WWE: The Rock explains why he dropped the idea of becoming a UFC fighter

The Rock is considered one of the greatest WWE wrestlers of all time. But, before he became a superstar, he was just another budding wrestler in the WWF (now known as the WWE) in 1996.

The Rock's - real name is Dwayne Johnson - rise to the top of the company's roster was an uphill task. The People's Champion, however, achieved his goal by steadily moving up the ranks, and the wrestler had the best run in the federation between 1999 and 2002.

The Great One left the WWE in 2004. However, he has been making sporadic appearances since leaving the company.

The Rock has moved on to acting and has become one of the highest paid in Hollywood. But, there was a time when he was going to take a completely different career path.

The Rock has said that he considered making a switch to the UFC ten years ago but dropped the idea because he "smartened up".

"Yup, I considered @ufc 10yrs ago. My goal was @GregJacksonMMA as my coach & 2 full yrs to train. Smartened up 'cause I prefer my jaw in tact,'" he wrote on Twitter.

This is not the first time The Rock has spoken out about the time he thought about trying his hands at mixed martial arts as Brock Lesnar, Dave Bautista and Bobby Lashley has done.

"I thought, man, I achieved everything I wanted to achieve in WWE, my movie career is floundering a little bit, what do I do? ... I thought, oh well maybe UFC," The Rock previously said on the UFC Unfiltered podcast, according to GiveMeSports.

"I felt like it was at least a two-year process for me to even get in the [cage], let alone the UFC. I wasn't quite too sure what to do or what kind of people to put around me at the time, so the idea kind of fizzled out and I continued to stay on the path of movie making."