The Rock Recalls Making $40 For First Booking In USWA

Before The Rock became the Most Electrifying Man on the Planet and entertained millions, and millions, in the ring and on the screen, he was Flex Kavana, just trying to make it in Memphis. 

The Rock’s daughter, Simone Johnson (Ava Raine in NXT), has has followed in her dad’s footsteps in wrestling, but with the system changing over the decades, went straight to the WWE Performance Center and didn’t have to work a territory. 

Speaking on The Pivot podcast, The Rock was asked who made more when they first started wrestling. 

“I would say her. My first paycheck, in wrestling, my first paycheck was $40. That’s what our guarantee was. This was before WWE. As you’re starting out, I wasn’t ready for WWE. I made my bones down in Tennessee. I wrestled down there, USWA, everybody came through there, Jerry ‘The King’ Lawler, everybody who became somebody went through there, and that’s where you made your bones and cut your teeth. The guarantee, every night, was $40. Didn’t matter where you were at on the card, that was your guarantee,” he said. 

When asked how he made additional money, The Rock clued the hosts in on the gimmick table. 

“Additional money, there was the intermission and we’d go to the gimmick table. We’d have our polaroids. Anyone who wanted to take a Polaroid, you’d sign it, $5. Take [the photo], $5. Sign it, $10. That’s how we made additional money. On a good night, I could make maybe $80,” he said.

The Rock is doing much better than $40 a booking nowadays as he’s one of the top acts in Hollywood. 

Ava wrestled her first match at NXT Stand & Deliver in a multi-person bout. You can find The Rock’s comments on her in-ring debut by clicking here. 

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