Latest / Kenny Wallace Media / Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson Talks Daytona 500!

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Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson Talks Daytona 500! · Kenny Wallace Media

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  First of all, it's good to see everybody.
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  Good to be here. This is my first time at in in
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  Daytona. As many of you may or may not
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  know, I'm a Florida boy right down the road.
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  University of Miami, best College in Florida.
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  There you go, we got one. I was looking to get a reaction
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  to that. So it's great to be here.
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  I would say the most exciting thing that I have going on right
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  now is being the Grand Marshall for the Daytona 500.
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  It's awesome. I, you know, when you are just a
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  sports fan, something like this really becomes an honor and a
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  privilege. So I'm a lucky guy to be in this
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  position of my career to to have been asked to be the grand
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  Marshall and and say those four iconic words much different than
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  the words I usually hear which is honey, don't do that.
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  But I'm super excited about it and I and also too I think just
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  a little bit little bit deeper into the into my answer is what
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  I try to do is I try to make sure that everything I do these
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  days in my career because I've been really lucky and blessed to
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  have a pretty good career over the years that have spanned a
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  lot of industries is I just try to make sure that everything I'm
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  doing is the most exciting thing that I'm doing.
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  I got babies at home and being a daddy is my favorite role So I
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  want to make sure that I'm using my time wisely in anything that
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  I do whether it's in the UFL or movies or back in professional
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  wrestling which is always my first love or being the grand
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  Marshall here for Daytona 500. Just want to make sure that it's
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  the thing that I love to do. So I I always, I'm a big
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  advocate and I always tell people that, you know, if you
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  could create that life for yourself where if you decide to
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  do something, we want to make sure that it's the thing that
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  gets you out of bed and you run towards it.
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  So that's what I'm doing. And you recently were able to
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  make 21 Wishes come true with the Make a Wish Foundation, an
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  organization that we're really close to here at DIS as well
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  that had to been really special for both you and the kids.
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  What was that moment like for? You it was Make a Wish is a very
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  special organization as we all know and I know you guys work
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  very closely with Make a Wish the drivers work very closely
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  with Make a Wish it it is an organization that I hold very
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  close to my heart and my soul and and and deep in my bone
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  marrow. I had an opportunity when I was
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  25 years old to grant my first wish and that was about 8000
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  years ago. And it was very special then.
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  And since then I've I've had the privilege of granting hundreds
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  and hundreds and hundreds of wishes.
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  And it's the reminder, I think for me, certainly, but I feel
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  like it's a reminder for all of us that man, every life is
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  special. Every life has a purpose.
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  Every life has a meaning. And I like to say and I'm sure
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  you guys have participated in Make a Wish events that you know
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  as we know those children and those kids, they're the real
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  heroes. And I always like to say that
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  their parents and their loved ones are the real rock stars
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  because everybody goes through that challenge, man.
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  So, but it was an honor. And by the way, we we did, we
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  did one of the biggest Make a wish events in the history of
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  Make a Wish. We did 21 Make a wish kids.
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  We did it in Los Angeles and it was an incredible day.
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  What what turned, what was supposed to be all right, I'm
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  going to spend a couple of hours and then move on.
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  I got to go on to my next thing. Wound up being a big like an 8-9
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  hour day and it was very, very special.
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  That's awesome. And now, moving ahead to
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  tomorrow, the spectacle of the Great American race, What are
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  you hoping to experience when we finally get out there and and
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  what are you planning for your command to fire the engines
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  tomorrow? Well, what I'm hoping to
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  experience is what I have already been experiencing.
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  I got a little selling, Frank. I got a little kooky last night
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  because I couldn't sleep and I went to the gym at midnight and
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  I drove by this by the Speedway and all the lights were on and
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  you just immediately felt the energy.
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  There's a word I like to use. It's called mana and it's it
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  means spirit and it's power and mana is ever present and it
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  comes from in here and you just, you felt the mana as I was
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  driving by the Speedway. So what I hope to experience is,
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  is really what I have been experiencing, which is just this
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  incredible electric energy. And also, you know, I liken it
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  to my world of professional wrestling where there's a lot of
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  people and the fans are so incredibly passionate.
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  And the greatest part about being a performer is that you
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  get to connect with the audience.
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  You get to connect with the fans.
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  And I think my math is kind of shady, but I think it's about
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  100 and 1500 is the sell out, which is really cool.
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  So I I I want to experience that and I want to experience that
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  tomorrow. And I know I'm going to
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  experience This is why I didn't want to leave.
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  I had to stay so I can experience that and my plan for
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  the iconic words of drivers start your engine is just not to
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  screw it up, that's all. And maybe sound halfway cool
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  when I do it. But also I really want to make
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  sure that my words and my energy is a reflection and a respectful
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  reflection of what the drivers need from me and also what the
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  fans need to kick the race off and and to certainly kick the
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  season off. So that's what I hope.
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  Awesome. Well, we have a couple of
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  minutes for a couple of questions.
