday.

Sapp, who originally came to Miami as a tight end, made the move to the defensive line in spring practice. During his first defensive line meeting Sapp told Johnson "I'm taking your spot."

"Like true defensive linemen would do, full of ego, especially down at Miami because we all talked trash, I said 'Well, you ain't taking my spot,'" Johnson told Patrick "Then about six months later, he took my spot."

Johnson also discussed which former Hurricanes teammate would've made a great wrestler, as well as his new HBO show "Ballers," which premieres Sunday, June 21 at 10 p.m. ET.




(sportingnews.com)

Dwayne Johnson took the No. 1 spot in the Forbes list of top-grossing actors in 2013, while his "Fast & Furious 6" co-stars Vin Diesel and the late Paul Walker made the top six, the magazine said on Monday.

The Rock, as Johnson is known since his wrestling career, bested "Iron Man 3" star Robert Downey Jr. by starring in four films in 2013, including "G.I. Joe: Retaliation", that collectively brought in $1.3 billion at the global box office.

"Iron Man 3" is the highest-grossing movie so far in 2013 with $1.2 billion in worldwide ticket sales.

Forbes makes the list by compiling how many dollars each star's movies brought in at the box office worldwide this year. It does not reflect actors' individual earnings.

The sixth installment of the highly profitable street-car racing "Fast and Furious" franchise earned $789 million at the box office, and the deep-voiced Diesel added the $98 million from the third movie in his "Riddick" series to come in fourth on the Forbes list.

"Fast & Furious 6" alone pushed Walker into sixth place. The 40-year-old actor, who died last month in a fiery car crash, was filming the seventh installment of the franchise and Universal Pictures, a unit of Comcast Corp, has not yet said how the film will work around his death.

Comedic actor Steve Carell ranked third on the list thanks to the success of the animated film "Despicable Me 2" in which he voices the evil mastermind Gru.
Actress Sandra Bullock came in at No. 5 with two big wins at the box office: the critically acclaimed outerspace thriller "Gravity" and the female cop comedy "The Heat."


(nydailynews.com)

Wrestling fans (and fans of ‘The U&rsquo know The Rock’s backstory well by now. Dwayne Johnson was a highly recruited defensive lineman out of Pennsylvania. He went to Miami, won a national championship, got hurt, lost his job to a guy named Warren Sapp and eventually became arguably the most successful professional wrestler-turned-actor ever. (He also attached his name to the Fast & Furious franchise, which is one of the smartest things a person can do nowadays.) Now that we’re all caught up, let’s see what Mr. The Rock is currently up to:

Obviously, this is huge news. Imagine the recruiting potential:

“Yes, my name is coach Al Golden of the Miami Hurricanes. I’d like to give you a tour of our facilities. We have a lot of tradition and history at ‘The U.’ You may remember our great years like 1983, or 1987, or 1989, or 1991, or 2001. We had a transitionary period, but we’re back on track, and we think you’ll fit in nicely. Come with me, I’d like to talk about training and … “

“HOLY SMOKES YOUR LOCKER ROOM IS NAMED AFTER THE ROCK????”

“Yes, Dwayne or Dewey as he was called at the time. We should have named it Dwayne “The Rock” “Rock” “Dewey” Johnson Locker Room, am I right? Ha ha ha.”

“OH MAN THE ROCK! YEAH LET’S DO THIS THING WHERE DO I SIGN?”

See? It’s genius. All famous alumni with enough money, regardless of whether they played football or not, should get into the locker room act. It could be the next big thing in school and celebrity relations. To get things started, here are 20 colleges that should name their locker rooms after famous former students.


(cnnsi.com)

Wrestler-turned-actor Dwayne Johnson is hoping to become one of the biggest movie stars when he sets foot on the Hercules set by guzzling 5,000 calories a day to bulk up for the role.

The actor has been keeping fans up to date with his food intake on his Twitter account, revealing he's gobbling seven meals a day in a bid to get massive as the great Greek demigod.

His meals include a steak, four eggs and oatmeal for breakfast, and a protein supplement and 10 egg whites scrambled with onions, peppers and mushrooms for supper.

In between, he'll also chow down on two whole chickens and two identical halibut and rice meals.


(torontosun.com)

As we’ve been reporting, The Rock underwent surgery earlier this week because of injuries he suffered during his WrestleMania match with John Cena. Because he is recovering from surgery, The Rock had to miss the premiere of his new movie with Mark Wahlberg, “Pain and Gain.”

The director of “Pain and Gain” Michael Bay had some choice words for The Rock when asked about The Rock’s absence while on the red carpet:

“Dwayne’s hurt tonight. He was pushing it too hard. [He] needs to grow up and stop wrestling 300-pound men.”


(insidepulse.com)

(CNN) -- Last we checked, Henry Cavill's the new Superman, but Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson is proving to be quite the man of steel.

The actor had to have an emergency hernia surgery on Monday, causing him to miss out on the Los Angeles premiere of his new movie, "Pain & Gain."

The day before, the star explained that he'd paid a visit to his doctor, "who had to push my intestines back thru the tear in my abdomen. Kinda romantic."

But The Rock appears to be recovering well after the operation, and posted evidence to his Twitter account on Tuesday:

"Surgery a success!" he tweeted, along with a photo of himself in his hospital bed, wearing a Superman T-shirt and flexing his major biceps. "Dr repaired 3 hernial tears (fun pain). Superman is on the mend ..."

Johnson, who turns 41 next week, is said to be at home resting, no doubt in preparation for a busy summer. In addition to starring in Michael Bay's "Pain & Gain," which arrives in theaters Friday, Johnson's also in the sixth "Fast & Furious" installment, which arrives on May 24.


(cnn.com)

- Conspicuous by his absence Monday on Raw was that of WWE Champion Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson. "The Great One" addressed his whereabouts in a Twitter message Tuesday.

After a fan asked, "where was you? #Raw without The Rock isnt the same!!!", Johnson replied, "I feel you bro. I was on tour. No rest for the warriors. I'll be back this Monday! #JustBringIt."

Johnson returns to Raw next Monday in in Nashville, Tennessee and is also advertised for the following evening's SmackDown taping in Little Rock, Arkansas.

- WWE officials were pleased with the "Shooting Straight" panels at Royal Rumble Fan Fest, which offered fans the opportunity to hear inside stories about the Montreal Screwjob, D-Generation X and WCW. Expect similar panels to be held at upcoming Fan Fests.

- Ringside Collectibles has released a video previewing the Chris Jericho WWE Elite Series 20 Mattel Toy Wrestling Action Figure, which is the first ever Mattel WWE Figure that glows in the dark. It is available for pre-order at RingsideCollectibles.com and will be officially released in March.


(wrestlinginc.com)