Rocky Johnson, father of actor Dwayne Johnson, dead at 75

Rocky “Soulman” Johnson, a WWE Hall of Reputation wrestler who grew to change into better is known as the father of actor Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, has died. He was 75.

WWE issued a statement on Johnson’s death Wednesday evening. Johnson and Tony Atlas grew to change into the predominant sad world imprint crew champions in WWE historical previous when they defeated The Wild Samoans on Dec. 10, 1983.

“A loss for every fan of @WWE, Rocky Johnson was a barrier-breaking performer. Our suggestions are with his family today,” WWE govt and wrestler Paul “Triple H” Levesque tweeted.

Johnson later helped prepare his son, who adopted the Rocky moniker from his father. Johnson got here to his son’s aid after a match at WrestleMania in 1997. The Rock inducted his father into the WWE Hall of Reputation in 2008.

Old professional wrestler Brian Blair, one other 1980s WWE big title, was chums with Johnson for a long time they generally still went to church together within the Tampa, Florida home. Blair told The Connected Press on Wednesday that Johnson had complained of an unspecified illness of unhurried and had disregarded church that he attended with Blair and other worn wrestlers. Blair acknowledged Johnson’s famous other, Sheila, was distraught over her husband’s death.

“He was merely below the climate, he notion he had the flu or something,” Blair acknowledged by phone. “I acknowledged, ‘You, enjoy to score checked out, Rocky.’ He acknowledged he’d be OK. Then he disregarded this Sunday, just a few days within the past. After I talked to him as soon as more, he acknowledged he still wasn’t feeling merely and he still disregarded church. He still didn’t score checked out. I talked to Sheila and she acknowledged he was merely being stubborn. He died at home, on the modern time.”

Johnson was born Wayde Douglas Bowles and began his wrestling profession within the mid-1960s. He spent the huge majority of his profession within the Nationwide Wrestling Alliance and later joined the then-World Wrestling Federation within the 1980s. He shaped a imprint crew with Atlas is known as “Soul Patrol” and grew to change into of one the neatly-liked groups of the era. Johnson retired within the early 1990s, but helped introduce his son to officials at WWE.