Soulman – The Rocky Johnson Story (Unreleased Book)

There’s a long story as to why this book never got released and you can read it here. I’ve read it a few times and still don’t understand it. The easier thing to understand is how I ended up with a copy: A fan who worked at a book store sent an advance Reading Copy to me. So please enjoy one of the few reviews of the book online!

Dwayne The Rock Johnson writes the intro and doesn’t say much other than his Dad rocked. Dwayne’s earliest memory is attending wrestling shows with his Dad and encouraging Peter Maivia by yelling “C’mon Grandpa” which only annoyed him as he didn’t want people to know he was old enough to have grandkids.

The book starts with a flash-forward (I don’t know when it became standard to have these in autobiographies but I swear every one I’ve read recently starts with a “Yup that’s me. You’re probably wondering how I got here!” intro) of one of those old-timey ribs you hear about. Dave Ruhl gets mad at Sweet Daddy Siki and accuses him of having dinner with his wife, getting so mad he pulls the car over and shoots Siki twice in the chest. Rocky witnesses this and runs away, only for everyone to laugh and inform him they were only blanks. Wrestlers were just sociopaths in the days of leaded fuel.

Rocky grew up watching the likes of Cowboy Len Hughes and Don Jardine who curiously had the nick-name “Babyface” which Rocky always thought was a bit on the nose. When he met him decades later, Don explained he had been given the name by Whipper Billy Watson when he was just starting and changed his gimmick to the masked Spoiler as soon as he could. Rocky said as a child he enjoyed the dwarf wrestler The Brown Panther because of the size of the dwarf wrestler. Rocky says he got told Brown Panther died after being thrown out of the ring and breaking his neck on wooden steps but I can’t find anything to verify that. There’s very little online about him with CageMatch claiming he was wrestling until ’85 and WrestlingData saying 1973.

Rocky’s Dad dies of lung cancer at 69 so his 39 year old mum (yes those numbers are correct) starts seeing the man next door, Artie. Sadly Artie was a drunk and would physically abuse Rocky’s brother Mervyn leading to Rocky smashing Artie over the head with a coal shovel. Rocky’s mum was more worried about growing old alone so stuck with Artie leading to Rocky hitchhiking to Toronto to live with his brothers. Life was demented in the 50s.

“When I arrived in Toronto I had just 80 cents in my pocket.”

Ah so that’s where The Rock got that from. Rocky gets a job washing cars and rents a small apartment before getting a job for a fish company and eats a lot of salmon as a result. Artie dies after a bus ran over his legs but Rocky surprisingly doesn’t hold any ill feeling toward him. He doesn’t respect him either though.

Rocky takes up boxing and becomes friends with George Foreman and Muhammad Ali. Rocky talks about tap dancing in front of Ali and says he’s not taking credit for inspiring the Ali Shuffle, he’s just saying. Aye course not mate. Rocky rambles all over the place here and makes sure to pad out the book with stories explaining to the readers at home who obscure athletes like George Foreman are so I’ll skip ahead.

Rocky meets Rocky Bollie and begins wrestling training. This chapter goes into a lot of detail regarding his training and being stretched by guys like Killer Karl Krupp. Rocky choses the name Rocky Johnson in tribute to Rocky Marciano and Jack Johnson.

Fast-forward to 1966 and Whipper Billy Watson is looking for a black wrestler to work for Big Time Wrestling because he was running as the Progressive Candidate for East York and needed the black vote. Rocky makes his TV debut wrestling Firpo Zbyszko and can hardly believe it when he wins his debut in ninety seconds. Watson wouldn’t win the vote.

Jerry London introduces Rocky to the concept of Carnie. Sadly for him it was mid-match and Rocky didn’t have a clue so I imagine that match was a classic.

Watson decides Rocky needs experience so he heads to Stampede Wrestling, only to discover Stu Hart has given booking decisions to a farmer-but-wrestler-in-the-winter Dave Ruhl who was (surprise surprise) booking himself in the main events despite his lack of ability. At least we get more Good Ol’ Fashioned Rib Stories as someone shaves off half of Firpo’s moustache in the night, leading to Firpo heading to the breakfast table the next morning brandishing a butcher’s knife and offering money for the identity of the shaver. Ahhh good times.

Rocky of course had the honour of being stretched by Stu, sometimes as a way of learning new techniques and sometimes because it was Stu Hart.

