Rocky “Soulman” Johnson, father of Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, has died. He was 75.
WWE issued a statement on Johnson’s death Wednesday night.
Rocky Johnson, a WWE Hall of Fame wrestler, was a Canadian professional wrestler.
During his wrestling career, he became a National Wrestling Alliance Georgia Champion and a NWA Southern Heavyweight Memphis Champion, as well as winning many other championships, according to Wikipedia.
He was born on 24 August, 1944, in Amherst, Canada.
He died yesterday, January 15, 2020.
The WWE statement didn’t provide details on the cause or location of Johnson’s death.
“A loss for every fan of @WWE, Rocky Johnson was a barrier-breaking performer. Our thoughts are with his family at this time,” WWE executive and wrestler Paul “Triple H” Levesque tweeted.
Johnson later helped train his son, who adopted the Rocky moniker from his father. Johnson came to his son’s aid after a match at WrestleMania in 1997.
The Rock inducted his father into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2008, according to The Associated Press [AP] report.
Former professional wrestler Brian Blair, another 1980s WWE star, was friends with Johnson for decades and they still went to church together in the Tampa, Florida area.
Blair told AP on Wednesday that Johnson had complained of an unspecified illness of late and had missed church that he attended with Blair and other former wrestlers.
Blair said Johnson’s wife, Sheila, was distraught over her husband’s death.
“He was just under the weather, he thought he had the flu or something,” Blair said by phone.
“I said, ‘You, need to get checked out, Rocky.’ He said he’d be OK. Then he missed this Sunday, a few days ago.
“When I talked to him again, he said he still wasn’t feeling good and he still missed church. He still didn’t get checked out.
“I talked to Sheila and she said he was just being stubborn. He died at home, today.”
Johnson was born Wayde Douglas Bowles and started his wrestling career in the mid-1960s.
He spent the bulk of his career in the National Wrestling Alliance and later joined the then-World Wrestling Federation in the 1980s.
He formed a tag team with Atlas known as “Soul Patrol” and became of one the popular teams of the era.
Johnson and Tony Atlas became the first black world tag team champions in WWE history when they defeated The Wild Samoans on Dec. 10, 1983.
Johnson retired in the early 1990s, but helped introduce his son to officials at WWE.