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YOUNG ROCK EPISODE ONE RECAP

Episode 1 “Working the Gimmick”

It’s the year 2032 and we see the credits for American World News’s “The Straight Line” with Randall Park (WandaVision, Fresh Off The Boat playing himself) an interview program doing a feature on Presidential candidate Dwayne Johnson. Johnson is traveling the country meeting the people to show them that he is a regular person who understands real Americans and not a pampered rich Hollywood elite.

Cut to a sit down interview between Johnson & Park where he explains that he’s just a regular guy who worked hard to get where he is. Park says you’re an open book but Johnson says he’s got many stories to tell but people don’t know everything about him. For example every time he opens the fridge he’s got to say “Can you tellllllllllalalalalow that The Rock is hungry”.  Now he’s ready to tell his life’s tale so the people can get to know him.

Hawaii 1982 we see “Soul Man” Rocky Johnson (Joseph Lee Anderson) in the ring vs Afa The Wild Samoan. Camera pans to the audience were we see Ata (Stacey Leilua) and DeWayne watching the match. “Dewey” (Adrian Groulx as 10 year old DJ) comments on how over Dad is. The Rock narrates the scene and explains his mother being the daughter of “High Chief” Peter Maivia and that professional wrestling is the family business as we see Big Rocky get the victory. The family leaves for home as the female fans ask Johnson to sign some inappropriate body parts. The Rock says he grew up learning to work the gimmick but was still a regular little boy who idolized his dad. 

Cut to motel The Johnson’s are staying at where Rocky explains “working the gimmick” to Dewey when he’s asks why their car is nicer than where they’re living. Soul Man explains the crowd doesn’t follow him home but they need to see him arriving at the show dressed nice with an expensive car. The fans need to believe who he outside the ring is who he is in real life. Ata interjects that it’s why they can’t go out in public with “Uncle Iron Sheik”.  The freshen up so they can make a quick stop at Liv Maivia’s home so Rocky can get paid before going out to dinner.

They arrive. Grandma opens the door and her apartment is filled with wrestlers playing cards and talking shop. Junkyard Dog, Afa & Sika are present (on screen they pay homage to the old school wrestling trading cards to introduce the characters). Rocky tells Dewey to shake everybody’s hand as the Iron Sheik passes out margaritas. He tries to give one to Dewey but no dice. Heavy footsteps are heard and the front door opens. It’s Andre The Giant with a case of wine. Rocky says they’re staying instead of going to dinner and he promises Dewey that they’ll go for ice cream after the card game. 

The card game starts and they’re talking about the matches and other wrestlers. Liv talks about how she misses Peter and remembers when she first saw him wrestle and thought it was real. Everyone gets a good laugh but while he’s filling in a coloring book on the floor Dewey chimes in that he can’t believe Grandma would get upset because it’s fake. The room goes silent. Andre gets up and picks up Dewey so they can make eye contact and tells him to never use “the F word”. That ends the night except the boys decide to go out to a Tiki Bar and thus no ice cream for Dewey disappointing Ata. 

We cut back to the interview where Dwayne explains that despite his father not always keeping his promises he was still his hero. As he got older he started working the gimmick by shoplifting nice clothes. This admission sends his campaign manager into a panic but DJ says he’s going to keep it real.

It’s now 1987 in Bethlehem, PA and we hear “Push It” by Salt N’ Pepa where the 15 year old Dwayne (Bradley Constant) is stealing from a Chess King type of store at the mall. We cut to him walking into his high school dressed like a rich kid . He gets to class and introduces himself as “Tomas” to the pretty blonde sitting next to him. We then cut to the lunch room where where he explains to his friend Gabe that “Tomas sounds cooler than Dwayne”. Dwayne explains that because  “Fine Ass Karen” thinks he’s rich they got invited him to a party. Gabe breaks the news that the girls haven’t been ignoring him because he looks poor but because he looks like an undercover cop like Johnny Depp on “21 Jump Street”.  Dwayne gets defensive and yells “I’m 15!” to the lunchroom. Gabe says you can’t pretend you’re rich because everyone sees you riding the bus.

Dwayne arrives home where we learn Ata cleans homes for a living while Rocky has taken the car to a convention where he’s trying to make some money signing autographs. Dwayne says it isn’t fair Rocky took the family car and she has to ride the bus all over town. He wants his Mom to buy them a car to impress Karen and he says he’s got $103 to help. She tells him that would help with groceries and bills more than a car would. 

Gabe & Dwayne work at a pizza place and are having a conversation about buying a car and a customer overhears them and says he’ll sell him his car. Dwayne tries to bargain but Billy knows he has $103 and that’s how much the car costs. Dwayne buys the beat up old Thunderbird. They get off work and off on their way to get some beer and drive to the party when a man wakes up in the backseat. Gabe & Dwayne freak out but Waffle asks to be driven to a friend's house in exchange for him buying beer for them. They agree. 

They arrive at the party and Dwayne opens the trunk to get his rich kid clothes and finds another person in the car. Waffle explains to Dwayne that he regrets his life and he wishes he’d been kinder to the people who loved him when he was young. This prompts Dwayne to drive off to find Ata at her bus stop to drive her home. Dwayne tells Ata he’s going to start helping out the family and that one day he’ll buy her a car. Waffle and Dwayne drop off Ata and Waffle has another heartfelt conversation but before Waffle can tell DeWayne the most important thing about life he slumps over and dies in the backseat. We cut to Dwayne at a pay phone calling 911 telling them there’s a dead guy in a car nobody owns by the Wendy’s

Back to the interview where Randall & Dwayne mourn poor Waffle and we see pictures of Ata with the various Cadillacs that he’s been able to buy her over the years. Park asks if this was when he stopped working the gimmick but DJ explains no “this was when I learned to make the gimmick work for me”. 

We begin the Miami University part of his journey when Dwayne (now played by Uli Latukefu) arrives at the football program in 1990. Unfortunately after talking with some of his teammates he realizes Rocky had already been there putting him over and telling everyone Dwayne was going to be pictured on boxes of Wheaties. This embarrasses Dwayne who calls his father to complain about it. Rocky ends the call because he has to get back to work delivering liquor. Dwayne decides to out work the locker room on day one by breaking the team's consecutive bench press record of 35 reps at a weight of 225 lbs. He gets over on his own.

We cut back to DJ & Park where he explains this was where he found his version of working the gimmick by being himself but with the dial turned up to 11. DJ then sets up the series by saying he’s got more stories to share and they flashback to Hawaii 1982 where Dewey is in class on Career Day and Andre The Giant enters the room.

Credits.

“Young Rock” airs Tuesday nights at 8 PM or On Demand on NBC.

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