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Who is Lia Maivia? All you need to know about WWE's final Inductee Into The Hall of Fame Class of 2024
WWE announced Lia Maivia as its last inductee into the Hall of Fame Class of 2024. Read to know more details about her.
WWE’s final inductee into the Hall of Fame Class of 2024 is none other than Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson’s maternal grandmother, Lia Maivia. It was earlier announced by The Rock himself that Lia Maivia would be inducted into the Hall of Fame, and WWE made the announcement on April 1, 2024.
On his X account, WWE COO Paul ‘Triple H’ Levesque wrote, “Lia Maivia’s profound love of sports-entertainment, and unique understanding of the business behind it, made her the perfect pillar for the Anoa’i family dynasty. This year, she takes her rightful place in the
WWE Hall of Fame Class of 2024.”
However, not much is known about Lia Maivia apart from the fact that she is the maternal grandmother of former WWE Champion The Rock.
Who is Lia Maivia?
Wife of Peter Maivia, The Rock’s maternal grandfather, Lia Maivia had a short but interesting tryst with professional wrestling. She was a Samoan professional wrestling promoter, and took over professional wrestling in 1982 after the passing away of her husband Peter Maivia.
She took control of the National Wrestling Alliance Territory in Hawaii also known as Polynesian Pro Wrestling. Her biggest card as a promoter of PPW was A Hot Summer Night, on August 3, 1985, which drew a crowd of more than 20,000 people.
The event featured several WWE Hall of Famers like Andre The Giant, Ric Flair, Rocky Johnson, Dusty Rhodes, Antonio Inoki and many other superstars.
However, her second major event, A Hot Summer Night II didn’t do well, and the promotion started to decline gradually. Maivia, her booker Lars Anderson and Ati So’O faced extortion charges from a competing Hawaiian promotion, but they were acquitted in 1989. PPW closed in 1988.
When The Rock spoke about his Grandmother
In 2018, while speaking on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, The Rock said that his grandfather, Peter Maivia never spoke about the choreography of pro wrestling to his wife, and she thought it was all “real wrestling” and not scripted.
He recalled an incident when one day when Peter Maivia was in a match in San Francisco, Lia Maivia came inside the ring, and started beating his opponent thinking that he was beating her husband for real. Peter Maivia then asked Lia to stop saying that the opponent was his friend.
Lia Maivia’s Death
Lia Maivia, the celebrated and perhaps the first-ever woman promoter of wrestling, died in 2008 at the age of 77. With her strength and resilience, the Anoa’i family grew into one of the industry’s defining families such as The Rock, Undisputed WWE Universal Champion Roman Reigns, Rikishi, Jimmy and Jey Uso.
She will be inducted by The Rock into the Hall of Fame Class of 2024 a day before WrestleMania 40. Apart from her, the other Hall of Famers announced so far by WWE are Thunderbolt Patterson, The U.S Express (Mike Rotunda and Barry Windham), Paul Heyman, Bull Nakano and Mohammed Ali. Lia Maivia is the last name announced by WWE into the Hall of Fame.
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