'The Rock' returns as 'The Smashing Machine' (and says his mom will love this interview)

Terry Gross

October 02, 2025 / 8:19 am

Movie star Dwayne Johnson has a laundry list of injuries he's sustained over the course of his career as a profession wrestler and a college football player. There was a ruptured Achilles tendon, a complete shoulder reconstruction and either four or five knee surgeries — he can't remember how many.

And then there was the match with John Cena which left him spitting up blood. "I landed in a way that really, for the moment, damaged my lungs and blood vessels," Johnson says.

That fight was the last of his official WWE career. It was not, however, the last time he'd be in the ring as a fighter. His new movie, The Smashing Machine , tells the story of Mark Ker

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