Dwayne Johnson has been dropping a pretty steady stream of teasers and fun facts about Young Rock, the upcoming TV show based on his growing up experience. I’ve been eagerly following along because like everyone else on Earth, I love The Rock. The latest teases, however, have gotten me even more excited than usual because they feature our first looks at the actors playing three legendary old wrestlers: Andre The Giant, The Iron Sheik and Junkyard Dog.
Of course, we have to start with Andre The Giant because he’s Andre The Freakin’ Giant. The Princess Bride star is arguably the biggest attraction in wrestling history. He competed all over the world, and his match with Hulk Hogan at Wrestlemania 3 is one of the most important in the history of the business. You can check out a photo of Matthew Willig dressed up in character as the 8th Wonder Of The World below…
People who knew Andre The Giant rant and rave about what a larger than life figure he was and how much fun he was to be around. Stories about his drinking and his carousing were legendary and get the most press, but how much genuine affection people seemed to have for him is why he keeps coming up and over and over again. It’s amazing that Johnson got to spend so much time with him as a little kid, and I can’t wait to see him on Young Rock.
In addition to Andre The Giant, Young Rock is also going to give fans a bit of the Iron Sheik. The amateur wrestler turned WWF champion turned social media troll is considered a legend in the wrestling business and is another person people speak about with great reverence. Apparently his wife used to babysit Johnson when he was a kid, and in the below social media post, he’s credited as the originator of “Jabroni”, an insult The Rock used pretty consistently throughout his wrestling career. Check out the post below…
And finally, it wouldn’t be a classic old timey wrestling party with an appearance by Junkyard Dog. Unfortunately, JYD isn’t quite as well known to modern wrestling fans as Andre The Giant or Iron Sheik, but he was electrifying in his day. He had an incredible run through the independent circuits in the early 1980s and later had successful tenures in both WWF and WCW. He never got quite the push he deserved from either of the major promotions (although he did work with Ric Flair a bit in WCW), but he still wrestled a ton of mid-card level matches and was very popular with crowds.
Junkyard Dog is also extremely important for the ground he broke as a Black wrestler. He was far from the first person of color to find success, but he is considered the first Black wrestler ever to be pushed as the lead for a wrestling promotion in the early 1980s. He even toplined cards that sold out the Louisiana Superdome. You can check out the Instagram post about him below…
The history of wrestling is filled with loveable characters and larger than life personalities, especially during the late 1970s and early 1980s. As such, it’s hard not to be excited about Young Rock and all the fun places the show could go. Production is currently rolling in Australia and NBC gave it a straight to series order. It’ll premiere next year.
