The Rock pays tribute to Pat Patterson following news of his passing

Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson took to Instagram to pay tribute to the late great WWE Hall Of Famer Pat Patterson.

Patterson passed away on Wednesday at the age of 79. The wrestling world has been reacting to his passing all morning and WWE has issued a statement. 

Clearly, The Rock is one of the biggest stars in the history of WWE and as seen below in the words written by the former WWE Champion, Patterson had a big influence on his career. He wrote the following tribute to the legendary figure:

“RIP Pat. You’ll be missed

Rough phone calls to get this morning to tell me, our dear family member, Pat Patterson who was my pro wrestling mentor and father figure has passed away. A @wwe hall of famer, TRUE trailblazer and one of the most brilliantly creative wrestling minds the industry has ever known.

He was also responsible for calling Vince McMahon when I was training to become a pro wrestler (my $7 bucks days) and said, ‘Vince you gotta see this kid work in the ring’. Vince flew me to RAW a few weeks later and I had my first match EVER in Corpus Christie, Texas. The rest is history and years later, here I am writing this post.

* cue Sinatra’s MY WAY (Pat’s favorite to sing)…I’ve lived a life that’s full, I traveled each and every highway But more, much more than this I did it my way…Love you, Pat. And THANK YOU. I’ll see you down the road”