Hulk Hogan Opens up About Funeral for Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson's Father Rocky: 'Beautiful Day With Beautiful People'
Former professional wrestler Rocky Johnson was laid to rest on Tuesday during an invitation-only [...]
Former professional wrestler Rocky Johnson was laid to rest on Tuesday during an invitation-only memorial service. Roughly 100 people were in attendance, including Hulk Hogan. The WWE Hall of Famer reflected on the funeral with a post on Instagram.
"Beautiful day with beautiful people today RIP #RockyJohnson 'Soul Man' good friend and loyal to the end, looking eye to eye with your son telling him how you were always good to me made the day for me," Hogan wrote in the caption of his post. "The love 4 you Rocky will never die,RIP my brother,I will see you again love HH."
Hogan was one of the many WWE elite on hand for the services, joining the Superstar Billy Graham, Pat Patterson, Harry Smith, and Vince McMahon.
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"Your presence meant the world to us, champ," Dwayne Johnson wrote in response to Hogan. "As we talked about this at the funeral, The Soulman LOVED talking about you. Took great pride in your brotherhood. As I do as well. All love, brother."
Hogan began his professional wrestling career in the late 1970s, but he didn't gain worldwide fame until joining the World Wrestling Federation in 1983. This company eventually evolved into WWE.
As Hogan explained following Johnson's death last week, the "Soul Man" was only one of a few people in the business that was kind and helpful to him in the early days. This support included bringing a young Dwayne to a match.
Johnson's cause of death was unknown earlier in the week, but the Rock provided some insight on Instagram. He revealed that there were some issues with blood clots that ultimately proved to be fatal.
"He had not been feeling well," Johnson said in his video. "He'd been battling a cold and infection and on Tuesday he had what's called a deep vein thrombosis, which is essentially a blood clot in the leg. It was a big old blood clot that broke free, traveled up his body and went right to his lung, clotted his lung and he died very quickly from a massive heart attack."
Rocky retired from professional wrestling in 1991, ending a career that began in 1964. He made history in 1983 with Tony Atlas when they became the first black champions in WWE history. Johnson was also the first black Georgia Heavyweight Champion. In 2008, he was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame by his son.
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