Rocky (Soulman) Johnson-The orignal "Rock" and "King of the Drop Kick" because no one in the professional wrestling bussiness could do it better,was born Wayde Douglas Bowles in 1944 in Amherst,Nova Scotia, Canada, but moved to Toronto at eleven.He is the son of the late James Henry Bowles the descendant of slaves who escaped the plantations of the American south and found refuge in Amherst,Nova Scotia during the early 1800's,and Lillian Bowles(nee Gay)who'was mixed with Black, Native and Irish,and who's roots are still strong and present to this day in Amherst. Because Wayde like the name so much and he was so well known by it, he legally had his name changed to Rocky Johnson a few years after he started his career. He is the fourth child of five boys who are Lewis, Robert, Mervyn, and James Jr who you know as Ricky Johnson. He is married to Ata Maivia the daughter of wrestling legend, the late High Chief Peter Maivia and former wrestling promoter of Polyenesian wrestling Lia Maivia.
It was in Canada that Rocky first started his wrestling career in the mid 1960's wrestling his first professional fight in Hamilton,Ontario,just outside of Toronto. Over the next little while Rocky was wrestling at variours wrestling oganizations through out Canada, such as in Vancouver were he won the Canadian tag-team championship with Don Leo Johnathan in 1967, and in Nova Scotia where he won the North American title in 1969. As Rocky's skills developed he started to get more popular with the fans both North and South of the border.Rocky had amazing athletic ability and often used fancy Muhamed Ali like footwork ,and the fans loved it.(Actually,in 1974 for a brief time he was the sparring partner of George Foreman.) Soon he was wrestling at variours NWA organizations winning numerous belts, including the NWA world tag-team belts with fellow Canadian Pat Patterson three times. In 1980 Rocky started wrestling in the NWA's Mid-Atlantic wrestling in North Carolina.Looking for a new angle in his career he decided to now were a mask and go by the name of Sweet Ebony Diamond. While there, in 1981 Sweet Ebony Diamond defeated Greg (The Hammer) Valentine for the Mid-Atlantic T.V. tittle. In 1982 the mask came off and Rocky joined the WWF were he feuded with Don Muraco for the Inter-Continetal tittle, thus almost becoming the first Black IC champion in WWF history.But it was in November of 1983 that Rocky had his most memorable moment in his WWF career when him and partner Tony Atlas became the first Black tag-team champions in WWF history.Soon afterwards Rocky left the WWF and decided to wrestle with his brother Ricky Johnson for his mother-inlaw and then promoter Lia Maivia in Hawaii. Together him and his brother formed the tag team called the Soul Patrol and won the Polynesian tag-team titles twice in 1984 and 1985. He then wrestled briefly in 1987 in Tennessee for the CWA International Wrestling winning the tag-team belts there with Bill Dundee.For the next couple of years Rocky wrestled on the independant circle in various parts of the world, but after more than 20 years of a glorious career Rocky decided to retire and concentrate on teaching other up and coming wrestlers such as his son The Rock.
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