Buono got The Rock’s career rolling
Lions coach says he cut Dwayne Johnson so he could try out for the WWF — and the rest is history
Wally Buono is holding court when the conversation turns to Dwayne Johnson, and at these precious moments, it’s best to get out of the way and let the man tell his story.
Johnson — also known as The Rock, and one of the planet’s biggest movie stars — was a practice roster player for the Stampeders in 1995 who supplemented his meagre salary with appearances on Stampede Wrestling.
The son of former grappler Rocky Johnson, Johnson the younger had been a big-time recruit at the University of Miami, who won a national championship in 1991 before he was pushed out of a starting job by Warren Sapp.
His CFL career, alas, wasn’t going much better.
“His agent called me and said, ‘What are you going to do with Dwayne,?’ ” Buono recounts. “I said, ‘I think we’re going to cut him on Saturday.’ He asked, ‘Can you cut him today?’ I said, ‘I can cut him today.’
“So I called in Dwayne and said, ‘Your agent wants me to cut you because he’s got an opportunity for you.’ I just said, ‘Good luck.’ ”
The opportunity was a tryout with the Worldwide Wrestling Federation that would launch Johnson’s career. This is also worth noting. Early on he wrestled under the name Flex Kavana.
You made Johnson, it was suggested to Buono.
“I know,” Buono said. “If I would have kept him, he would have been a lousy CFL player for $58,000 a year.”
As mentioned, it’s best to take advantage of these moments with Buono because, soon enough, he’ll be down to the business of football and the stories won’t be as forthcoming or as entertaining.
The B.C. Lions rookie camp opened Thursday and the main camp gets rolling this weekend. This will be Buono’s 44th camp as a player and a coach, and already he’s preoccupied by the hundreds of details, big and small, that make up this exercise.
Are the rooms ready in Kamloops? Is the Wi-Fi working at Thompson Rivers University? Will he start a Canadian at safety? Did the Lions do enough this off-season to win a Grey Cup?
While he’s addressing these and other matters, Danny Vandevoort walks in and introduces himself. The Lions selected the McMaster wide receiver with the third pick of the 2017 draft. He was born in ’94, 21 years after Buono broke in with the Alouettes and three years after he took over as the Stamps’ head coach.
“I’m 67 years old,” Buono said. “I don’t have the energy I used to have. But I still understand that, if you don’t work, you’re not going to be successful. There’s a certain effort you need to be good and a certain effort you need to be better than good. As you get older, you appreciate you can’t be just good.”
The presumption in Lions’ circles is this will be Buono’s final season as head coach, and during a quiet moment this week, he did little to debunk his interrogator of that notion.
But he also says that’s the furthest thing from his mind these days because, as always, the game and the Lions are his entire focus.
Last season, after four years away from the sideline, he took a team that appeared to be broken under Jeff Tedford and rallied it to a 12-6 record. It was, by any measure, a successful campaign, but it was good, not great and, ultimately, that made it a failure.
“We needed to be better on the last game,” said Buono, referring to the West Final and the 42-15 beat down the Stamps put on the Leos.
“If you look at our season, we were pretty good until the last game of the season. The game in Calgary was nothing to be proud of. Did it show us who we really are? I don’t believe that. But I think it showed us how good we have to be.”
With that in mind, Buono feels the Lions have addressed their areas of greatest need. Their biggest off-season acquisition was Chris Williams who, potentially, gives quarterback Jonathon Jennings another game-breaking receiver.
The ripple effect concerns the ratio, but Buono has some flexibility there with four Canadian offensive linemen, a Canadian receiver to complement the venerable Rolly Lumbala, Canadian depth on the defensive front and, perhaps, two Canadians in the secondary.
The coach, it seems, has a plan. He’s just not keen on sharing it.
“We’re going to pick the best group of 24, knowing that at least seven have to be national starters,” he said without offering much in the way of detail.
But this is also Buono’s way. When it’s time to work, the information, like the stories, is doled out with an eyedropper. This weekend, the serious business of football begins, just as it has every year since 1973.
If it’s his last year, don’t expect him to change.
“In 1990 (his first year as Stampeders’ head coach) I didn’t realize how difficult it is. Today I do.”
And today he has a chance to make his team better. This much he knows.