Watching Rocky King work his cellphone from his hospital bed in Room 5225, you get a clear sense of what he must have been like in the wrestling ring.
He must have been the kind of fighter no sucker punch or blind referee could ever keep flat on his back, that no matter how bad the beating, Rocky could struggle to his feet before the ref made that final slap to the mat.
And so it’s no wonder that even at age 57, sick kidneys couldn’t knock Rocky out or keep him from feeding the homeless, a promise he made to the good Lord back when he himself had no place to lay his head.
He barely even stops to talk to a visitor, and when he does talk, the conversation quickly and always veers back to the faceless men and women under this city’s bridges and overpasses, who spent the night on park benches or, if they were lucky, in a dank homeless shelter.
“I’m ready to get back out there and do my work,” he said. “I have people waiting on me and I’m sitting up here sick.”
Not just sick. A month or so ago, it looked like the man born William Boulware Jr. might not make it. He was in and out of the doctor's office, but no one could say what was wrong. Maybe acid reflux.
Then one morning, he woke up soaking wet and unable to see. He went back to the doctor. The doctor sent him home.
“I was dying,” Rocky said. “I could feel it.”
So he called the doctor and demanded help. Within the hour, Rocky was at Emory University Hospital Midtown, diagnosed with a rare kidney disease.
Friends, including comedian Jeff Foxworthy and Sean Hamilton, the kid Rocky inspired to become a community volunteer, rushed to his bedside. It was the first time they'd ever seen Rocky on the receiving end of someone's benevolence. Usually it's the other way around.
“From the moment his feet hit the floor in the morning, he’s trying to figure out how to help someone,” Foxworthy said.
That's why efforts are underway this time around to help Rocky defray his medical expenses. In addition to a GoFundMe campaign, Sean and his basketball coach, Ontorio Dubose, are planning a wrestling match on Rocky's behalf at Kell High School in Marietta.
Sean is committed to helping Rocky.
“He has always been there for me as a good friend and mentor,” Sean said. “Plus I am inspired to help Rocky because Rocky helps me to be a better person by helping others. If there were more people like Rocky King, the world would be a better place.”
Atlanta Journal-Constitution readers first met Rocky through Sean, four years ago when the then-10-year-old was one of the newspaper's Holiday Heroes.
As it happened, Sean considered Boulware one of his heroes, attributing to the professional wrestler his interest in helping others.
Sean, now 14, was fascinated by what Rocky did in the ring. Rocky encouraged him to put his focus on what he was doing outside the ring instead.
King, who fought his last fight in the ring in 2001, had spent much of the 1980s homeless, often eating from garbage bins as he tried to break into Atlanta’s pro-wrestling scene.
“I promised God if I made it, I’d feed the homeless,” Rocky says in a voice that’s a mix between a bark and a growl.
He was 165 pounds wet. People used to laugh at him, tell him he’d never make it.
But in 1985 after years on the street, sometimes working as a day laborer, Rocky finally got the chance to fulfill his childhood dream. He started wrestling all over the country and before long had made a name for himself in World Championship Wrestling.
“I was one of the best,” he said.
A week or so ago, he was inducted into the Independent Pro Wrestling Hall of Fame.
But wrestling is more past than present for Rocky King. For the past 20 years, he’s been busy keeping the promise.
Not just feeding them but going above and beyond that. Sometimes holding coat drives to warm them, other times collecting backpacks filled with toiletries and toys for Christmas.
Even with a damaged kidney that needs dialysis three days a week, he was barking orders into the phone from his hospital bed. His emotions veered from glee to guilt. One moment, relieved he found someone on the other end of the phone. The next moment, frustrated because he knows but for his illness, he could just do it himself.
“In a world where so many are focused on themselves, he’s the complete opposite,” Foxworthy said of Rocky. “He may be the most selfless person I have ever met. He’s just an anomaly in the world.”
Watching his friend, Foxworthy said he’s reminded of a passage in the Book of Hebrews that reminds us of the importance of being kind to strangers.
“We could be entertaining angels,” he said, paraphrasing the second half of the passage. “I wonder if Rocky is an angel.”
There’s no way of knowing for sure, but a lot of people seem to think so.
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