Dwayne Johnson Gets Candid About Returning to the Wrestling Ring at 52: 'It's Incredibly Hard' (Exclusive)

Dwayne Johnson headed back to a WWE wrestling ring for the first time in 11 years for WrestleMania 40 this past April — but his body doesn’t quite respond the same way it did a decade ago.

“It’s incredibly hard,” Johnson, 52, tells PEOPLE on Tuesday, Dec. 17, at the opening of Cirque du Soleil ‘Auana in Honolulu. “The training becomes really extensive, and the training camp becomes extensive."

"So, I went [to] training camp for WrestleMania, which was about an eight- to nine-week training camp," he adds. "It’s really fast, and fortunately, I was able to get through it all.”

There’s speculation, often times fueled by Johnson, that he may return to the ring again — likely for WrestleMania 41 in Las Vegas next year.

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While back between the ropes this past spring, he teamed with Roman Reigns and faced off against Cody Rhodes and Seth Rollins, whom he calls “great dance partners.”  

From there, Johnson, also known as The Rock, went through another seven-week training camp for 2025’s The Smashing Machine before closing out the year filming the live-action Moana.

Of course, that’s not to mention promoting two films back-to-back: Red One and the animated sequel Moana 2.

“Red One is special. It's our little Christmas movie, as I like to call it, but also on the Moana 2 of it all, it's really been this incredible global embrace of our Polynesian culture and how really amazing that is,” Johnson tells PEOPLE. “So it's a good time.”

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On Tuesday, Johnson was celebrating Polynesian and Hawaiian culture while attending the premiere of Cirque du Soleil 'Auana at the Waikiki Beachcomber Hotel in Hawaii, the state in which he lived during high school.

The actor attended the opening with his 9-year-old daughter Jasmine. He is also dad to daughters Simone Johnson, 23, and Tiana, 6.

“I think this particular Cirque du Soleil, we'll call it the aloha, the mana style Cirque du Soleil, is going to be special,” he says. “It's good to be back home during this time and bring the little one here, too.”

Moana 2 is in theaters now, while Red One is streaming on Prime Video.