Last week the WWE shared the sad news that Rocky “Soul Man” Johnson (born Wayde Douglas Bowles), a WWE Hall of Famer, former World Tag Team Champion, and father of Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, had passed away at age 75.
He found his greatest success when he teamed up with Tony Atlas as The Soul Patrol. The two men became the first African-American World Tag Team Champions in WWE history when they defeated The Wild Samoans on Dec. 10, 1983.
In a heartfelt Instagram post, his son, Dwayne The Rock Johnson, shared the beautiful words below in memory of his late father:
I love you.
You broke color barriers, became a ring legend and trail blazed your way thru this world.
I was the boy sitting in the seats, watching and adoring you, my hero from afar.
The boy you raised to always be proud of our cultures and proud of who and what I am.
The boy you raised with the toughest of love.
The intense work.
The hard hand.
The adoring boy who wanted to know only your best qualities.
Who then grew to become a man realizing you had other deeply complicated sides that needed to be held and understood.
Son to father.
Man to man.
That’s when my adoration turned to respect.
And my empathy turned to gratitude.
Grateful that you gave me life.
Grateful you gave me life’s invaluable lessons.
Dad, I wish I had one more shot to tell you, I love you, before you crossed over to the other side.
But you were ripped away from me so fast without warning.
Gone in an instant and no coming back.
Im in pain.
But we both know it’s just pain and it’ll pass.
Now I’ll carry your mana and work ethic with me, as it’s time to move on because I have my family to feed and work to accomplish.
Finally, I want you to rest your trailblazing soul, Soulman.
Pain free, regret free, satisfied and at ease.
You lived a very full, very hard, barrier breaking life and left it all in the ring.
I love you dad and I’ll always be your proud and grateful son.
Go rest high.
#ripsoulman #rockyjohnson 🐐
