He’s an actor, a former pro-wrestler, a father of three and he identifies as both Black and Samoan.
Over the weekend, Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson took to Twitter to clear up any and all misconceptions about how he views himself. The matter grew out of a discussion about how Johnson was “presented” in his early days with WWE.
A Twitter user claimed that Johnson “was never booked, proclaimed, or titled as First [sic] black champion,” and Johnson quickly shut that down.
“Glad I came across this and I’ll give you guys some context & truth,” he began his tweet with. “I identify as exactly what I am – both. Equally proud. Black/Samoan.” Johnson is the son of a Samoan mother and a Black father. He took after his dad, Rocky Johnson, who was also a professional wrestler.
The semi-retired pro-wrestler had 17 championships reigns while he was in the WWE. Recently, he’s been promoting his Fast & Furious spin-off, Hobbs & Shaw, on his social media. The film also stars Jason Statham and Idris Elba.
Cool, he identifies as Samoan in WWE and was booked that way after Nation days. Was never booked, proclaimed, or titled as First black champion. And hardcore wrestling fans don’t name him as such as well. Thus nobody calls him a black champion. Anoa’i family background angle
— Hawkeye’s Mohawk (@Audience__of1) March 20, 2019
Glad I came across this and I’ll give you guys some context & truth. I identify as exactly what I am – both. Equally proud. Black/Samoan. And my friend, let me expand your thoughts a bit here – I transcended race in wrestling so there was no “booked that way”. Thx guys
— Dwayne Johnson (@TheRock) March 20, 2019