Before He Became Rocky Maivia, Dwayne Johnson Suffered an Early Rejection by Vince McMahon and His WWE Officials

Dwayne Johnson left his full-time job as a wrestler at WWE long ago. He went on to become a successful Hollywood actor. But despite his great career in the film industry, he is still known as a WWE legend. And his journey in WWE began with his character, ‘Rocky Maivia’. At least that’s what most of his fans thought most of the time.

The Rock originally had some other ideas in his head regarding his character in WWE. However, not everything went according to his plans. WWE officials and Vince McMahon himself rejected Johnson’s ideas. Instead, they enforced what they thought would be better.

Why did WWE reject Dwayne Johnson’s idea?

At the beginning of his career, Johnson had a specific idea in mind regarding his character. The former wrestler wanted his ring name to be ‘Flex Kavana’. It’s safe to say that it was a ‘counter’ to what WWE had in mind for him. The promotion thought of naming him ‘Rocky Maivia’. The reason why it was unacceptable to Johnson is because he wanted to stand out.

The Rock thought that McMahon’s preferred ring name will be like stripping off the legacy of his father ‘Rocky’ and grandfather ‘Maivia’.

Despite his thoughts, McMahon and other WWE officials saw it fit to stick to the original plan. Hence, Johnson retained his character name as ‘Rocky Maivia’ for the first few years of his WWE career. Later on, as fans know he became the iconic, ‘The Rock’.

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This wasn’t the only instance that Johnson had a different idea for his character than Vince McMahon. The two have had ideological clashes before.

What other clash did Dwayne Johnson and Vince McMahon face?

During the first two years of his career, WWE employees saw Johnson as ‘lightning in a bottle’. They were experimenting with his character to see how the audience will like him. While he still served as a heel with his gimmick, McMahon wanted Johnson to kiss his backside after winning the world title in 1998. The Rock denied this because he had his own set of reasons. However, he was not alone.

Other WWE employees at the time also stood with him because they believed this experiment would kill Johnson as a heel or as a competitor. So, although Johnson lost to McMahon’s ideas when it was about his ring name, he stood his ground this time around.

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Do you think Johnson would’ve gained success faster if he was allowed to keep his ring name ‘Flex Kavana’?