10 Vintage Photos Of The Rock

There might not be a bigger star to ever come out of the WWE than Dwayne Johnson, better known to the WWE Universe as The Rock. When he started out in his career, he was a third-generation superstar who had to fight for the fans acceptance, but by the time he left the WWE, he was the biggest star in the company and soon conquered Hollywood.

Over his WWE career, The Rock was a good guy and a bad guy and held 17 titles, including 10 world championships. As a movie star, Dwayne Johnson has been in some of the top-grossing movies of all-time, from Fast and the Furious movies to his own efforts in Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle and Rampage. Here is a look at 10 vintage photos of The Rock throughout his WWE career.

10. DWAYNE JOHNSON

Possibly one of the funniest vintage photos of The Rock that got around was the one with him wearing a chain around his neck and a fanny pack around his waist. It was so embarrassing that even The Rock himself found it funny and has re-tweeted it himself on occasion.

He had little to be ashamed of at the time -- it was the '90s. Even super popular wrestlers like Kevin Nash came to the ring in his nWo days often in possession of a fanny pack and the turtleneck was normal back then as well. However, when comparing this photo to The Rock that fans know and love, it is a striking contrast.

9. THE BLUE CHIP

If there was anyone who wondered why The Rock had such a hard time getting over with the fans when he first debuted, take a look at this vintage photo of The Rock when he showed up as the Blue Chipper Rocky Maivia.

While he soon became one of the most charismatic wrestlers in history, when Rocky started, he was smiling and always happy and no one cared. After chants of "Die Rocky Die" wouldn't stop, the WWE finally threw in the towel and turned The Rock into a heel and the success came quickly when he started using his real personality.

8. THE NATION OF DOMINATION

The WWE wanted to turn The Rock into a heel and this vintage photo of The Rock shows exactly how they did so. Rock joined up with the Nation of Domination, a group that had a lot of heat at the time behind the leadership of Farooq (Ron Simmons).

The Rock found himself here, turning into the arrogant smack talker that defined his career. He soon turned on Farooq and made himself the leader of the Nation of Domination before growing too big for the faction and quickly becoming the biggest star in the WWE not named Stone Cold Steve Austin.

7. THE CHAMP

Once The Rock broke out as the new leader of the Nation of Domination, the sky was the limit for the third generation superstar. The glass ceiling does not stop a man with the pedigree and look of Dwayne Johnson and the WWE realized they had something special here and jumped on it.

Two years after making his WWE debut, the Nation of Domination broke up and The Rock beat Mick Foley for the vacant WWF Championship, joining up with Vince McMahon as part of his faction, The Corporation. This vintage photo of The Rock shows that the title fits him like a glove.

6. ROCK AND UNDERTAKER

This is a fun vintage photo of The Rock and shows him with possibly the most respected wrestler in WWE history -- The Undertaker. While part of the Corporation, The Rock and Vince McMahon were running over the WWE but the worst was yet to come. Undertaker was leading his own faction of dark and scary wrestlers, led by a mystery man called The Higher Power.

It turned out that the Higher Power was Vince McMahon and the Corporate Ministry was formed, putting The Rock and Undertaker in the same faction. These two men will likely both enter the WWE Hall of Fame sooner rather than later.

5. THE ROCK AND STONE COLD

There are some feuds that highlight what makes WrestleMania great. When it comes to The Rock and Stone Cold Steve Austin, it was a feud that was defined by their WrestleMania matches. Unlike many wrestlers who end their feud at the biggest WWE event of the year, Austin and The Rock had three matches at WrestleMania over their career.

At WrestleMania XV, The Rock headlined his first WrestleMania and lost his title to Stone Cold as part of Austin's feud with Mr. McMahon. At WrestleMania X-Seven, they faced again and Austin shocked the world when he turned heel and sided with McMahon to beat Rock again. They got one last go at WrestleMania XIX and The Rock finally beat Austin.

4. THIS IS YOUR LIFE

While The Rock was known for his feud with Stone Cold Steve Austin and his work as the People's Champion for and against Mr. McMahon, he had a lot of fun working with a very different superstar. That man would be Mick Foley, also known as Mankind during his time working with Dwayne Johnson in the Rock and Sock Connection.

This vintage photo of The Rock shows what might be the most famous and ridiculous moment of their time together. Foley surprised The Rock with a "This is Your Life" segment which alternated between The Rock looking dumbfounded and him delivering some of the best insults of his career.

3. THE SCORPION KING

After leaving the WWE, Dwayne Johnson became the biggest movie star in the world. However, way before he was a man who could sell a movie on the basis of his name, he was still The Rock and his first movie role was in a critically panned sequel to The Mummy called The Scorpion King.

The Rock was the Scorpion King of the title and proved that his charisma shone just as brightly on the movie screen. While The Scorpion King left a lot to be desired, Rock found his stride in more action based movies like The Rundown and the remake of Walking Tall, and the rest is history.

2. THE ROCK VS. HULK HOGAN

Before The Rock left the WWE to go full-time in Hollywood, he was still wrestling and in an interesting feud shortly after the failed WCW Invasion angle. The nWo invaded the WWE with Kevin Nash, Scott Hall, and Hollywood Hogan arriving and threatening to take over.

This vintage photo of The Rock shows where he fit into the feud. He was the biggest star the WWE had to step up to someone as huge as Hollywood Hulk Hogan. It ended up as a very strange match as Hogan was the heel and did bad things leading up to WrestleMania and the fans sided with Hogan anyway, the two switching sides on the fly.

RELATED: How The Rock Met Hulk Hogan

1. THE ROCK SINGS

Despite leaving the WWE for Hollywood, Dwayne Johnson has not remained a stranger and has come back a number of times. He first came back with a new gimmick where he was a Hollywood star and talked down to the fans and the other wrestlers.

As this vintage photo of The Rock shows, he also took the chance to show his talent in song, where he would improvise songs insulting everyone around him. He eventually came back as a fan favorite over the later years, but he still likes to pull out his guitar on occasion to entertain the crowd.