Dwayne Johnson once saved a man's life by punching him for talking 's**t'

Dwayne Johnson says that he once inadvertently saved someone’s life by punching them in the head.

Obviously this isn’t the ideal way to run a medical examination, nor would we advise hitting anyone in the head to check them for any ailment – in fact, for whatever reason – but according to The Rock, he once did someone an accidental favour by laying them out.

Nowadays, he’s a much more mild-mannered chap, more akin to performing random acts of kindness and generally trying to get people up for their day, but as a teenager he used to be a bit of a tearaway.

Whilst he might not have been a bully – quite the opposite, as it happens – he still ended up in the usual scraps that children have at that sort of age.

Using his large physique, he ended up in several disagreements and sorted them out himself.

Instagram/The Rock

That often landed him in trouble, including spending some time in the cells for his transgressions.

However, when he was 15 years old, he ended up in a fight that would change the life of his opponent for ever.

After taking a whack from the Brahma Bull, the kid ended up having to go to hospital because his head was bleeding.

Upon closer inspection of his head, they discovered that he had a brain tumour.

According to Johnson, that might have gone undetected had he not received an ass-kicking from the future WWE Champion of the World.

Instagram/The Rock

Speaking to radio shock-jock Howard Stern on his SiriusXM show, Johnson explained: “Then I hit this one guy when I was fifteen, it sounds a little self-serving and I didn’t know he wound up having a brain tumour and I had no idea.

“He hit his head against the wall and went down, I kept punching him and he had to go to the hospital and they found out that he had a brain tumour”

It might not come as that much of a surprise given that the guy eventually wound up in the world of professional fighting – even though it’s not real – but this wasn’t his only fight.

When he was 18, Johnson ended up in prison before he set off for college after a man set about his mate at a bar.

Seeing his pal in trouble, the Black Adam star waded in and ended things, putting the guy on his backside.

Nowadays, he's well above that sort of behaviour. Credit :DPA Picture Alliance/Alamy

However, the police later showed up to arrest him, leaving his parents left to bail him out.

OK, they were mad, but they were proud that he’d stuck up for his friend as well.

Of course, nowadays The Rock is more well-known for his charitable work, his devotion to fitness and wellbeing, and his career on the large and small screen.

He’s not known for his ability to diagnose obscure illnesses through ass-whoopings.

Though, if anyone was going to turn out to be skilled in that way…