In the past couple of days, it was reported elsewhere that Vince McMahon and Pat Patterson had behaved improperly at Rocky Johnson’s funeral. As stated by Harry Smith and ‘Superstar’ Billy Graham, the pair appeared “drunk”. Also, Patterson had apparently lost the plot and become “senile”.
Graham wrote (in a deleted tweet) that his mother-in-law told him Patterson called Johnson a “m**********r”, and went on a rant calling Rocky “worthless”. He also said that McMahon did his character’s billionaire strut to and from the podium. Harry Smith confirmed Graham’s statement, but we chose not to report on the rumors til more facts come to light.
Credit to The Hannibal TV YouTube channel for getting this interview with Rocky Johnson’s friend Al Rosen, who looked to quell these rumors:
“Vince was short, but he was direct. He said probably what Rocky would have wanted someone to say about him. He was a talented, gifted worker and the best thing that he ever did — which he admitted to me hundreds of times — was marrying Ata and having a baby named Dwayne. He often spoke of his other two kids. He would say, ‘I want to be remembered as a father, as a husband, and as friend and a worker.”
“Did Pat use ‘church language?’ Like if you and I were talking and I said ‘goddamnit,’ you wouldn’t think anything of it. He’s saying ‘Rocky did this goddamnit’ and ‘Yeah we did that, sh*t,’ but you know the preacher and the assistant preacher — People saying that he got pulled off the stage. No, that’s how stories get started. They turned the mic off. The guy sitting behind them turned the mic off and Pat said another sentence and walked off. No MFs or anything, he was never disrespected. He said G-Damn.”
He goes on to say that the Johnson Family was “blown away” by the amount of people who showed up to pay their respects. The Johnson Family was not offended by anything that happened, even if some of the people in the church didn’t appreciate Pat Patterson’s choice of words. He said that the Johnson Family “felt nothing but love and respect”. You can listen to the interview in the video below.
