In 1997, The Rock turned his back on the people -- because they turned their backs on him -- by joining the Nation of Domination. The heel turn and alignment with Faarooq, D'Lo Brown and Kama helped kickstart The Rock's career and allowed his personality to shine.
Speaking on Instagram, The Rock discussed joining the Nation and why he didn't want to make it about race.
"I joined The Nation of Domination. Great guys, we're still friends to this day. It was a black millitant faction and when I joined the WWE executives said, 'You're going to join because you're half black and half Samoan, therefor you can join and make it about race.' I said, 'Why make it about race when we have an opportunity to expand on that. Instead of making me joining about race, let's make it about respect.' Let me go out there and say, 'It's not a black thing, it's not a white thing, it's a I'm gonna beat your ass thing and you're going to respect this man.' That wound up being the way we went and it wound up working in my favor because I became quickly, very fortunately, the number one bad guy in the WWE. After that promo, I walked by Steve Austin in the back, and he just looked at me and winked," recalled Rock.
The wink given to him by Austin was a nod to say, "we're going to make money together." Rock and Austin made plenty of money together as the biggest box office feud in wrestling. Rock reflected on his WrestleMania trilogy with Austin and you can read his comments by clicking here.
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