“When I went to Calgary I was 5’11” but when I left I was 6’2”

Rocky brings up the story of the only person Stu allegedly couldn’t stretch which was Luther Lindsay who had played in the Canadian Football League. Luther hooked Stu and there was nothing he could do to get out leading to Stu squeaking out “Luther I think my phone is ringing, I need to answer it.” OK I’d not heard that story before.

Chapter 10 starts with Rocky’s then-wife Una demanding that he stop all this violence because she’s a Jehova’s Witness and can’t allow it. Rocky says he wished she’d said this before they married and so the pair of them parted amicably. I went back a few chapters as I know this was a preview version but there had been no previous mention of Una (or their children) before now which was weird. Rocky had talked more about Sweet Daddy Siki then his Sweet Wife so maybe he forgot he had one.

Rocky plays Ricky Morton for Watson in tag matches because he was 51 years old at that point yet still very popular in the Toronto area. Christ, imagine wrestling in your 50s in the 60s. That’s like being 300 years old in 2025. Watson warns Rocky about hooking up with white women. My Dad gave me the same warning.

Rocky is wrestling Fred Atkins, a wrestler he didn’t appreciate as he was over the hill and hated rookies. So Rocky busts out the Ali Shuffle mid-match while Fred was taking ages getting to his feet and it popped the crowd. And Ali had stolen it from him so fair’s fair according to Rocky.

Rocky is sent to Vancouver by Frank Tunney and in his third match pins top star Dutch Savage. Rocky explains he wasn’t told the finish before the match despite his insistence, he was told repeatedly to listen to Dutch’s instructions in the ring because they wanted Rocky’s look of shock when he won to be genuine. Wow look at that, a rib that doesn’t involve attempted murder. Rocky wins his first set of titles, the Canadian Tag Titles with Don Leo and feuds with the Tolos Bros. He also feuds with Abdullah The Butcher, with Abby doing promos explaining he hates “American blacks.”

Rocky leaves Vancouver in 1968 to wrestle in Nova Scotia and gets to wrestle Archie Gouldie, the future Mongolian Stomper. Archer would exclusively work only the top half of his body with 80 lb dumbbells. Rocky isn’t impressed with the undercards which consisted of local guys who didn’t understand psychology (ah he was ready for Busted Open Radio even back then) and is even less impressed when Emile Dupree stiffs him on money, so Rocky works his two weeks notice by hanging around the arenas and letting Emile know he’s here but he ain’t here.

So Rocky heads to Detroit to work for The Sheik who promises him big things but Rocky’s isn’t convinced. Sheik insists Rocky be billed as hailing from some place other than Canada so Rocky suggests Vancouver, BC. Sheik rightly points out that that’s still Canada but Rocky advises him that every Canadian is billed as being from Toronto or Montreal but Vancouver is 4,000 miles away from either of them so it’s different. Sheik can’t fault that logic so it stayed.

Rocky describes Ox Baker as a nice guy “even though he killed two people” and that he wouldn’t loosen up in the ring “if you sprayed him with WD40.” He tells a touching story about beating him in a cribbage game for a dollar years later, telling Ox to keep the dollar and hang it on his wall to let everyone know Rocky beat him. “Ox died nine weeks later.”

Rocky says the two other black wrestlers booked in the territory were Sonny King and Thunderbolt Patterson who Rocky thinks played the race card at every opportunity and says Sonny King has a chip on his shoulder to this day. Rocky makes it clear that he thinks there are many racial prejudices in the world but he never experienced them in wrestling, and thinks Patterson has no right to complain considering the huge pushes he received. Rocky also mentions how he made an off-hand comment backstage about wondering why he was wrestling in Ohio that night rather than in Toronto and the comment got back to The Sheik fairly quickly so he learned it best to keep his mouth shut backstage.

Rocky gets to team up with Bobo Brazil and receives his first cheque of $1,000 for a single match and is so amazed he has to check with Bobo that it’s not for both of them. Bobo apparently enjoyed that story so much he told it for years. Rocky gushes over Brazil’s niceness which is a welcome change of pace.

Rocky talks about wrestling Freddie Blassie at age 52 and it was easy because all he was capable of doing was biting and bleeding. Rocky gets paid $1,000 for that too, but then the next day Jules Strongbow gives Rocky an additional $200 for doing such a good job and Rocky is elated. Until Freddy talks to him and reveals he earned $1,200 for his match, with Rocky realizing they’d manipulated his actual payment to look like a “bonus” and says it wasn’t the only time this would happen in his career.

