'The Rock' returns as 'The Smashing Machine' (and says his mom will love this interview)
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Movie star Dwayne Johnson has a laundry list of injuries he's sustained over the course of his career as a professional wrestler and a college football player. There was a ruptured Achilles tendon, a complete shoulder reconstruction and either four or five knee surgeries — he can't remember how many.
And then there was the match with John Cena which left him spitting up blood. "I landed in a way that really, for the moment, damaged my lungs and blood vessels," Johnson says.
That fight was the last of his official WWE career. It was not, however, the last time he'd be in the ring as a fighter. His new movie, The Smashing Machine, tells the story of Mark Kerr, one of the American pioneers of mixed martial arts (MMA) fighting.
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The film, which Johnson produced and stars in, is about the high of having tens of thousands of fans cheering for you — and the physical pain after some fights, when muscles are torn or bones are broken.
"It takes a very unique person to become an elite MMA fighter," Johnson says.
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