Hollywood action star Dwayne Johnson has revealed that his father, veteran WWE wrestler, Rocky Johnson died of a “massive heart attack”. Rocky ‘Soul Man’ Johnson, whose real name was Wayde Bowles, died last week at the age of 75.
Dwayne shared his father’s cause of death in a video he posted on Instagram.
“A lot of you guys wanted to know what happened to my dad. He had not been feeling well, had been battling a cold and infection and on Tuesday he had what’s called a deep vein thrombosis, which is essentially a clot in the leg. It was a big ole 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, just like that,” Johnson said.
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“That did give me great comfort in knowing that it wasn’t prolonged, the actor added, noting that his father, who started his wrestling career back in 1964, “had been in a lot of pain for a very, very long time“.
The 47-year-old actor also thanked his followers for all the love and support.
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“Hey everybody I just wanted to stop in on this very blessed Sunday to say thank you so much. Thank you. My heart is so full of gratitude. You've lifted my spirits in ways that I hope you can imagine,” he said.
Rocky is best known for becoming the first black tag team champion in WWE history with partner Tony Atlas as The Soul Patrol in 1983. He retired from the ring in 1991 and trained Dwayne for his WWE launch under the name The Rock.
Dwayne inducted Rocky into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2008.