The Rock suffered legitimate concussion, begged his co-star to hit him for real

The Rock has revealed that he suffered a legitimate concussion after he begged his co-star to hit him for real. The WWE icon is portraying UFC and Pride Fighting Championships veteran Mark Kerr in The Smashing Machine movie.

The movie captures Kerr's life and his rise in MMA, and The Rock got a taste of some action during filming. In a recent appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, he talked about the intense training he had to undergo during the filming of the movie.

This included putting on more muscle and making scenes look as real as possible. One scene required the Brahma Bull to recreate Kerr’s real fight in Japan against Kazuyuki Fujita, where Kerr was on all fours taking strikes.

So I told the fighter I was working with, ‘Hey brother, I know it sounds crazy, but you’ve got to hit me. You have to hit me.’ And he is a Japanese fighter, very respectful. He said, ‘No, no, I will not hit you.’ He refused to hit me. And I finally said, ‘Please, we have one shot at this. You must hit me,"’ he said.

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It required director Benny Safdie to interfere and convince the fighter to punch the WWE star for real to honor what happened with Kerr. This, however, led to The Rock suffering a legitimate concussion.

"So you'll see in the movie, he's rocking me over and over and over again. It was wild. After that fight, you see me kind of, I look like I'm loopy. That’s because I had a concussion," he admitted.

You can watch the interview below:

The Rock leaves the door open for a different career

After finding success in WWE and Hollywood, The Rock might be open to trying his hand at a different career.

Over the last few years, there have been reports of the former WWE Champion taking a step into politics and running for the U.S. Presidential seat.

However, those aspirations appeared to have simmered down for now. But in an interview with Variety, he left the door open for a presidential campaign down the line. He said he was honored that people asked him about it and said, "We'll see" what happens in the future.

If you use quotes from this article, please credit The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon and give an H/T to Sportskeeda Wrestling for the transcription.

About the author

Sherjeel Malik is a writer at Sportskeeda and covers pro wrestling. He was hooked on the product from the moment he saw The Hardy Boyz jumping off ladders during the Attitude Era. While he comes from an engineering background, Sherjeel’s love for pro wrestling and content writing led him to pursue a career in sports journalism. Before assuming his current role at Sportskeeda, Sherjeel worked at other reputable organizations for five years.

While writing articles, he ensures that he only relies on credible sources for information and covers relevant subjects that do not project an agenda against a particular person or association. WWE legend Paul Heyman once shared Sherjeel’s work on his social media handle.

Sherjeel’s earliest memory of pro wrestling is watching Stone Cold Steve Austin and The Undertaker square off for the WWE Title in the main event of a pay-per-view in 1998. His favorite wrestlers are Randy Orton and Jeff Hardy. While he admires Orton for his character work as a heel, he looks up to Jeff because of his unique wrestling style and risk-taking ability.

If he could go back to the Attitude Era, Sherjeel would like to manage Ken Shamrock and be his mouthpiece. He feels Shamrock’s promo skills prevented him from becoming a main event-level act in WWE. Hence, he would like to help the UFC Hall of Famer get over with fans.

When not writing about pro wrestling, he likes to read classics and fiction books.

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Edited by Sherjeel Malik