Jeff Walton bestows the title “Soulman” to Rocky after asking him to dance for him. OK. Rocky wrestles Mil Mascaras but surprisingly doesn’t have any issues with him. Rocky hates Lucha though. Oh and speaking of surprises: Rocky pins The Sheik! In L.A. which isn’t the same as in Detroit, but still.

A lot of this is typed as it reads, with Rocky saying things he remembers in the vague order it happened. I’m not complaining but it’s easy to imagine him sat in a big chair rambling away while co-author Scott Teal is furiously googling what a “Sergio Olivia” is.

The Great Moto sends Rocky to Japan and tells him all the other workers are being paid $850 a week but Rocky’s going to get $1,000 a week! And then Rocky talks to the workers and everyone has been told the same story. Ha! Japan is the only place Rocky worked heel.

Rocky’s experience of Japan is like every other American wrestler’s: nice at first but then you get sick of the food and who you’re stuck with (in this case Ernie Ladd who did his best to scare away Japanese people at any opportunity). Giant Baba accidentally kicks Rocky so hard on a charge that he gives Rocky a hernia. Baba apologised every day for the remainder of the tour. “I think he was more hurt about it than I was.” JWA paid for Rocky’s medical bills when he returned to L.A. for surgery. Rocky spends a brief time in Hawaii working for Ripper Collins who is described as a nice guy who got caught with “a couple of young boys.” Jesus.

After that, Rocky heads to North Carolina for Roy Shire who had a habit of criticizing his workers by yelling at them in front of everyone in the back. He thinks Rocky’s doing too much selling but Rocky thinks he just wanted him to do nothing but dropkicks and Ali Shuffles. Also Rocky talks about Roy’s tendency to belittle people lead to a wrestler named Jerry London topping himself one night. The context-sensitive bleak moments let me know that I’m talking to an older person because let me tell you, I talk to a bunch of them and they all love bringing up misery before quickly moving on like it’s nothing.

Rocky gets teamed up with Pepper Gomez who is on his last legs so Johnson has to do all the work but doesn’t seem to mind that much. Other wrestlers get sick of Pepper’s big shot attitude so when he asks the locker room for some uppers for a long overnight drive, Ciclon gives him some sleeping pills so Pepper ends up having to pull over. For ten hours, missing the show in the process. Ciclon: “Sorry amigo, wrong bottle.”

Rocky takes some time to heap shit onto Paul DeMarco, who he labels a “stooge” that everyone was aware of. Paul annoys Roy one night which leads to Paul losing the U.S. Title to Rocky, with Johnson saying he thought Paul was going to cry as he told him. Also Paul tried to “play” with Peter Maivia one night by attempting to shoot on him from behind, leading to Peter putting him in a wheelbarrow position and scraping his nose on the floor until the skin came off. Afterwards Paul tried to explain he was only playing around, which Peter replies with “So was I. If I wasn’t, I would have broken your neck.”

Between Shire, DeMarco, Gomez and high-spot-hating Lars Anderson, this territory sounds like a barrel of laughs.

Rocky says him and Peter Maivia always got along until he found out he was dating his daughter. Rocky brings up the Peter vs. Billy Robinson fight in Hokkaido, and includes both versions which is very gracious of him. So it had to have been a Scott Teal decision:

Robinson made fun of Peter for eating chicken with his hands and insinuated that all Samoans are savages. Peter responded by throwing Robinson through the restaurant window. Robinson recovered from this Zandig-esque bump by attempting to suplex Peter but he bit Robinson on the cheek. Robinson then punched out Peter who remained unconscious for 25 minutes. Rocky/Scott clarifies that the bit that has circulated for years about Peter taking Robinson’s eye out is false, as Billy already lost it when he was eleven. Regardless, both men teamed up to wrestle six days later. Oh I guess we don’t get multiple versions of the event as promised. Huh. Well it’s not like Rocky was there anyway so he’s just retweeting other people’s tales.

Rocky rambles a bit about Peter being OK with wrestlers cheating on their spouses because it was expected in the business, even when Rocky was going to be marrying his daughter. He follows up with stories of Peter’s own infidelities which is as wrestling as it gets.