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  So we'll open up if you raise your hand.
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  We're going to start up front here with Kelly Crandall.
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  Kelly Crandall, racer.com I want to talk professional racing,
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  Professional wrestling. We have our biggest race
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  tomorrow, WrestleMania, the biggest event for you all.
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  A couple years ago that shifted to a two day show and I'm really
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  curious how has that been a benefit of for both the product
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  and the fans that they get to attend and watch those two
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  nights? That's a great question.
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  So for those of you didn't know, it's Kelly, right.
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  She had said we have, we've extended WrestleMania which was
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  for years and years one day now we've extended it to two and
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  it's worked out really wonderfully.
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  I think on the business side for us and our sponsors and our
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  partners, it works out great. The economics you hope work out
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  good for us again on the business side.
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  But I think perhaps more importantly than that is the
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  fans get an opportunity to enjoy 2 days of the Super Bowl if you
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  will and enjoy great matches, great entertainment and and and
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  also in addition to that we get to create more opportunities for
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  the wrestlers and for the performers.
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  And I grew up in the world of wrestling.
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  For those of you don't know, I was born into it.
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  My grandfather wrestled my dad, my cousins.
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  My grandmother was the first promoter in Hawaii.
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  I make that so I come from a long lineage.
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  So creating opportunity for wrestlers and performers is
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  something that is very important to me and important to us as a
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  company. So I can't wait.
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  In this WrestleMania, WrestleMania 40, we look to put
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  on hopefully the biggest WrestleMania of all time.
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  I am returning into the ring, so I'm going to put the spandex on
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  and I got to start my diet and and and I and I and I can't
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  wait. I think we are creating
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  something that should be, I think, pretty cool for the fans
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  and pretty entertaining. Along those same lines, this
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  program now that you're talking about leading to WrestleMania,
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  how different and how meaningful has it been to really lead to to
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  really lean into that family lineage that you've that you
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  just talked about Because it's been mentioned throughout your
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  career, but I I can't recall this you guys are really into it
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  now and and using that with Roman and Cody.
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  That's right. So in in our world of WWE, we
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  are, we're really leaning into, as Kelly was saying, with our
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  heels and baby faces, that's parlance for good guys, bad
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  guys, bad guys, The Rock, The Big Bad Wolf, The Rock, Danny
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  Hamlin, for example, which I love, we'll get to in a second.
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  And so we decided to really lean into the idea of families and
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  lineage and culture. And when you think about it,
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  it's it's pretty cool. When you look at the family
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  tree. As I was saying, I grew up in
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  the world of professional wrestling, but when you look at
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  the actual family tree of Myvia Johnson on Hawaii, it's pretty
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  spectacular and it's pretty cool again.
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  And just creating more and more opportunities for not only my
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  family, which I'm incredibly grateful for, but for other
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  wrestlers too, and other performers.
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  Thank you. We'll go to Alan Cavana.
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  Alan Cavana, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.
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  To the point of what you just mentioned, one of the favourites
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  to win this race is Denny Hamlin.
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  He could win and get booed by the crowd.
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  You're going through that right now, getting the booze.
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  What is that like? Is it more fun to get booed?
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  What is it like being the villain?
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  Because right now, one of our top stars in NASCAR kind of is
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  the villain. Being the villain is the
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  greatest thing in the world. It truly is now in my world of
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  professional wrestling, and I was aware of Danny and getting
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  booed and also I think impressed in how he's embraced it.
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  So, and I also feel like everybody wants to be the good
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  guy and everyone wants to be the good guy, the good girl.
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  Everyone wants to be loved and cheered and considered the hero,
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  which is great and it's natural, It's human psychology and
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  desire. But I have felt in my career and
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  through my experience that I've been very fortunate knock on
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  wood to have is that the rare air is when you have the
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  opportunity and you grab it by the throat and you don't let it
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  go. And that's the opportunity to be
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  a great bad guy. And in this case with me coming
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  back to WWE. For those of you may not know
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  the character of The Rock has turned heel.
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  And I always say that the the best parts of the times that I
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  played heel, which is now is it always comes from a place of
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  truth. And I always think that that's
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  really the the best and greatest bad guys and villains out there.
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  Bad guys, bad girls, villains are coming from a place of
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  truth. So one of the cool things that
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  being a great bad guy and a great villain offers, and this
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  is my advice to Denny, is not only do you embrace it, but also
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  you get the opportunity to say and do a lot of things that
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  people can't. A lot of people wish they can,
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  but they don't. So you don't have to let me and
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  Denny do do the talking and and get the booze.
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  Thanks for being here. Thank you, man.
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  All right. Well, we have to move on with
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  DJ. We have a full slate of
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  activities for him. But DJ, thank you so much for
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  joining us today and for sticking around with us
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  tomorrow. We can't wait to hear your
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  command of. Course.
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  Yeah. I can't wait.
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  Thank you guys very much. I appreciate you.