Johnson was born in Hayward, California,on May 2, 1972, the son of Ata Johnson and former professional wrestler Rocky Johnson (born Wayde Douglas Bowles; 1944-2022).
His father and Tony Atlas were the first black tag team champions in WWE history, in 1983.His mother is the adopted daughter of Peter Maivia, who was also a professional wrestler.
Johnson's maternal grandmother Lia was one of the first female pro wrestling promoters, taking over Polynesian Pacific Pro Wrestling after her husband's death in 1982 and managing it until 1988. Through his maternal grandfather Maivia, Johnson is a non-blood relative to the Anoa'i wrestling family.In 2008, Johnson inducted his father and grandfather into the WWE Hall of Fame
By his senior year at Freedom High School, Johnson had only played two years of high school football but the fact that he had excelled on a team in an elite high school athletic division known nationally for producing a long list of professional and Olympic-level athletes, including future NFL stars Andre Reed, Saquon Barkley, Kyzir White, and others, drew the attention of NCAA Division I collegiate programs. College football recruiters ranked Johnson as one of the top ten high school defensive tackles in the nation. He opted to accept a full athletic scholarship offer from the University of Miami, whose football program was then one of the best in the nation.
In 1995, Johnson graduated with a Bachelor of General Studies and a dual major in criminology and physiology. Additionally, Johnson was one of the university's most prolific student speakers in the Miami-area community, frequently delivering positive messages about his own struggles and encouraging them to remain in school and avoid the dangers of drug use.
Johnson began his professional wrestling career in 1996. Veteran wrestler Pat Patterson secured several tryout matches for Johnson with the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) in 1996. Wrestling at first under his real name, Johnson defeated The Brooklyn Brawler at a house show on March 10 and lost matches to Chris Candido and Owen Hart. After wrestling at Jerry Lawler's United States Wrestling Association under the name Flex Kavana and winning the USWA tag team championship twice with his partner Bart Sawyer in the summer of 1996, Johnson was signed to a WWF contract. He received additional training from Tom Prichard, alongside Achim Albrecht and Mark Henry.
Johnson made his WWF debut as Rocky Maivia, a combination of his father and grandfather's ring names, although his real name was acknowledged by the announcers.He was initially reluctant to take this ring name but was persuaded by Vince McMahon and Jim Ross. he was given the nickname "The Blue Chipper" and to play up his lineage, he was hyped as the WWF's first third-generation wrestler.Maivia, a clean-cut face character, was pushed heavily from the start despite his wrestling inexperience. He debuted on Monday Night Raw as a member of Marc Mero's entourage on November 4, 1996. His first match came at Survivor Series, on November 17, 1996, in an eight-man elimination tag match; he was the sole survivor and eliminated the final two members of the opposing team, Crush and Goldust. On February 13, 1997, he won the Intercontinental Championship from Hunter Hearst Helmsley on Monday Night Raw.Maivia then successfully defended the title against Helmsley at In Your House 13: Final Four.
Johnson's first WrestleMania match came at WrestleMania 13 on March 23, 1997, where he was victorious in his Intercontinental Championship defense against The Sultan. WWF fans started to reject his character and push from the company. He defeated Bret Hart by disqualification in a title defense on the March 31 episode of Raw is War. Behind the scenes, Hart mentored Johnson for his first year in WWF and refused to be booked to take the title from him.On April 20, at In Your House 14: Revenge of the 'Taker, he lost to Savio Vega by countout but retained the title. Audiences became increasingly hostile toward Maivia, with chants of
"die, Rocky, die" and "Rocky sucks" being heard during his matches.
After losing the Intercontinental Championship to Owen Hart on the April 28, 1997, episode of Raw Is War,Maivia suffered a legitimate knee injury in a match against Mankind in June 1997 and spent several months recovering. Upon returning in August 1997, Maivia turned heel for the first time in his career by lashing out at fans who had been booing him and joining Faarooq, D'Lo Brown and Kama in the stable called the Nation of Domination. He then refused to acknowledge the Rocky Maivia name, instead referring to himself in the third person as the Rock, though he would still be billed as "The Rock" Rocky Maivia until 1998. The Rock would then regularly
insult the audience, WWF performers, and interviewers in his promos.
The Rock was then entered into the "Deadly Game" tournament for the vacant WWF Championship. The finals occurred at Survivor Series on November 15, 1998, where the Rock defeated Vince McMahon's associate, Mankind, to win his first WWF Championship.[88][89] A "double turn" then occurred as the Rock turned heel again after allying with Vince and Shane McMahon as the crown jewel of their stable,
The Corporation, after the McMahons betrayed Mankind.[88][90] On December 13, 1998, at the pay-per-view named after him, Rock Bottom: In Your House, the Rock had a rematch with Mankind for the WWF Championship. Mankind appeared to win the match when the Rock passed out to the Mandible Claw submission move, but Vince McMahon ruled that since the Rock did not tap out, he retained his title
On January 31, during an episode of Sunday Night Heat, the Rock and Mankind participated in an Empty Arena match, a match that took place in an arena with 22,000 empty seats where any part of the facility could be used to contest the match. After 20 minutes of chaotic brawling in the ring, the stands, a kitchen, the catering area, an office, the arena corridors and finally a basement loading area, Mankind pinned the Rock using a forklift truck to win the WWF title. This match was referred to as "Halftime Heat" as it was televised during halftime of that year's Super Bowl.