Rocky heads to Atlanta for Jim Barnett and wins all the belts. He tells a story about wrestling in a tag match ending in fifteen seconds because Buddy Roberts came off the top rope not knowing that was an automatic disqualification. “Easiest payday I ever had.”

Bearcat Wright is another black wrestler than annoyed Rocky by playing the race card so we get detailed stories about him selling vans he didn’t own and buying cars with bad cheques to the wrestlers, even ones he’d known for fifteen years. Danny Little Bear is caught with a 16 year old girl so Barnett mocks him for liking little girls. Danny mocks Barnette for liking little boys. How we laughed. Oh and then he tells us how he got into a shouting match with Ole Anderson which ended with Ole using racist terms. “Ole was all class, but it was all low.” Rocky gives his notice and heads to Florida, even though he’d enjoyed working for Barnett (even with all this shit happening). I mean it’s a book about wrestling in the 60s and 70s, I knew it wasn’t going to be all Quaker meetings.

Rocky is teamed up with Dusty Rhodes so he can hitch a ride on “the soul train.” Rocky knows Dusty has a giant ego but he was happy being the number two guy to him as houses were good. Rocky really doesn’t get in the way of anything or rock any boats huh. Rocky brings up a bullrope match between Dusty and Terry Funk that ended with Frenchy Bernard counting the pin before spotting the blood pouring out of both men’s heads and passing out at three. They should bring that gimmick back for Moxley matches.

Rocky gets the chance to have Jackie Gleason (!) do a spot in one of his matches which is as far as Rocky knows was his only involvement in wrestling. He was supposed to throw a punch to Harley Race’s neck and Race would sell it as if he hit his jaw but ends up punching Race directly in the jaw instead. Race remarked it nearly floored him but he couldn’t sell for Gleason. That’s our Race!

Mike Graham is the man behind the territory and is affectionately referred to by the boys as “Gidget The Midget” due to his stature. And being an asshole who openly criticized the wrestlers. The Graham family have a rotten reputation in any memoir. Rocky wrestles in a lot of areas because as Bobo tells him “there’s not a lot of blacks that can work” which is something Rocky is naturally proud of. No wonder he never rocked any boats, he was always in demand.

Rocky heads to St. Louis and is booked against Harley Race in a handicap match. All the crowd assumes Harley’s going to pin these two guys as was the style at the time, but Race calls an audible and has Rocky win to get him over. Race doesn’t ask for permission from the bookers because they would have said no. Rocky and Race headline the Kiel Auditorium three times with Race blowing up Rocky as much as humanly possible. That’s our Race!

Pat O’Connor teams up with Rocky because he wanted that “soul train” rub too. Rocky claims Pat attempted the Rocky Shuffle one time, oh my god. Rocky isn’t a fan of Pat and any other old wrestler who stays around to dictate how things should be for the next generations. Rocky also wasn’t a fan of working with Dick The Bruiser. Well, he didn’t mind tagging with him but his opponents sure minded Dick’s inability to sell. Rocky tells a story of teaming with Dick against Blackjack Mulligan and Fritz Von Raschke, with neither of them wanting Rocky to tag out. Rocky points out Dick drew for decades doing this and “was built like a fire hydrant” so eh.

Rocky explains the weirdness of working in Houston for Paul Boesch, as Fritz Von Erich attempted to put the Texas Heavyweight Title on Rocky, but Paul had control over it and vetoed the decision. I can’t even comprehend the Texas situation with several different promoters booking different towns with the same titles. I’m simplifying the situation here and Rocky goes into great detail which is nice of him. And again, Rocky is OK with whatever situation he finds himself in which makes a lot of this sound like Rocky is just a passenger in the back seat of his life.

Because of the Ali vs. Inoki fight, Jerry Lawler brings Rocky down to Memphis to pretend to be a boxer, complete with faked boxing career stats. Rocky admits this would be impossible to do in the internet world. This 1976 fight got a lot of publicity which resulted in the commission showing up to stop the fight because Rocky didn’t have a license. So Jerry Jarrett has a quick word with a “friend of influence” and the fight is back on with Rocky’s brand new boxing license. Ha! Lawler suggests going to a broadway but both realise they’ll be blown up after ten rounds so Sam Bass instead puts quarters in Lawler’s gloves while Rocky BLADES WHILE WEARING BOXING GLOVES before the ref discovered the quarters and gave the match to Rocky. The 11,888 fans cheered and the rematches (with Rocky staying around “with training from Pat Malone” to explain his ability to suddenly do backdrops) also draw well.

