Earlier this week Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson shared a harrowing image of his elbow to social media, revealing that he’d suffered a horrific injury on set of A24’s The Smashing Machine. Johnson is set to play former two-time UFC Heavyweight Tournament Champion and professional wrestler Mark Kerr. The film follows in the footsteps of a 2002 HBO documentary, The Smashing Machine: The Life and Times of Extreme Fighter Mark Kerr. In the documentary, Kerr is viewed through the lens of the the early days of the “No Holds Barred” fighting as well as his personal life, chronicling his substance abuse issues.
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Johnson has since given an update on his condition, explaining that he suffered a ruptured bursa sac but he will eventually heal and, in better news, he had no extensive tissue damage. “Elbow got kissed by the boo boo monster 👹 💪🏾 No extensive tissue damage. Ruptured bursa sac that will eventually heal,” Johnson shared to Instagram. “I’ve had much worse, and as always let pain – and tequila – be the guide 😈 Back to work. #thesmashingmachine #bennysafdie (thank you all for the love and healing/medicine recommendations ❤️🩹 Im good 👍🏾).”
Who Does Dwayne Johnson Play in The Smashing Machine?
Announced in December, Johnson will play the role of Kerr who became well known for his style of martial arts as he was able to dominate his opponents and win his fights very quickly. Though he had success in the UFC, his career really took off in Japan with Pride Fighting Championships. Ironically, PFC is the same company Johnson claims he was approached by in 1997 to join and he gave it major consideration due to his finances.
“..Pride [FC] just opened up in Japan, so I was seeing all these MMA guys [in Los Angeles] going over to Pride. At that time I was making $150,000 wrestling 235 days a year,” Rock said on The Joe Rogan Experience in November. “These guys over in Pride are making 250, 350 — 500 [thousand]! I thought then, ‘I don’t think I’m gonna make it in the WWE, people are booing me out of the arenas. I can’t be myself — they’re telling me to f—ing smile, I don’t want to f—ing smile it’s not who I am.’ I start talking to Ken Shamrock, I run into Mark Kerr; he told me a little about Pride and I have this idea in my head, ‘Well maybe I should train [for] MMA, and go to Pride and make money – real money – and I don’t have to smile.’”
If what Johnson alleges is true, it wouldn’t be the first time he considered stepping into the octagon. In 2007 he discussed training in MMA for two years to really give it a try, but that obviously never came to fruition as his acting career was really taking off. However now that he’s been given the opportunity, it’s his most physical role yet. In first look imagines released a few weeks back, Johnson is almost completely unrecognizable as the former Heavyweight Champion.
Johnson can next be seen in the follow-up to 2016’s Moana as he steps back into the role of Maui. The film is set for release this November. The current release window for The Smashing Machine is the end of 2024 as filming began in late May. Stay tuned to Comicbook for updates.
