WWE Hall of Famer Rocky Johnson has died at age 75

A Hall of Famer on his own before his son became one of WWE’s most famous heels and biggest stars ever, Rocky Johnson has passed away at age 75.

It’s a sad day in the wrestling, sports and entertainment world. On Wednesday, the WWE announced Hall of Famer Rocky Johnson has passed away at the age of 75. His cause of death has not been given.

Johnson, born Wade Douglas Bowles in 1944 and raised in Nova Scotia, started his wrestling career at age 16 before joining the National Wrestling Alliance and becoming a star there in the 1970s. But his career really took off upon arriving on the WWE stage in the early 1980s. Amid memorable rivalries with Greg “The Hammer” Valentine, Adrian Adonis and Don Muraco, “Soul Man” teamed up with Tony Atlas to form The Soul Patrol tag team with great success. They became the first African-American World Tag Team Champions in WWE history when they defeated The Wild Samoans on Dec. 10, 1983.

Johnson retired from the ring in 1991, but his legacy continued in WWE for a long time after. Despite his own misgivings, he had a hand in training his son, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson.

The younger Johnson made his debut in 1996, initially taking the ring name Rocky Maivia to honor his father and his maternal grandfather “High Chief” Peter Maivia, and started a little slowly. But he eventually fully embraced a heel persona during what would become known as the Attitude Era, and “The Rock” became one of the biggest stars in the history of WWE and sports-entertainment.

Rocky Johnson went into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2008, with his son doing the honor of inducting him.

As expected, the reaction to the elder Johnson’s passing has come in droves from around the wrestling world.

https://twitter.com/JRsBBQ/status/1217590719969251328?s=20

Condolences obviously go out to Johnson’s family and friends.