He was assigned to Calgary’s observe roster, but was lower two months into Calgary’s 1995 season. Maivia suffered a respectable knee injury in a match towards Mankind in June 1997 and spent a number of months recovering. On January 31, during an episode of Sunday Night Heat, the Rock and Mankind participated in an Empty Arena match, a match that occurred in an arena with 22,000 empty seats where any part of the ability may very well be used to contest the match. He defeated Bret Hart by disqualification in a title defense on the March 31 episode of Raw is War. They became WWF Tag Team Champions for the first time after defeating The Undertaker and Big Show for the titles on the August 30, 1999, episode of Raw is War. After wrestling at Jerry Lawler’s United States Wrestling Association beneath the name Flex Kavana and profitable the USWA tag team championship twice with his associate Bart Sawyer in the summer time of 1996, Johnson was signed to a WWF contract. By his senior year at Freedom Highschool, Johnson had performed solely two years of soccer, however was provided a full athletic scholarship offer from the University of Miami, whose football program was starting to emerge as one of the nation’s prime-degree NCAA Division 1 teams.
The next night on Raw Is War, Austin was ordered by Mr. McMahon to defend the title in a rematch, but forfeited it to the Rock as an alternative, handing him the title belt before hitting him with the Stone Cold Stunner. He was initially reluctant to take this ring title but was persuaded by Vince McMahon and Jim Ross. Johnson made his WWF debut as Rocky Maivia, a mix of his father and grandfather’s ring names, though announcers acknowledged his actual identify. In his time at Miami, Johnson performed in 39 games with one start. A clear-reduce face character, Maivia was pushed closely from the beginning despite his wrestling inexperience. Intended to show a vicious streak in the Rock’s character, the Rock hit Mankind in the top with a steel chair 11 times as a substitute of the scripted five, five photographs already being risky (most wrestling matches within the Attitude Era involving steel chairs had at most 2 or 3 pictures to the head). Although a launch date for the Miyoo Flip nonetheless hasn’t been announced, the company revealed the folding display handheld’s varied colorways, together with a model that matches the Super Nintendo. Audiences grew to become increasingly hostile toward Maivia, with chants of “die, Rocky, die” and “Rocky sucks” being heard during his matches.
At King of the Ring, the Rock defeated Dan Severn within the semi-closing match and misplaced to rival Ken Shamrock in the final. WWF Championship against The Undertaker, at King of the Ring, which the Rock misplaced. After 20 minutes of chaotic brawling in the ring, the stands, a kitchen, the catering space, an workplace, the area corridors and at last a basement loading space, Mankind pinned the Rock using a forklift truck to win the WWF title. At D-Generation X: In Your house on December 7, 1997, Stone Cold Steve Austin defeated the Rock in below six minutes to retain the Intercontinental Championship. On February 13, 1997, he won the Intercontinental Championship from Hunter Hearst Helmsley on Monday Night Raw. Upon returning in August 1997, Maivia turned heel for the primary time in his career by lashing out at fans who had been booing him and becoming a member of Faarooq, D’Lo Brown and Kama in the stable called the Nation of Domination. He then successfully defended the Intercontinental title against Faarooq at Over the edge: In Your home on May 31. The stable would then check with themselves as simply “The Nation”. Henry defeated him at Judgment Day: In Your house on October 18, 1998, after interference from Brown, successfully breaking up the stable.
