Dwayne Johnson is one of the highest-paid movie stars in the world. In the mid-1990s, he was wrestling for $40 a match.

Before he made it to the WWF, Johnson worked in the United States Wrestling Association in Tennessee. He talked about those days in a 2024 interview with GQ, as reported by CNBC .

“Those were the days where I was making 40 bucks per match wrestling in flea markets,” he said. Some of the shows were held at “used-car dealerships in the parking lot.” He also said, “I ate Waffle House three times a day.”

Cut by the Calgary Stampeders

Football came first. Johnson was a defensive lineman for the CFL’s Calgary Stampeders in 1995, and the team cut him about two months into the regular season, The Globe and Mail reported .

When he got back to Tampa, he had $7 to his name, according to Yahoo , which cited an interview he gave The Hollywood Reporter. He later wrote on Twitter, “I started w/ $7 bucks.…