“This is my love letter to them”: The Rock gets ready to prepare for his next movie project, paying homage to MMA legend Mark Kerr 

It has been weeks since WrestleMania 40, but the pro wrestling world is still buzzing from what the blockbuster event left in its wake. But The Rock has moved on from it and now has turned his focus on the side quests available to him.

One of such side quests was his collaboration with country musician Chris Janson. Now for his other quest, the “Final Boss” is setting his sights on a movie project. On his social media accounts, The Rock announced that a training camp for the movie titled, “The Smashing Machine” will start on Monday.

Last week, The Rock provided a health update following his grueling match at WrestleMania 40, and he admitted that he is still banged up but will be taking on the challenge nonetheless. The movie will be a love letter to the friends Dwayne lost in the wrestling business, especially due to addiction.

Acknowledging the fact that MMA is a completely different animal from pro wrestling, the 51-year-old showed his determination to try something different. The “Brahma Bull” will play the role of MMA legend Mark Kerr, who has been fighting peripheral neuropathy since 2016.

For those who don’t know, Kerr is a bona fide MMA legend who won multiple gold medals in freestyle wrestling and submission wrestling championships. He was also the UFC Heavyweight Tournament Champion at UFC 14 and 15. The movie aims to highlight the glory days of the 55-year-old along with the perils of addiction.

The Rock revealed he almost joined MMA twice in his career

During an episode of “Joe Rogan Experience” in November 2023, The Rock revealed that he considered joining MMA back in 1997. He said, “I was still going out to L.A. and working out, we were crossing all the MMA guys. Pride just opened up in Japan so I was seeing all these MMA guys going over to Pride. … At that time I was making $150,000 wrestling 235 days a year. So do the math of that and how much you’re making per match. We start hearing, hey these guys over in pride are making 250, 350, 500 [thousand dollars].”

DJ continued to say that he was getting booed out of the buildings at that time and talked to Ken Shamrock and Mark Kerr around that time to make the switch happen. But as we all know, that never came to fruition as the Rock left WWE in 2004 to pursue a life in Hollywood.

Another time The Rock planned on joining MMA was back in 2007 when he aimed to be coached by Greg Jackson for two years, but he pulled the plug on it to keep his health intact.

At the time of writing, there was no confirmation regarding the release date, but according to IMDB, the movie is expected to hit theaters in 2025.