So well that Jarrett wants Rocky full-time until he asks for a guarantee. Oh wait then a chapter later Lawler calls him and offers him exactly that. Nick Gulas calls Rocky “boy” when he first meets him which doesn’t go down well. Nick apologises and advises Rocky he calls everybody “boy” so Rocky says “I’m not everybody.” Rocky ends up being in the middle of the Jarrett/Gulas split of ’77 but ends up beating Lawler for the Southern Heavyweight Title. Oh big deal, Scott Keith probably won that fucking thing at some point.

Lawler asks Rocky if he minded doing an angle where he’s held down and whipped. Rocky tells him he didn’t mind as long as Lawler’s not there when he gets backstage. Rocky’s critical of Bearcat Brown and Burrhead Jones for going along with these type of angles for $40. Rocky talks about drunk and mad Bill Dundee who apparently ranted about how much he disliked working with Lawler which Rocky points out is funny because they worked together for twenty frigging years.

The future JYD Sylvester Ritter comes to Memphis as Rocky realises they’re trying to replace him. Ritter doesn’t get over and is livid when Lawler gave him his notice after five weeks. Rocky still sees the writing on the wall and tells Lawler he’s leaving to go to Florida which frustrates Jerry because he’d been planning on trading him for Norvell Austin in Knoxville. Rocky doesn’t care about messing up a deal as they didn’t want him anymore (and he had other places to go to).

Rocky isn’t happy with Pat Patterson being Johnny Valentine’s assistant as the finishes keep changing and programs get ruined as a result. I don’t know maybe it was just Patterson’s accent. Rocky doesn’t mind working with Killer Karl Kox as despite the initials, he wasn’t racist and was a funny guy. They used to say the same about Tony Hinchcliffe.

Oh then there’s a crazy story Rocky gets involved in including Ernie Ladd. Ernie has the Florida Title but Valentine gets the idea that Ernie was going to leave the territory with the belt but figured Ernie wouldn’t drop the title. So Rocky is booked in a non-title match against Ernie with TV cameras present during a house show. Ernie immediately figures out something’s up and Rocky is informed that they’re going to record Rocky winning in a non-title match, air the footage and claim Ernie was too scared to wrestle him again so he ran out of the territory. Valentine insists the cameras are for an earlier match so Ernie informs him if he sees the red light on the camera, he’s out of there. Minutes into the match, Ernie spots the recording camera and tells Rocky to dropkick him. He obliges, Ernie sells it by flying outside the ring and walks to the dressing room for the count-out victory. Ernie immediately heads to Valentine and yells at him for trying to lie to him and informs him he would have done the clean job for Rocky if they just asked.

Oh but then! The next night Ernie gets a call to come to the Sportatorium at 1:30 a.m. Jack and Jerry Brisco are there to greet him but Ernie has brought a tire iron with him and KO’s Jack with a swing. Jerry is worried Ernie may have killed his brother so Ernie helps pack him into the car so he can be driven to a hospital. The next day Ernie returns the belt and picks up his money with a policeman accompanying him. Christ on a bike. Rocky in a rare moment refuses the instructions of the promoter to do promos calling Ernie Ladd a coward because he wasn’t one. So Ernie ended up “suspended from Florida” on TV. Rocky reckons the whole thing was down to Valentine being a dick who would pull ribs like shitting in Tony Atlas’ bags or pouring horse manure into Buddy Roberts’ chewing tobacco. I’d be surprised if anyone could taste the difference. Rocky insists this issue didn’t make him an enemy of the Briscos as again, Rocky has a nonchalant opinion of all the crazy things happening around him. He’s like Travis Bickle nodding along while Scorcese’s character is rambling away.

Rocky puts over Ric Flair but didn’t think much of his identical act every time they wrestled and doing the same spots even when it didn’t fit what was happening in the match. Rocky very briefly mentions he worked the Bahamas one time and the crowd threw raw chickens at Mr. Fuji. And then he moves on.

The Rock is born and Lia Maivia wants to keep him as she hoped this would stop Rocky from shagging other people’s wives to come look after him. Awww. I think. Rocky rambles about how great Rock is and talks about his childhood evolution into a pro athlete that’s well documented by now so we’ll skip ahead. Nice though that Rocky was there for his son unlike a lot of wrestling dads. Rocky’s the one who suggested Rock do the punch-punch-pause-punch that would become a trademark of his.

