AMHERST, N.S. — Robert Pickering feels as though he’s lost a best friend.
The Amherst man was shocked to learn late Wednesday that famed wrestling star Rocky Johnson had died.
“He was a great guy, I’m going to miss him,” said Pickering. “We had just talked a couple of weeks ago and there was no indication that anything was wrong. He was talking about going to Wrestlemania in Florida and he wanted me to go with him. I’m shocked that he’s gone.
“He always treated me well and was always good to Carol and I.”
Johnson, age 75, was born in Amherst and left very early in life, moving to Toronto. That’s where Pickering, who had also left Amherst as a teen, met up with Johnson, whose real name was Wayde Bowles.
“I met him in Ontario. We were both living in Toronto at the time,” Pickering said. “He used to go to Max’s Gym in Toronto and I used to go there as well. We became pretty good friends.”
By the age of 16, Johnson — the father of wrestler and actor Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, moved to Toronto to train as a boxer, beginning his career in wrestling in 1964 and competing for nearly three decades with the National Wrestling Alliance and the former World Wrestling Federation.
He retired in 1991, after nine years with the WWF, and made periodic appearances at WWF and WWE events. He was elected into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2008.
Johnson released an autobiography last fall and Pickering said he was planning to return to Amherst in the coming months to film a documentary on his life.
Pickering said he will always remember Johnson for his generosity.
“I remember once when I was in Florida visiting him I got sick. They were going to call the doctor and the cardiologist and I told him that I couldn’t afford to see a doctor there, but he told me not to worry about it,” Pickering said. “If they had to fly me home he said it would be looked after. That’s the type of guy he was.”
Ed Cooke was a second cousin to Johnson and when he visited Amherst he’d often stay at Cooke’s house. He remembers Johnson as a practical joker and someone who always had a great sense of humour.
“I got to know him pretty good and he would stay at my place when he came home,” Cooke said. “He was very generous and when someone came to the house he would always talk to them.
“We had a lot of great laughs and he always told great stories.”
Cooke remembers a fishing trip Johnson went on with his brothers. During the excursion one person told Johnson wrestling was fake and asked Rocky to put him in the sleeper.
“Rocky put him in the sleeper and when they brought him around the guy wondered what happened?” Cooke said. “He put him right in it and the guy went down.”
Cooke said Johnson never forgot where he came from, even if sometimes his comments about his hometown weren’t flattering.
“I’m not sure where that was coming from because every time I spoke to Rocky he always said he was proud to come from Amherst,” Cooke said. “I read what he put in his book and couldn’t figure it out.”
Cooke said Johnson spoke to him about doing something in the community such as a boxing club for young people.
Elizabeth Cooke-Sumbu, who was also a cousin of Johnson’s, remembers watching him wrestle at the Amherst Stadium in the 1960s. Johnson would draw large crowds to the rink to watch him wrestle.
“When he came to Amherst the stadium would be full. They used to stay at the Fort Cumberland and everyone would go over to the hotel to look up to see him and the other wrestlers,” Cooke-Sumbu said. “He was from here and we recognize that. He had his ups and downs like everyone else, but he helped put us on the map. He had a great career.”
Cooke-Sumbu said one of Johnson’s longest visits to Amherst was to participate in the signing of Darlene Strong’s book on the town’s African Nova Scotian history, entitled Sand Hill. She said he said for several weeks after the signing and visited the boxing club. CANSA filmed him talking about his life.
He also came home to visit when her brother Donnie died after a battle with cancer.
“I remember he brought some wrestling cards for the auction,” she said. “There were a lot of people he kept in contact with.”
Cooke-Sumbu, who is the executive director of the Cumberland African Nova Scotian Association, said Johnson is a piece of Amherst and Nova Scotia history.
While Johnson didn’t make many trips home, she said, he kept in touch with a few people in Amherst by telephone.
“There were some people who he would invite down to Florida to go see him,” she said. “I know Howard Lee and his wife, Anne, had gone down several years ago to see him. They met the Rock and saw his gym.”
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