Professional wrestlers have a long history of tackling the silver screen once they’ve conquered the squared circle, but for every They Live starring “Rowdy” Roddy Piper, there’s a Mr. Nanny starring Hulk Hogan. That’s why the unprecedented success of Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson -- seven-time-WWE-champion-turned-movie-star -- comes as a shock to many.

Dwayne Johnson was the first third-generation wrestler in the World Wrestling Federation (WWF, now WWE). His maternal grandfather was wrestler "High Chief" Peter Maivia, and his father is wrestler Rocky Johnson.

Johnson grew up in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, and played football well enough to be offered a number of scholarships. He chose the University of Miami, he said, because they didn't actively recruit him. Johnson was a part of the Hurricanes 1990 NCAA National Championship team. After college, Johnson signed a three year contract with the Canadian Football League's Calgary Stampeders, but a back injury caused him to be cut from the team after his first season. Johnson knew he wanted to be an entertainer, so he spoke to his father about becoming a wrestler. His father was opposed to the idea, but agreed to train his son. Johnson tried out and did well. He joined the United States Wrestling Association and, playing up his Samoan heritage, wrestled as "Flex Kavana". Johnson was a "face", meaning a good guy.

When he moved up to the WWF in 1996, he combined his father's and grandfather's names and wrestled as "Rocky Maivia". Though he was still a face, the crowds were harder to please than they'd been in the minor leagues, and would insult players that seemed too soft. "I became so hated that when I went into the ring I was bombarded with batteries, coins, cans, you name it," he remembers. "I had to leave every night with security covering my head." His persona switched from "face" to "heel", and Johnson began to wrestle as The Rock. His admittedly bad temper led to some memorable moments, as when he furiously chased a San Diego State mascot around the football field during a televised event. He learned to control his temper by "turning the other cheek", and The Rock began to resemble Dwayne Johnson -- charismatic, cocky, and taunting his opponents with lines that are now famous: "lay the smack down!"

As The Rock's popularity grew, he was widely credited with a surge in the popularity of wrestling, and as a result he began crossing over into non-wrestling territory, appearing in Wycleaf Jean's music video of "It Doesn't Matter", and hosting Saturday Night Live. Acting offers began to come in, and The Rock appeared as his own father on That 70s Show, and played "The Champion" on an episode of Star Trek: Voyager. He made his film debut as the Scorpion King in the 2001 box office hit The Mummy Returns. He would reprise his character eponymous prequel, The Scorpion King

Films like The Scorpion King, Walking Tall and The Rundown helped brand Johnson as the world’s next great action star, and he hasn’t disappointed. With his latest film Fast Five, the fifth installment in The Fast and the Furious franchise, set to scorch the box office this summer and an unprecedented return to the WWE, we finally smell what The Rock is cooking -- a pretty successful career.