Rocky Johnson

In 1970, he married Ata Maivia, the daughter of Samoan professional wrestler, Peter Maivia, who belonged to the Anoa'i family of professional wrestlers who originated from American Samoa.

Rocky first met Ata when he was teamed with her father in a match. Peter Maivia initially disapproved the relationship, as he knew how hard it was for a wrestler’s family to stay at home while the wrestler himself moved from place to place. The couple got married despite his disapproval.

Rocky Johnson was born as Wayde Douglas Bowles on August 24, 1944, in Amherst, Nova Scotia, Canada. Son of Lillian and James Henry Bowles, he is a descendant of the Black Loyalists who immigrated to Canada after escaping from US after the American Revolutionary War. He has four brothers.

He was 13 when his father died. His mother turned him out of the house over a tiff he had with her boyfriend. Homeless at such a young age, he braved all challenges and worked hard to survive. At 16, he moved to Toronto and worked as a truck driver. He also began wrestling around this time.

Initially Rocky Johnson was trained in boxing and he sparred with great boxers like Muhammad Ali and George Foreman. However, he was more fascinated by wrestling, and eventually took it up as a career.

He started his professional wrestling career in 1964, in Southern Ontario. Around the same time, he legally changed his name to Rocky Johnson. The legendary High Chief Peter Maivia was his trainer; he would later become his father-in-law.

Rocky Johnson competed all around the world before he joined National Wrestling Alliance (NWA). By the 1970s he had become a top contender in NWA, having won several regional NWA singles and tag team titles. He also fought title matches against World Champions Harley Race and Terry Funk, but could never unseat either of them from the NWA World Championship.

He was well adapted to tag team wrestling, and won a number of regional tag team championships in NWA. For some years, he wrestled in the Memphis promotion, and fought matches with Jerry Lawler, and won Lawler's crown as well. For some time, he wrestled under a mask as ‘Sweet Ebony Diamond’ in the Mid-Atlantic area.

In 1983, World Wrestling Federation (WWF) hired him, and he fought matches with Don Muraco, Mike Sharpe, Greg Valentine, Buddy Rose, and Adrian Adonis. He was paired with Tony Atlas as a tag team. They were the first black tag team, and were known as ‘The Soul Patrol’.

Rocky Johnson won the NWA Florida Heavyweight Championship thrice, the NWA Texas Heavyweight Championship twice, and NWA Pacific Northwest Tag Team Championship twice.

He is also the one-time winner of the NWA Brass Knuckles Championship, NWA Florida Tag Team Championship, and NWA Florida Television Championship.

He was ranked No. 211 of the 500 best singles wrestlers during the ‘PWI Years’ in 2003.