Soulman: The Rocky Johnson Story by Rocky JohnsonMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
Soulman is the biography of wrestler Rocky Johnson.
Rocky Johnson was on his way out when I first became a wrestling fan so I don't know a ton about him besides his tag team with Tony Atlas and that he's the father of the most electrifying man in sports entertainment, The Rock. ECW Press offered this up for review so I jumped on it pretty quickly.
The book starts with Rocky's humble beginnings as Wayde Bowles, a poor kid from Nova Scotia. The book takes a little longer than I'd like to get to the wrestling but fortunately Rocky's childhood was interesting. Imagine hitchhiking from Nova Scotia to Toronto with only two bucks in your pocket?
Rocky initially trains to be a boxer but gets wrapped up in the wrestling business. From there, Rocky bounces back and worth to every territory on the map for decades, reaching the WWF and gradually sliding into retirement as injuries piled up.
This book has a lot going for it. Rocky comes off as a humble guy. He doesn't make himself sound like the greatest wrestler of all time and is honest about all the mistakes he made along the way. Outside of the chapter devoted to him, he also doesn't spend a lot of time talking about The Rock.
I had no idea Rocky Johnson was as well-traveled as he was, nor how he tried to run a promotion in Hawaii with his father in law, Peter Maivia. Their relationship was touching at time. I also have to wonder what Rocky would have accomplished in the WWF if he hadn't been saddled with making sure Tony Atlas got where he needed to be. Hell, if Rocky wasn't so agreeable for a lot of his career, he might have been world champion at some point.
Speaking of Tony Atlas, the only time Rocky comes across as angry is when he refutes some things Tony Atlas said about him in his book. Rocky didn't care for Mike Graham either but I imagine a lot of wrestler did.
Soulman made me a bigger fan of Rocky Johnson than before I read the book. That's a sign of a great wrestling biography. Four out of five stars.
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