Dwayne Johnson featured in the latest issue of Cigar Aficionado magazine

Feb 10, 2021 - by Colin Vassallo

Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson appears on the cover of the latest Cigar Aficionado magazine and is featured in an interview by editor Marvin R. Shanken to discuss his Young Rock NBC show, tequila, the XFL, and more.

Johnson will be back on television screens starting February 16 on NBC with Young Rock, a show which will focus on his early years. “We go back and we illuminate timelines in my life, living a very on-the-go lifestyle. In the world of pro wrestling, there was such an intersection of worlds that I had, meeting professional athletes, from Muhammad Ali—my dad would spar with Ali, my dad was also a boxer, he would spar with George Foreman,” Rock said about his new show. “You can imagine what my dinners were like, with Andre the Giant and these wrestling stars…It begins at about 10 years old, then 15 years old, and then 18 years old.”

But Johnson likes to keep himself busy, and apart from launching his own tequila brand, he also took over the XFL from Vince McMahon along with his two business partners.

“My dreams of playing in the NFL never happened,” Johnson said in the interview. “Look, Warren Sapp beat me out for my position, I had a lot of injuries, none of those mattered. At the end of the day I wasn’t good enough. What the XFL will provide is an opportunity [for future players] to play. If the XFL was around for me in 1995 and I didn’t get drafted into the NFL, you can believe I would have got on the XFL field.”

Among many other topics, Johnson also discussed his family’s bout with COVID-19. “In a 24-hour period, it had spread so quickly to our nanny, our nanny’s teenage kids, her husband,” he said. “Myself and my two-year-old daughter, we were the last ones standing until the very end, but of course we both tested positive. We were on the fortunate end for something that has been so traumatic to the world. We got through it.”

The February issue of Cigar Aficionado, which also features the top 25 cigars of 2020, becomes available to readers February 16.

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