Imagine if Rock had started doing the Shuffle instead.

Anyway this chapter turns into a biography of The Rock because Rocky can hardly not mention him but we don’t learn a hell of a lot that we don’t already know. Rock invited his family to attend Rumble 2000 but didn’t tell them he was winning, which Rocky understands.

After that the book’s last drips of water are wringed out as Rocky brings up a few things he heard from other people which frustrates me the more I read wrestler’s autobiographies because it’s obvious the co-writer shoved stuff like this in to pad out the page length. Even when Rocky starts talking about helping with Polynesian Pro Wrestling in New Zealand he doesn’t give much detail other than “it was tough booking shows because any time a Samoan would get beat down the crowd would attempt to bum rush the ring because it was 30% Samoan.”

Rocky wrestles under a mask as Sweet Ebony Diamond in Charlotte. He struggles to breath with the original design so removes the chin to avoid passing out. Despite the attempts at hiding his identity, his dove tattoos lead many to recognize him as Rocky and it also doesn’t help that commentator Johnny Weaver keeps on referring to him as “Rocky”, explaining to the Crocketts that he’d only known him as that.

Diamond wins the NWA Title from Greg Valentine after vowing to remove it if he beat him. Greg naturally blasts him after he unmasks to keep their feud going. Rocky is enjoying where he is until Ole Anderson comes in as the new booker. Ole calls Pez Whatley the N-Word and that’s enough for Rocky to leave (after putting over Sgt. Slaughter for two weeks).

Rocky talks about the issues with Polynesian Pro Wrestling and by “issues” I mean “Lars Anderson” who argues with co-promoters and books his mates who simply wanted a glorified holiday. There’s some fascinating stuff here told in a dull only-remember-this-stuff-in-vague terms kinda way.

Rocky finally heads to WWF where Vince Sr. bills him as hailing from Washington, DC which causes issues as Washington residents would then ask him for directions if they saw him around.

Billy Graham big leagues Rocky when he says hello, telling him to get him a popcorn and coke cos he’s the World Champ. Rocky tells him he *was* World Champ so he can go get it himself. Rocky says they’re friends now but Billy admits he turned into an arrogant bastard once he got the title and Rocky moves on because he can’t say anything positive about Graham during this time.

Rocky joins WWF four months before Jr. takes over which must have been a crazy time to start. Iron Sheik beats Backlund but is surprised when he finds out he’s only holding it for a month and tells everyone in the locker room. Rocky says the guys would have known something was up due to the amount of champagne bottles that suddenly happened to be there on the night Hogan won.

Rocky is asked to team up with Tony Atlas, the man he was replacing due to being fired for no-shows but who kept ringing the office asking for his job back. Rocky has no issues with teaming in the ring but Vince Jr. makes it clear he needs him to babysit Tony outside the ring to ensure he makes his dates. Oh. Rocky puts over Atlas’ strength and ability to do power moves despite his shortcomings and both men agreed their styles complimented one another.

They get over enough for Vince Jr. to decide to put the belts on them on November 15th 1983, but after that Rocky says “it was all downhill from there” as Atlas starts to miss the smaller shows without informing Rocky as well as being strung-out on drugs and constantly moaning about Hogan (who Atlas claims he’s bigger than).

Rocky gets mad and reveals that the co-writer of this book wrote (Scott Teal) wrote Tony’s book (Too Much Too Soon) and claimed a story that didn’t happen which Rocky wants to get off his chest. I love when wrestler’s hold onto stuff so here we go:

Atlas claims Rocky tried to kill Atlas’ finisher (press slam) one night by scooping him off the mat and working a few more minutes before ending the match with his dropkick. Atlas was so mad he refused to team up with Rocky anymore, shoved both titles into Pat Patterson’s chest (who “took a back bump” from it) before turning around and punching Rocky. Rocky is like YEAH NAH, he only scooped the guy up to save Atlas because he couldn’t deliver his move correctly due to the rotund nature of the job guy. When they got to the back, he didn’t do anything with the belts or Patterson and instead moaned about the guy so much that Adrian Adonis tried to calm him down, with Atlas telling him to “mind his own fuckin business” but didn’t engage in a fight with Adonis (because not even Tony is that stupid).

