With the confirmation from his father — and 2024 WWE Hall of Fame inductee — Mike Rotunda that Bray Wyatt would not be a part of this year’s class, there was only one name left on the reported list of names who had not been announced for Friday night’s Ceremony.
That changed yesterday (April 1) when Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson shared that Lia Maivia will be honored alongside Paul Heyman, Bull Nakano, Rotunda & his U.S. Express tag partner Barry Windham, Thunderbolt Patterson & Muhammad Ali on April 5 in Philadelphia. As he did for his father Rocky Johnson and his grandfather Peter Maivia were enshrined in 2008, The Rock will be inducting his grandmother.`
As Johnson’s Instagram post explains, Maivia was one of wrestling’s first female promoters. She took over Hawaii’s Polynesian Pro Wrestling when her husband Peter died in 1982. A highlight of Lia’s six years at the helm of Polynesian Pro was 1985’s A Hot Summer Night supershow, which featured stars from the American Wrestling Association, Jim Crockett Promotions & New Japan Pro-Wrestling and drew somewhere between 12,500-20,000 to Honolulu’s Aloha Stadium.
Maivia was a principal character in Johnson’s Young Rock sitcom which aired on NBC from 2021-2023 (the video in Rock’s post is narrated by the actress who played his grandmother, Ana Tuisila). Lia died of a heart attack in 2008, months after seeing her late husband honored by WWE.
Now she’ll join him in the Hall of Fame as part of the 2024 class.
