Rocky Maivia is a young energetic wrestler, who had a tough rookie year in the WWF, where the fans turned on him, this experience got Rocky to think and now he is one of the top contenders in the WWF, where his abilities in the ring and with the microphone have improved and made him a star.

The beginning

Rocky Maivia, whose real name is Duane Johnson, is the son of Rocky Johnson and grandson of the late High Chief Peter Maivia. He started playing football and was signed by the Miami Hurricanes, Duane started wrestling in the off season, this started in 1995 where he wrestled in the independent circuit.

In 1996 the WWF got interested signed him and sent him to the USWA for seasoning. In the USWA he got the name Flex Cavana, he teamed with Bart Sawyer to win the USWA Tag Team Title on two occasions. The first time they won the title by winning a tournament title, here they defeated Brickhouse Brown and Reggie B. Fine, June 17, 1996. Jerry Lawler and Bill Dundee dethroned the champions, July 1. But Flex and Bart fought back and regained the title one week later, but they were only able to hold on the title for a week themselves, because on July 8, Brickhouse Brown and Reggie B. Fine ended their regain. Shortly after this Rocky packed his bag and went to Stamford.

WWF

In the WWF, Vince McMahon had found the perfect name for Duane, by taking the first name from Duane's father and the surname of his grandfather making it to Rocky Maivia. The WWF then started to hype the youngsters name on television broadcasts, and Maivia should make his debut at the Survivor Series, November 17, 1996.

The crowd welcomed Maivia at the Survivor Series, where he put on a great showing and became the sole survivor for his team, when he eliminated Crush and Goldust. After his performance at the Survivor Series, every manager in the WWF wanted Rocky in their stable, among the managers where Jim Cornette and Sunny, Cornette played the biggest part in this angle, because Rocky didn't want to have anything to do with Cornette, who then brought out wrestlers to fight Maivia. None of these wrestlers were a big threat to Maivia, but when Cornette brought out Salvatore Sincere a minor feud started where Maivia came out on top.

Rocky also entered the Royal Rumble 1997, where he again showed that he could handle himself, when he was in the ring together with the big guns. Perhaps this got the WWF management to sign Rocky for a shot at the WWF Intercontinental Champion, Hunter Hearst Helmsley. The two clashed at Thursday Raw Thursday, February 13, 1997, the match, was dominated by Hunter, but the end came, when Hunter went for the Pedigree Rocky rolled him up for the pin and won the WWF Intercontinental Title. The crowd was behind the young star, but not for long.

Maivia's first defence of the Intercontinental Title was at In Your House 13, February 16, 1997, where Rocky went up against the former champion, Hunter Hearst Helmsley. Again Hunter dominated the match, but Hunter's rival Goldust showed up and that brought Maivia the victory. With only three days as a champion, people started speculating if Rocky's lack of experience, and thereby lack of skill, would let the crowd accept him in a high profile position as Intercontinental Champion.

They soon got their answer. When the Sultan attacked Maivia, on Monday Night Raw, March 10, 1997, and started a long boring feud, the crowd slowly started the chants of Rocky sucks, and Die Rocky Die. Rocky and the Sultan clashed at WrestleMania 13, where the most exciting thing about their encounter was after Rocky had won, the Sultan and his managers, the Sheik and Bob Backlund started pounding on Rocky, but none other than Rocky's fater Rocky Johnson came to the rescue, before they together fought off the villains.

The fans patience with Rocky Maivia were over, the chants were getting so big that the commentators couldn't ignore it anymore, even though they tried. The next contender was Savio Vega from the Nation of Domination, who pinned Rocky in a non-title match to set-up their match at In Your House 14, April 20. This was one of Maivia's better matches, but he wasn't able to win the match since he ended up on the floor, where a heart punch from Crush stopped Maivia's attempt to get back in the ring, this ended the match as Rocky was counted out.

The WWF knew that they had to do something with the Intercontinental Title, since the fans didn't react to Maivia as they had hoped. On April 28, 1997, Owen Hart dethroned Maivia, who had problems with his knee. After a loss to Mankind at In Your House 15 to Mankind, Maivia got some time off to heal his knee.

Rocky returned to action on August 11, 1997, in a match which saw the leader of the Nation of Domination, Faarooq take on Chainz, the camera spotted Rocky and the commentators were happy to see him again. Rocky the ran to the ring and hit the Rock bottom on Chainz, which gave Faarooq an easy win. After the match, Rocky joined Faarooq in the ring and gave the NOD salute.

The Nation, who had dropped Ahmed Johnson a week before Rocky joined, were in the midst of feud with Ahmed and his gang, which consisted of Ken Shamrock and the Legion of Doom. Rocky also got involved in this feud and it was here that he showed that he had improved in the ring as well as on the microphone. The NOD defeated the LOD at In Your House 18, and at the Survivor Series 1997, Rocky was the shining light on his team, who lost to Ken Shamrock, LOD, and Ahmed Johnson.

