21 January 2020, Los Angeles, California
I... God... man, I wish had... I wish I had one more shot. Yeah, I wish I had one more shot. Just to... say goodbye. Say I love you. Say thank you, respect you. But I have a feeling he's watching. He's listening. I know my dad would be saying, "Kay Fabe the tears."
Thank you guys. Thank you. Thank everyone for coming, and being so generous with your time, and being so caring, and kind with your condolences to me and my family. We thank you. Thank you to everyone who came up here and really gave beautiful tributes to my dad, to our dad.
You try and you think about, "Well, what am I going to write?" And this is, you don't know what to write for a eulogy, it's your dad. You don't expect it. As you guys know, he went very quick. I was on my way to work the other day on January 15th, and I was just pulling into work, and we were shooting that day, and it was the very first day of production. And then I get a call from my wife, Lauren, who said, "Hey, I just spoke to Cora, seems like something's going on with your dad." And Lauren was with our... she was with our babies, she was with my mom. And she said, "I really can't talk." She goes, "I think you should call Cora though." So of course I called Cora. Cora, she broke the news to me, and right when she broke the news, I just literally, just pulling in, I'm looking at, the whole crew, hundreds of guys and women milling around, and carrying equipment and waving at me in the truck, and waving back. And it all got really foggy. And it seemed like it was just a big dream.
You know how you have those moments and you try and shake yourself out of it. You're like, "No, it's not a dream. My dad's gone." And in that moment I just thought, "Well, what do I need to do? What's the next thing that I need to do?" And I heard a voice say, "Well, hey, the show must go on." And that was my dad. That was my old man who told me that.
Rocky Johnson, the tremendous athlete. Man, just in fantastic condition.
You know, the wrestling community is a very tight community. It's a global business, but it's a very, very tight community. And they believe in, "The show must go one." This idea about, "The show must go on", it just reminded me of what my dad was, and what he represented to our business, and to our wrestling business, and something that we're all very proud of, because many of us are in this wrestling business, and it is in your blood, and once it's in your blood, it never goes away.
The phrase of trailblazer is connected to my dad's name. It means when you do things that have never been done. Our uncles, who were so proud of Afa and Sika, you guys are trailblazers. Never been done. From the isle of Samoa, the Wild Samoans. Your grandfather Peter Maivia, trailblazer. Never been done. Hulk Hogan, trailblazer. Never been done.
My dad, Rocky Johnson, trailblazer, never been done. When you do things that have never been done, but impactful things, and things that actually move the needle in an industry, and he did that, this man did that. The other side to it that I wanted to point out, that I thought it was important to say is that when somebody's a trailblazer, that means that they've actually... they have the ability to change behaviour, an audience's behaviour, people's behaviour. 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 in the 70s, you have a black man coming in. It's an all white audience.
Now all these small little towns that eventually I would go on to wrestle in, but at that time, he changed the audience behaviour, and actually had them cheer for this black man.
And not when he was wrestling against other black men, because he was usually the only black guy in the territory. He was wrestling against other white wrestlers, and I thought that was really unique, and I thought that was really powerful, and I thought that it deserved to be said, and that's what this man did. We celebrated, and we gave honour to Dr. Martin Luther King yesterday, and I woke up this morning, and my heart of course is heavy, but there was a lightness to it that I thought, "Wow, it's very appropriate, because my dad fought for racial equality at a time where it was needed."
Dr. Martin Luther King would be very proud of my dad. 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, taught me how to workout at a very young age. 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 respects and our love, he's galvanised. He's responsible for galvanising families now, and families coming together just a bit closer. Because through processes like this, and we all go through this, we all go through this. We've all lost loved ones, but guaranteed, when we walk out of these doors, we're going to hold each other a bit tighter. We're going to hug each other a bit harder, we're going to kiss each other. We're going to say, "I love you", and we're going to be a little bit more present. And I think that's the beautiful irony about my dad, and all the things that his name is synonymous with, all over the years.
Now, his name is synonymous with the power of love, and bringing people together. It's very appropriate for the soul man, I wish your soul at rest and at ease. There's no more pain. No more regret. I'm sorry, just give me a second. Thank you for bearing with me. Just give me a second. I'm so happy he had friends, a place like this that he could come to, and all of you who have been in his life, and all of you who have said really wonderful things. All the messages that you've sent me. He would be very happy at this. It would make his heart full. This isn't goodbye, this is just, I'll see you down the road. We'll see down the road. I thank you guys so much for your time, and your love. I love you all. I thank you. We love you all, my family. Thank you guys very much. And I'll see you down the road, soul man.