SOUL MAN DOWN
Rocky Johnson was regarded as one of the best in ring performers of the 1970s, and in 1983, became one of the first black champions in WWF history when he and Tony Atlas won the Tag Team titles. A trainee boxer who once sparred with Muhammad Ali, Johnson turned to pro-wrestler in the late 60s and won a host of titles across the USA. This included reigns as the top dog in various promotions, including a run as Georgia Heavyweight Champion (at the time a major title), which was ended by perennial popular DDP pick Abdullah the Butcher. Johnson was regarded as a solid performer, and had done a lot to raise acceptance for fellow black performers in a theatre with many notoriously racist elements.
He was also the father of The Rock, Dwayne Johnson, now one of the biggest stars in Hollywood. The younger Rocks interviews are full of praise for his father, like the team Rocky Sr stepped out of a limo to stop a gang fight, or how he said he would never train his son in pro-wrestling, only for The Rock to show up at the gym next morning to find his dad waiting to train him. Johnson showed up now and again as his sons biggest cheerleader in wrestling, and was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2008. A Hall of Fame class which is now a Gerry Briscoe death away from its sole survivor being Ric Flair, because of course that makes sense.
There was also a longstanding rumour that The Rock’s dad was never saw the sun in his life Lars Anderson, which on genetics alone makes as much sense as Prince Harry’s dad being someone his mum didn’t meet till after he was born because they have similar hair…
Rocky Johnson in later years took on personal demons as per the course with many pro-wrestlers, but unlike most had managed to battle them successfully for many years, before his somewhat surprising death aged 75, a few weeks after becoming a new board member for the international Hall of Fame. Apparently, he thought he had the flu…
Johnson was a unique hit for Grappling with Mortality, a theme team with a lot of potentially top dark horse picks for the DDP in 2020. But also Superstar Billy Graham. He’d survive World War 3, a policy which might be test run soon…
Rocky Johnson
24 August 1944 – 15 January 2020
Unique hit