After that a racist angle followed between the NOD, the Hart Foundation and Degeneration X, but thankfully it stopped when Bret Hart jumped ship to the WCW. Maivia then wanted a shot at the Intercontinental Title, because he felt that he was the best damn Intercontinental Champion, and the peoples champion. This he told the then IC Champion, Steve Austin, who accepted his challenge after telling Maivia off.

Maivia was mad after this episode, so he ordered the NOD to attack Austin on November 17, while Maivia stole the title and then took of. Austin and Maivia continued to have some funny episodes, which included the beeper 3:16 skit, until they finally clashed at In Your House 19, December 7. Austin controlled much of the match and eventually won.

The day after his loss, Vince McMahon ordered Austin to a match with Maivia, because of Austin's actions the day before. Austin didn't want to fight Maivia again, so he forfeited the belt to Maivia, who once again was the peoples champion, but then got the Stunner. Austin then took away with the title and threw it into a river. But Rocky was the Intercontinental Champion, and with a title in his hand his confidence grew and he started ordering the other members of the Nation around, including the leader Faarooq, who didn't liked to be commanded by the Rock.

Rocky then challenged Ken Shamrock to find out who was the toughest, but Rocky had a plan which involved the other members of the NOD. Shamrock battled them all and won, the last victory came over Faarooq, when Rocky held up a chair for Faarooq to throw Shamrock into, but instead Faarooq hit the chair. But Rocky had another ace up his sleeve, namely Mark Henry, who teamed with Ken Shamrock, but turned on him during a match with Rocky and D-Lo Brown, Faarooq didn't like that Mark Henry had joined the NOD, but Rocky didn't seem to care.

At the Royal Rumble 1998, the Rock and Ken Shamrock clashed. Shamrock dominated the match, but the Rock was the smartest as he hit Shamrock with brass knuckles and then put them in Shamrock's tights. When Shamrock made a comeback and pinned Maivia, he pointed out that Shamrock had knuckles in his trunks which the referee checked and found. Maivia was the awarded the victory by disqualification. Maivia also participated in the battle royal, where he again put up a great showing, he entered as number 4 and was the last man eliminated.

The feud with Shamrock continued and so did the problems with Faarooq. During a non-title match against Steve Blackman, Faarooq got D-Lo Brown to throw in Blackman's weapons to Blackman, who walloped Rocky with them and pinned him. Rocky then tried to make peace with Faarooq and the others by giving them gift, D-Lo, Mark Henry, and Kama got nice Rolex watches while Faarooq got a framed picture of Rocky Maivia. Faarooq wanted to use the picture as a weapon but Rocky saved it.

At Raw is War from March 17 Maivia issued a new challenge to Ken Shamrock, Maivia stated that Shamrock couldn't last 2 minutes with any member of the NOD. But Shamrock defeated D-Lo Brown before the 2 minute mark and was then attacked by Maivia, who with two vicious chair shots sent Shamrock to the hospital.

At WrestleMania 14, Rocky and Shamrock had yet another match, Shamrock started like a tornado and soon he got Maivia in the Ankle Lock Toe hold and Maivia tapped out. Shamrock was declared the new Intercontinental Champion, but he was still mad at Maivia so he put him in the Ankle Lock Toe hold again, Faarooq then came to the ring but he just stared at Rocky and then left. Shamrock didn't release the hold until some officials pulled him away. Again Shamrock went after Maivia, who was carted away on a stretcher and attacked him again, the referee reversed the decision.

At Raw is War, the following night Rocky and the rest of the Nation decided that Faarooq wasn't the right leader for them, so they punked him and then Rocky became the ruler of the Nation. Faarooq then aligned himself with Ken Shamrock and Steve Blackman to take on the NOD. Rocky Maivia also got a co-leader in the Nation, when Owen Hart joined the ranks after turning on Ken Shamrock. Faarooq got a taste of revenge at In Your House 22, where he attacked Maivia before the match, but it wasn't enough to keep the Rock down, who won the match.

Rocky qualified to the King of the Ring tournament by defeating Vader and then Hunter Hearst Helmsley in a strong encounter. At the pay-per-view, Rocky went up against Dan Severn in the semifinal, and with a helping splash from D-Lo Brown, Rocky dealt the first loss to Severn in his pro. wrestling career. In the final waited old nemesis Ken Shamrock, who proved to be too much for Maivia. Since Owen joined the Nation, Rocky have involved himself in Owen's feud with Degeneration X, and DX have also done what they can to provoke the Nation with various skits. Rocky and Owen also lost a tag match to Hunter and X-Pac at Raw is War, July 13, this will really put fuel on the fire.

Rocky put more fuel on the fire the following week, when he helped D-Lo Brow defeat Hunter for the European Title. Maivia also put on a good showing against X-Pac, but the match ended in a disqualification, when Hunter interfered.

Maivia clashed with Hunter Hearst Helmsley in a match for the Intercontinental Title, the match was a best of three falls. Rocky scored the first fall after some interference and then hit the Rock Bottom for the pin. Hunter won the second fall after interference from Chyna. The third fall ended with a time limit draw. Both men put on a great showing and have lead to high expectations for their Ladder Match at Summer Slam.