JJ Dillon Recalls Talking The Rock Out Of Quitting WWE

JJ Dillon recently joined JBL and Gerald Brisco for an interview, and one of the topics Dillon discussed was the time he talked The Rock out of quitting WWE.

Dillon mentioned that Rock was frustrated with his placement in the company and not making enough money to support himself, leading to a conversation between the two:

“He called me over, and I was able to talk to everybody. I just had that kind of personality where I listened more than I talked, and that was part of my success. Rock was gonna get the push of his life, but he couldn’t see it at that point how big that opportunity was gonna be for him. He had everything. He was multi-racial, he had the size and athletic ability. I came up there, and he said, ‘Can I talk to you privately?’ I said yeah. He said, ‘You have connections everywhere, and I’m asking you to help me get out of here and find a place for me to go.’ I listened to him and said, ‘There’s more to this story than what you’re telling me. You need to trust me and open up and tell me what’s going on in your head and what’s really troubling you. After talking about it a little bit, he reached in his pocket and he had a 10 dollar bill and a couple of singles. He said, ‘This is all the money I have to my name. I’ve never been in this situation. Everybody talks about this great but to me, I have 12 bucks in my pocket and it’s eating away at me.’ I said I was glad he opened up and told me because that’s something that can be an easy fix.

Dillon then recalled getting money for Rock so that he could continue to work towards his opportunity

I don’t know where we were, but I said go up to the box office and pull 200 dollars and I’ll sign for it and work it out. They came to me and I called the Rock over. He shook my hand, and I palmed him 200 dollars cash. I said now you’ve gotta put the money in your pocket. I said you can eat and you’re OK. This is just a little speedbump in the road. I said I couldn’t do justice to the business by not allowing you to take full advantage of this opportunity because you don’t have any cash in your pocket. We’ve all been there. He gave me a big hug, and that was a turning point for him. Just having that money in his pocket so that he could eat and do what he wanted. I was just at the right place at the right time and knew the right thing to do.”

You can watch the full clip below.

If using any of the above quotes, please credit JBL on YouTube with an h/t to 411mania.com for the transcription.