The Rock shares emotional eulogy from dad’s funeral and wishes he could ‘have one more shot to say goodbye’
DWAYNE ‘The Rock’ Johnson gave an emotional eulogy at his father’s funeral and talked about how he wished he had one more shot to say goodbye. The pro-wrestler and actor stood in front of family, friends, and pro-wrestlers to talk about Rocky Johnson’s legacy as a wrestler and a father. After news broke of Rocky’s […]
DWAYNE ‘The Rock’ Johnson gave an emotional eulogy at his father’s funeral and talked about how he wished he had one more shot to say goodbye.
The pro-wrestler and actor stood in front of family, friends, and pro-wrestlers to talk about Rocky Johnson’s legacy as a wrestler and a father.
After news broke of Rocky’s unfortunate death, Duane took to Instagram to talk about his struggles to write a eulogy that could do his father justice.
The 47-year-old icon delivered after giving an emotional speech before his dad was put to rest. He shared the video on Instagram.
Along with the video, he wrote on the caption part of his eulogy.
He wrote: “Dad, you lived a full and meaningful life. You trail blazed and even harder, you changed people’s harsh behaviors toward a man of color.
“Paving the way for me, my family and generations to come. You loved us with the capacity of which you could – given all the givens.
“Raised me with an iron hand and a tough complicated love. A love that now, as a father and man, I’ve learned to refine as I raise my own children.”
He continued to talk about how he hoped to have one more chance to talk to his father. He said: “I wish I had one more shot. To say one more thing.
“You were taken too fast. Slipped right through my hands. But you were so loved, lived so full, defined culture and now you rest high. Peacefully.
“And that makes my heart smile. I love you and now I have an angel to call by name. I’ll see you down the road, Soulman. Til we meet again.”
In his eulogy, he also talked about how he found out the news of his father passing.
The Rock talked about how his wife Lauren had told him that “something was going on with dad.” He late received the news of his father passing while pulling into work.
He also wanted everyone to make sure they knew just how important his dad was to the pro-wrestling community, especially as one of the few black men in the industry.
He said: “The other side to it that I wanted to point out that I thought was important to say is that when somebody is a trailblazer that means that they actually, they have the ability to change behavior and audience’s behavior, people’s behavior.
“And for my dad, when he broke into the business in the mid ’60s and throughout the late ’60s and into the ’70s in the United States where racial tension and divide was very strong.
“And in the ’60s and the ’70s you have a black man coming in, it’s an all-white audience and all these small little towns that eventually I would go on to wrestle in — but at that time he changed the audience’s behavior and actually had them cheer for this black man.”
Rocky’s son tried his best to keep his composure in front of those present several times and the pain was evident in his speech.
He continued: “When you think of my dad’s name, you think ‘hard work’.”
“You think ‘barrier-breaking,’ you think being the hardest worker in the room, always working out. He taught me how to work out at a very young age.”
He said: “Hard work, discipline — those are things and tenants that are synonymous with my dad’s name.
“What’s amazing to me now, after a day like today after we come here and we give our respect and our love, he’s galvanized, he’s responsible for galvanizing families now.”
At the memorial, other pro-wrestlers paid their respects and were there for The Rock, who even showed a clip of holding his father’s hand before saying goodbye one last time.
Some of those present included WWE boss Vince McMahon, Hulk Hogan, Ric Flair and Triple H.
Two weeks ago, the father of three revealed his father had passed away on January 15, 2020 from a massive heart attack.
He told on his Instagram: “He had not been feeling well and had been battling a cold, an infection.
“On Tuesday, he had what’s called deep vein thrombosis, which is essentially a blood clot in the leg.
“It broke free, traveled up his body and went right to his lung and clotted his lung and he died very quickly from a massive heart attack, just like that.
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Rocky was a huge wrestling star in his own right and earned a place in the WWE Hall of Fame.
With partner Tony Atlas, Johnson was part of the first blag tag-team to win a world championship in the World Wrestling Federation (WWF, later WWE).
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