Rocky Johnson

During his career, he wrestled for the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA), World Wrestling Entertainment, and many smaller and overseas promotions. He reached the high point of his career in the WWE in 1983, becoming one half of the WWE Tag Team Champions with Tony Atlas. Johnson and Atlas were notable not only for their popularity, but for being the first WWE Tag Team Champions of African descent (Atlas is African-American).

During his career, Rocky also wrestled as "Soulman" Rocky Johnson. He was a top contender in the NWA in the 1970s, receiving title matches against then-World Champions Terry Funk and Harley Race. He was well-suited to tag team wrestling, winning several regional tag team championships in the NWA. In 1983, he was recruited by the WWE and paired with Tony Atlas, another popular wrestler of African descent. They defeated the Wild Samoans (Afa and Sika Anoai) for the Tag Team Championship on November 15, 1983. Interestingly, Johnson had married into the prolific Samoan wrestling family, by marrying "High Chief" Peter Maivia's daughter Ata. The two had a son, Dwayne, in 1972.

After retiring in 1991, Johnson trained his son Dwayne to wrestle in the mid-1990s with Pat Patterson. While he initially resisted his son's entry into the business because he knew it was extremely difficult, he agreed to train his son on the condition that he would not go easy on him. Johnson was instrumental in getting Dwayne (later dubbed "Rocky Maivia" after both Rocky Johnson's and Peter Maivia's ring names) signed to a WWE developmental deal.

Initially, Johnson had an on-camera presence at his son's matches, famously jumping into the ring on his son's behalf after he was attacked by several other wrestlers at WrestleMania 13.