In 1991, he met his future wife at a bar on the very night he was supposed to be the main player in his first orgy. He did not go to the orgy, but he did fall in love with Dany. Though her family, uptight first-generation Cuban immigrants, did not approve of him, mainly because of his African-American heritage, the two continued to see each other throughout his college years. Years during which he was a huge binge-boozer, who favored Jack Daniel’s and Diet Coke and in one drunken episode, at a family wedding, tried to strangle a woman who he mistakenly thought had dissed his dad. At one point he earned himself a grade-point average of 0.7. By the time he graduated, however, he’d cut back on the Jack and lifted his GPA to 2.9. He left with a degree in criminology, thinking he might become a Secret Service agent, but first he wanted to give the NFL a shot. They weren’t interested, but the Canadian Football League was, so he moved to Calgary, where he took home a measly $175 a week; lived like a pauper on grotty mattresses; quit the stinking job; returned to Miami with seven dollars to his name; broke up with Dany; decided to enter the family business; got hired by the WWF; got back together with Dany; married Dany in 1997; made up with her parents; sighed with relief when his dad gave up drinking; grew up some himself; and found his calling as a WWF wrestler.
“That was my life,’’ Dwayne says. “That’s what happened.’’