Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, who was at Monday’s RAW at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, California, took to Instagram to share a photo of himself backstage with WWE Universal Champion Kevin Owens, as well as a story about when he first heard of Owens.
“Appreciate The Champ himself, Kevin Owens stopping by “The People’s Hood” to say hello,” wrote The Rock via social media in a caption shared with the photo (see below). “People’s Hood is the nickname for my dressing rooms. We had a good laugh about the story of when I was training for my WWE comeback and title run (2012) I was training with Curt Hawkins and Joe Hennig.”
The Rock continued, “After our workout, me and Curt were chopping it up about great independent wrestlers. I said ‘Dude I just saw this guy last night on YouTube named Kill Steen or something like that. He’s amazing.’ Curt said, ‘That’s my good friend Kevin Owens.’ I said ‘We’ll tell your friend he’s bad ass and I hope WWE signs him.'”
“Now [five years] later and relentless hard work, he’s WWE Universal Champion,” wrote The Rock. “I like when good things happen to good hard working people. He’s an assh*le though for growing a better beard than I can.”
Owens took to Twitter himself to respond to The Rock, simply writing, “Great seeing you, dude.”
Great seeing you, dude. https://t.co/6k4fro9YOD
— Kevin Owens (@FightOwensFight) February 23, 2017
