Rocky Johnson, the father of Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, passed away last night in Lutz, Florida at the age of 75.
Johnson began his wrestling career in 1965 and wrestled mostly for the National Wrestling Alliance during his career. In 1982, he jumped to the World Wrestling Federation where he feuded with the likes of Adrian Adonis, Greg Valentine, Don Muraco, and others. He then started tag teaming with Tony Atlas, winning the Tag Team titles once from the Wild Samoans in 1983. Johnson wrestled for WWE till 1985.
After his retirement in 1991, Johnson started training his son and took a trainer role with WWE at Ohio Valley Wrestling but that assignment did not last long and was removed a few months later.
In 2008, WWE inducted him into its Hall of Fame with Dwayne Johnson doing the honors for his father. Last year he published his autobiography Soulman: The Rocky Johnson Story, with his son writing the foreword.
Rocky was married to Una but divorced in 1978 and married his second wife Ata just a few days later. Ata was the daughter of High Chief Peter Maivia and the mother of Dwayne. He divorced from his second wife in 2003 and later married speech pathologist Sheila to who he was married to until his death.
Cauliflower Alley Club’s Brian Blair noted that Johnson had been ill over the last couple of weeks but did not specify what he had. No cause of death has been released.
