Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson Mourns Death of Pro Wrestler Pal in Emotional Instagram Post

Read The Rock’s touching tribute to his friend and former WWE travel partner, Brian Christopher.

Last week, the pro wrestling world mourned the sudden and shocking passing of former WWE star, Brian Christopher Lawler. 

Also known as “Grandmaster Sexay”, Lawler was the son of wrestling legend Jerry “The King” Lawler and a massive draw during the federation’s “Attitude Era” days along with tag partners Scotty “2 Hotty” and Rikishi. 

Lawler’s suspicious death is still under investigation. The 46-year-old allegedly committed suicide. He was an inmate at the Hardeman County Jail at the time of his death and was found in his cell. Lawler had been incarcerated since July 7 on DUI and evading arrest charges.

The former WWE tag team champion was laid to rest in his hometown of Memphis over the weekend. Family, friends and former and current WWE stars paid tribute to Lawler both in person and on social media.

Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, a friend and former travel companion, posted a touching tribute to Brian Christopher over the weekend. The former WWE champion and current box office star posted photos with Lawler along with a shot of his final resting spot. 

*swipe left. RIP brother. Spent all week trying to process the hard loss of my good bud, Brian Christopher Lawler. He became a great friend the day I stepped foot in the small wrestling territory in the south known as the USWA to start my pro wrestling career. We rode together daily (1500 miles per week) trained together at any gym we could find, ate together at any Waffle House off the highway, wrestled together in flea markets to state fairs, shared motel rooms together, and would always dream (and talk shit;) about what life would be like once we made it to the big leagues of the WWE. Once we both finally made it to the big leagues of the WWE, nothing changed… we still did everything together. Including having nightly Madden tournaments after our wrestling matches in our motel room and then we’d extend our competitive spirit to a rowdy game of Wiffle Ball. Imagine us acting like crazy Wiffle Ball idiots at 2am in the parking lot of the Motel 6. Our jaws would hurt from laughing so hard. Then we’d finally take our butts to bed, hit the gym in the morning, drive 200 miles to the next town to wrestle and start the night all over again. I’ll miss these times now even more. Hurts my heart to know how Brian decided to check out. I never knew him to be suicidal, but I guess sometimes the pain just gets to be too much for one to take. I’ll miss you man and the times we had. Thanks for being a great friend. Thanks for being my boy. My love, light, support and strength to Brian’s father, Jerry Lawler and Brian’s mother, Kay as well as Brian’s family and friends. ~ DJ

A post shared by therock (@therock) on Aug 5, 2018 at 6:04pm PDT

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Johnson wrote a moving tribute to his old friend: 

“*swipe left. RIP brother. 

Spent all week trying to process the hard loss of my good bud, Brian Christopher Lawler.

He became a great friend the day I stepped foot in the small wrestling territory in the south known as the USWA to start my pro wrestling career.

We rode together daily (1500 miles per week) trained together at any gym we could find, ate together at any Waffle House off the highway, wrestled together in flea markets to state fairs, shared motel rooms together, and would always dream (and talk shit;) about what life would be like once we made it to the big leagues of the WWE. 

Once we both finally made it to the big leagues of the WWE, nothing changed… we still did everything together. Including having nightly Madden tournaments after our wrestling matches in our motel room and then we’d extend our competitive spirit to a rowdy game of Wiffle Ball. Imagine us acting like crazy Wiffle Ball idiots at 2am in the parking lot of the Motel 6. 

Our jaws would hurt from laughing so hard. 

Then we’d finally take our butts to bed, hit the gym in the morning, drive 200 miles to the next town to wrestle and start the night all over again. 

I’ll miss these times now even more. 

Hurts my heart to know how Brian decided to check out. 

I never knew him to be suicidal, but I guess sometimes the pain just gets to be too much for one to take. 

I’ll miss you man and the times we had. 

Thanks for being a great friend. 

Thanks for being my boy. 

My love, light, support and strength to Brian’s father, Jerry Lawler and Brian’s mother, Kay as well as Brian’s family and friends. ~ DJ”

Lawler’s death came on the heels of the passing of another WWE star. WWE Hall of Famer Nikolai Volkoff died on July 29th at the age of 70.