Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson is proud to announce he will be inducting his late grandmother Lia Maivia into the WWE Hall of Fame as part of the class of 2024.
In a joint Instagram post, Johnson shared a video montage featuring Maivia, one of the first women to become a powerful sports-entertainment promoter. She died in 2008 at the age of 77.
The clip began with a moment from Johnson’s visit to his grandparents’ cemetery at Diamond Head Memorial Park in Honolulu, Hawaii.
In a voice-over, Johnson called his grandmother “a pioneer in our business of professional wrestling.”
“She took over my grandfather’s wrestling company here in Hawaii, and she made a promise to my grandfather when he was dying on his deathbed,” he said.
After the passing of her late husband, WWE Hall of Famer “High Chief” Peter Maivia in 1982, Maivia took over control of the National Wrestling Alliance territory in Hawaii, where she became one of wrestling’s first woman promoters, the release said.
In the caption, Johnson paid tribute to Maivia, calling her “a trail blazer,” “protector of our family” and “the real Final Boss.”
Among one of the biggest events she promoted was 1985’s A Hot Summer Night, which featured several WWE Hall of Famers, including André the Giant, Ric Flair and Dusty Rhodes. The event drew a crowd of more than 20,000, per WWE.
The WWE added of Maivia, “Her strong-willed business sense coupled with her love of sports-entertainment left a lasting and profound impact on the industry and the many people she influenced and impacted in her amazing life.”
Maivia’s induction ceremony into the WWE Hall of Fame will take place on Friday, April 5, at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia.
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