Robert Strauss Talks About His Reaction To Meeting The Rock

In an interview with The Apter Chat (via Wrestlezone), Robert Strauss spoke about how he got a role on The Titan Games, meeting Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson and more. Here are highlights:

On how he got involved with the Titan Games: “So randomly enough, I got a private Facebook message from the casting of the show reaching out to me asking me if I’d be interested because they saw my videos I was doing with me doing workouts with my twin babies. I used them as dumbbells and they thought it was funny. They thought I was a fit dad and it was just a funny story, so they were digging it. They hit me up and it was one phone call and then I had to fill out some paperwork and then they were flying me out to LA for a final interview and I nailed it and the rest is history. It was really out of nowhere and the crazy thing is this reality show is one of the most tried out for reality shows in history. Originally they said over 80,000 people tried to get on it. Now The Rock is saying over 100,000 people tried to get on it.”

On meeting The Rock before this show: “I met him once at the wax museum, but it was a wax version of himself. It wasn’t really him. I met him once also at the Route 18 East Brunswick Mall when I was a kid. He did an autograph signing there probably when I was in middle school and I went and I saw him from afar. Those were the only two times.”

On finally meeting The Rock: “I dropped names immediately hoping to connect with him through wrestling. Obviously, he’s busy on set. You know what I’m saying? He’s got a million things on his mind. I mean, he was approachable and everything, but Tommy Dreamer and The Dudley Boyz, guys I knew that he knew from his time in WWE that I know also. I kinda said I was friends with [them] which got us a few laughs. We were able to talk about wrestling a bit, which was cool. He’s got to memorize lines and he’s got so many things on his plate, but with all that said, he really was a nice guy. It was a genuine conversation for a few minutes, but it’s not like we exchanged phone numbers.”

On the Titan Games: “What I can say is that I didn’t embarrass myself, which is a good thing and also the obstacles on this show are like no other. It’s American Gladiators on another level. The set is unbelievable and it’s a larger than life show. When you watch it, it’s honestly unbelievable. It’s gonna be one of the biggest reality shows, I think, of all time because this is definitely only going to be the beginning. I think they are already in talks for next season and everything and it’s only going to get bigger and bigger and bigger.”

On his future goals in entertainment: “Are you comparing me to The Rock & John Cena? Are you saying that I’m on their level? [laughter] It’s 2019, so whatever I have to do to keep my name relevant, to keep my bills paid, and to keep being able to travel around the world and have fun with what I’m doing. Whatever I got to do. I would love to explore other options. I’ve done a few lower budget indie films that went straight to Netflix and stuff like that I had some minor scenes in. I’ve touched on some stuff and it was fun to do, but I’d love to do it on a larger level. Maybe this was the beginning. Who knows what will happen from this show?”