Rocky really didn’t appreciate Atlas saying “Rocky didn’t want to be considered as Black, he would have preferred to have been billed as hailing from New Zealand or some place.” Rocky politely disagrees with this sentiment as well as Atlas claiming Rocky would deliberately not wait for him or leave him stranded. Rocky replies it wasn’t his fault that Atlas was spending all his money on weed and coke. Atlas claims the original idea was to put Atlas with SD Jones but “because Rocky’s mother-in-law kept on ringing the office, Vince had to relent.” Oh man, you can hear the noise of Atlas digging that hole deeper and deeper. Atlas claims Rick Martel lent his car to Rocky who then sold it to SD Jones who only found out it wasn’t his when he tried to register it himself. Rocky says “Martel wasn’t even in the territory when we there so how could I have done that?” (A quick check reveals yes, Martel was stuck in AWA 1982-1984).

Atlas can’t keep his mouth shut complaining about everything and when Jr. tells him he regrets bringing him back because he’s nothing without the WWF, Atlas replies that “hey, I made myself. I’m the one doing the slams.” Rocky & Atlas drop the titles not long after this, with Rocky offering to take the fall because Atlas knew he was getting fired and may have caused issues. Rocky says Vince Sr. was a fan of Atlas but when he died there was no-one helping him. Atlas and Rocky atypically did not receive a tag title rematch after their loss.

Rocky shows up to Landover, Maryland and sees Bobo Brazil and instantly knows Tony’s days are up. Tony wasn’t required for the show but no-one had been able to reach him because he’d been partying in Chicago for several days so he appeared for a show he wasn’t booked on. Patterson and Vince Jr. didn’t dare tell Tony he’s not booked so Gorilla had to tell him, with Atlas reacting badly and rampaging backstage smashing things until the police escorted him out. Rocky nonchalantly adds “Vince booked him six months later.”

Atlas and Rocky make up in 2010 with Atlas telling Rocky he had to spruce up his book somehow. Rocky appreciates that Atlas adds a part near the end of his book admitting that Tony Atlas screwed Tony Atlas, no-one else. So they’re good now. Rocky feuded with Piper on TV, based around Piper asking him to shine his shoes.

Rocky starts having issues with his knees on account of throwing dropkicks every night for seven days straight for months on end. He requests time off from Vince who asks he work his two week notice then he’ll be free to take all the time he needs. Rocky wrestles John Studd and to Rocky’s horror, Studd goes up on a slam attempt that he’s supposed to block and comes within seconds of killing his gimmick. Rocky is forced to improvise and pretends to “slip on an invisible banana peel” with Studd landing on him for the pin. Vince and Studd thank Rocky for thinking on/off his feet.

Well that chapter spruced things up.

Rocky knows he’s going through the motions because he can’t move like he used to and wrestles a full-time-ish schedule in Memphis in 1987 before starting a cleaning business called Championship Cleaning Service. This goes well until he moves the family to be closer to Dwayne in Florida during his school years. Rocky needs the money and works indie shows for $100 a night and starts drinking. His son brings him out of his depression (in a bit that would have probably been interesting to hear more of but I can understand someone not wanting to share this part of their life with strangers…in an autobiography). Rocky gets a job driving for the Johnson Liquor company. When people recognized him from his wrestling days and asked why a big star like him was driving a van for a living, he’d tell them “see the name on the side of the van? I’m one of the Johnson brothers!”

And that’s it.

Overall: Rocky by his accounts was a man who never made a fuss and didn’t rock any boats and was over in every territory he was in. I’m happy for him, especially considering the period he was wrestling in. But like De Niro in The Irishman, all the interesting things are happening around him rather than involving him. It might be an accurate look at 70s wrestling from the eyes of a black man but Rocky’s rambling method of recalling things doesn’t make many of his achievements jump off the page although maybe that’s on the co-writer. Also maybe it’s just his attitude or more of an idea of how the territories worked back then, but if something isn’t going Rocky’s way he simply leaves and gets booked elsewhere. And that’s it. Little in the way of drama or interest until Tony Atlas shows up. But at the same time, there’s some interesting (and terrifying) old territory stories so it wasn’t a waste of time but there’s nothing that’ll make you go “oh this is why this book didn’t get released.”

Whatever, you can’t read this book anyway and I’m done typing.