Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson is “delivering flowers to heaven” for his late father, the WWE Hall of Fame wrestler Rocky Johnson.
In a moving Instagram update on Thursday, The Rock, who recently joined the board of WWE and UFC owners TKO Group, looked back on Rocky making WWE history alongside Tony Atlas. He also shared a more personal take on his father’s legacy.
“He came up the hard way, and trail-blazed for all of us men of color - in any sport & level of entertainment,” he wrote when sharing archival footage of Rocky in the ring. “But it was also very important to him to pave the way for all men, any color - it didn’t matter. My regret in this life is that I never had a chance to say goodbye to him, because he died suddenly. I regret not reconciling our complicated father/son shit before I lost him. Raised me with tough fatherly love and an even tougher hand. The more I live life, the more grateful I am for it.”
Rocky "Soulman" Johnson, who died in 2020 at the age of 75, was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame alongside Peter Maivia, his father-in-law. Handling the induction honors at the 2008 ceremony was none other than The Rock, who credited his father and grandfather's successes with having directly inspired his own.
"My dad and my grandfather are the cornerstones of my career," Johnson told the crowd. "When that dream came true when I stepped into the WWE ring for the first time in 1996, my sole purpose at that time was to just make my family proud."
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That legacy has continued for another generation with Ava, Dwayne's daughter and a current WWE star in her own right.
