🔗 Share this article

It all began with a shared knowing nod between two powerful figures at a Santa Monica Gold’s Gym in the summer of 1997. One-time Olympic wrestling hopeful Mark Kerr was training for his debut Ultimate Fighting Championship bout, following his dominant performance in a three-match, one-night tournament in Brazil only two months earlier. Dwayne “Rocky Maivia” Johnson, a former NFL prospect benched with a knee injury sustained during his sophomore year with the WWE, approached him.

“Can I take you to lunch?” Johnson inquired Kerr, who consented to meet at the Firehouse restaurant in Santa Monica. Their conversation naturally turned to mixed martial arts, as Johnson bombarded the collegiate wrestling titleholder with specific questions about the unregulated sport. MMA was growing in popularity in Japan, where multiple promotions employed pro wrestlers for hybrid fights.

“What’s it like working for this group? How’s the pay and do they pay on time? How’s the work schedule? I sensed from his inquiries that he was seriously contemplating his choices,” said Kerr, age 29 at the time. “I asked him why he’d depart from the WWE, which seemed far more of a secure choice than competing. When he told me he was losing money on the road, touring 250 days a year for $150,000, I understood.”

The two swapped numbers and went their separate ways, two ships passing in the night. Kerr moved from the UFC to Japan’s Pride Fighting Championships the next year for earnings topping $200,000, while the heroic “Maivia” went back to the WWE and turned heel, courtesy of Vince McMahon. “The Rock” appeared soon after and the attention-grabbing Johnson’s career rapidly snapped into place.

The Rise and Fall of a Titleholder

Between 1997 and 2000, Kerr was the No 1 MMA heavyweight in the world. His record soared to 11-0, but it was a hectic pace no athlete could keep up for long. Kerr was well-acquainted to drugs; a trainer had exposed him to steroids in his early fights. Now, Kerr needed relief from decades of cumulative pain to bolster his endurance for Pride’s exhausting 10-minute rounds. Kerr had torn cartilage in his ribcage that pained him with every breath.

“There was never a shortage of doctors [in Arizona] who’d prescribe me opioids,” Kerr remarked, “and if one said no, I’d just find the next.”

Kerr was hooked to Vicodin in a few months, a skipped dose causing anxiety, abdominal pain and fatigue. Having prior experience to intravenous drugging, popping pills soon turned into injecting liquid straight into his veins. Kerr concealed his Nubain and morphine supply in the guest bathroom out of sight from his girlfriend, Dawn. He shot up every morning, sometimes rousing hours later slumped over the toilet when he’d dosed too much.

Mark Kerr, right, battles Moti Horenstein during UFC 14 at Boutwell Auditorium in Birmingham, Alabama, on 27 July 1997.

A camera crew recorded this period on film, which became the 2002 documentary The Smashing Machine. By then, Kerr’s MMA career was finished. When he encountered Johnson a second time in 2003, it was a complete turnaround. “The Rock”, having been supported by Hulk Hogan at Wrestlemania XVIII the year prior, was a genuine superstar with two movies under his belt. Johnson gushed to Kerr about the documentary, as the MMA fighter worried over his decision to expose his dark underbelly. Kerr hadn’t been offered a fight in over two years. He was not an intravenous user, but alcoholism had become Kerr’s daily enemy; he could down four bottles of red wine in one session. By the time another Pride offer arrived, Kerr was far from fighting shape. On the sport’s largest stage, he lost consciousness seconds into the contest with, ironically, an ill-timed takedown that sent his head driving into the canvas.

Personal Struggles and Fresh Starts

Kerr married Dawn and they had a son, Bryce, in 2004. Their marriage stayed combustible for years, as Kerr juggled drinking and the occasional personal-training job between fights. After his last defeat in 2009, Kerr had no choice but to call it a day. A tarnished former champion was of little value to fight promoters. Kerr switched to car salesman, but feared getting noticed by potential buyers.

“I could often sense when someone noticed me, even if they didn’t bring it up,” said Kerr. “They always got the same expression on their face, as if to say, ‘What happened to you?’”

Meanwhile, in 2009, Johnson secured yet another starring role in Return to Witch Mountain, his 11th film. Soon, Dwayne Johnson, without “the Rock,” would become a household name.

As Johnson’s trajectory ascended over the next decade, Kerr’s took a nosedive. There was job-hopping and three stints in rehab. Dawn divorced him, but their volatile relationship persisted as they tried to co-parent their son. Finally, it was the 14-year-old Bryce’s plea that stopped Kerr’s self-destruction in September 2018.

“It was the yearly remembrance of my mother’s death and Bryce said he knew today was a tough day for me, but requested if I could quit drinking the day after,” explained Kerr. “How could I not listen?”

A Second Chance and Hollywood Attention

Kerr was 10 months clean when Brad Slater, Johnson’s longtime agent, rang about securing the MMA pioneer’s life rights. The call was completely out of the blue. Kerr and Johnson hadn’t communicated in 12 years, and Johnson, the movie star, now had more cache over the roles he chose. Johnson had always remembered about Kerr’s documentary and secretly had hoped he’d get to play the tough, yet vulnerable fighter.

The group including Mark Kerr and Dwayne Johnson appear at the red carpet of the movie The Smashing Machine at the Venice Film Festival in September.

Johnson revealed the film at a UFC press conference in September 2019. His Seven Bucks Productions would be at the ship’s helm, with writer-director Benny Safdie its rudder. Safdie began converting the documentary into a screenplay, drawing from Kerr for extra scenes to develop Mark and Dawn’s relationship.

“When the pandemic hit in March 2020, I thought it was over for the film,” said Kerr, who’d resigned himself to a peaceful Arizona life. “If it was destined, it would all work out.”

In recovery, Kerr got back in touch with a gym friend named Franci. They began seeing each other during the pandemic and would marry on New Year’s Eve 2023.

During the pandemic, Kerr didn’t hear a peep from Johnson, Safdie or Seven Bucks, but sometime during the 57-day shoot for Oppenheimer, Safdie convinced co-star Emily Blunt to watch the documentary. Blunt, a long-standing friend of Johnson’s, right away called her Jungle Cruise co-star, telling him the time was now to get the film done. Blunt signed on to play Kerr’s girlfriend, Dawn, and the project gained momentum.

Kerr got another call from Slater in September 2023, but this time there was a filming date that spring. Kerr visited the Vancouver film set that April and filming began that May. According to Johnson’s request, Kerr didn’t go to the set during shooting.

“DJ had never played a living person before and I respected that approach,” noted Kerr. “I’m glad I kept my distance. When my son saw the film, he couldn’t fathom how DJ captured my [softer] speech and mannerisms. My own son!”

Indeed, Johnson’s performance as Kerr is believable, especially for those that know the former fighter. Johnson received a 16-minute applause for the film at the Venice Film Festival, while the creative Safdie took home its prestigious director’s prize.

For the 56-year-old Kerr, it’s a new opportunity at notoriety, however temporary that might be. Johnson has been adamant that Kerr be at his side for most of the film’s marketing tour.

“It’s amazing that a small decision I made decades ago, to keep the [documentary] cameras filming while my life crashed and burned, evolved into all this,” said Kerr, who plans to write a book next. “I couldn’t be happier with how this all concluded and I can truthfully say that I’ve made friends for life from it.”