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The Rock Recalls Splurging on a Rolex Early In His Career, Only to Watch It Get Destroyed in The Ring

February 16, 2020 | Posted by Jeremy Thomas
The Rock WWE Raw 6-10-2002, Young Rock Dwayne Johnson Image Credit: WWE

The Rock recently recounted the story of seeing the first thing he ever spent big money on, a Rolex, being destroyed in the ring on WWE television. Speaking with Oprah on her 2020 Vision: Your Life in Focus Tour, the Great One recalled how he got a Rolex way too early in his career when he was still renting only to have it get broken during a WWE TV segment.

You can see highlights and the full podcast below:

On the first thing he splurged on: “Okay, so — all right. [laughs] The first thing I splurged on, when I was a kid — 14 years old, 13, 14 years old. In my mind, what it meant to be successful was a Rolex watch. So there was such a valauble lesson out of this. I thought for years, ‘Oh wait. Every successful man has a Rolex watch that has diamonds in it.’ So when I finally was making a little bit of money, and this was in 1999. I thought, ‘Okay.’ And this, by the way, I was still living in an apartment, paying monthly rent. But again … I was just renting. Horrible financial decision. This is what not to do. So I thought, ‘This is it. I’m gonna splurge.’ And I went and got myself a Rolex.”

On what happened with the watch: “And I wore it in the ring, not for for a match, but I was doing an interview in the ring. And I wore it in the ring, and a melee broke out which always happens in the wild world of professional wrestling. One of the wrestlers fell on the Rolex when it came off, it broke. Live TV, and you see me, ‘Oh, my gosh! My Rolex!,’ when I’m supposed to be in the moment and wrestling these other guys. ‘Oh no! My Rolex!’ Like, you can see the tape, I’m trying to get the Rolex and somebody’s is kicking me and they’re trying to get it. So I finally get my Rolex back, I go backstage and I look at it. I’m heartbroken now, this is my thing! And I go home that night, and I remember immediately thinking, ‘This is a sign, and I don’t need it,’ and it wasn’t right for me at that time. And I never got anything like that again.”

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit Oprah’s SuperSoul Conversations with a h/t to 411mania.com for the transcription.