Editing Dwayne Johnson (section)

==== Intercontinental Champion (1996–1997) ====
Johnson made his WWF debut as Rocky Maivia, a combination of his father and grandfather's ring names, although announcers acknowledged his real name.<ref>{{cite episode |title=Marc Mero, Rocky Maivia, Jake Roberts, and The Stalker vs. Crush, Jerry Lawler, Hunter Hearst Helmsley, and Goldust |series=[[Survivor Series (1996)]] |credits=World Wrestling Federation |airdate=November 17, 1996}}</ref> He was initially reluctant to take this ring name but was persuaded by [[Vince McMahon]] and [[Jim Ross]].<ref name="yahoo" /><ref>{{cite book |author=The Rock |first2=Joe |last2=Layden |title=The Rock Says... |publisher=Harper Entertainment |year=2000 |location=Chapter 10, "Rocky Maivia" |page=[https://archive.org/details/rocksaysmostelec00john/page/146 146] |isbn=0-06-039298-3 |url=https://archive.org/details/rocksaysmostelec00john/page/146 }}</ref> 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.<ref name="wwebio" /> A clean-cut [[Face (professional wrestling)|face]] character, Maivia was [[Push (professional wrestling)|pushed]] heavily from the start despite his wrestling inexperience. He debuted on ''[[WWE Raw|Monday Night Raw]]'' as a member of [[Marc Mero]]'s entourage on November 4, 1996.<ref>{{cite episode |title=Episode 183 |series=WWF Monday Night Raw |series-link=WWE Raw |network=[[USA Network]] |airdate=November 4, 1996 |minutes=4:15}}</ref> His first match came at [[Survivor Series (1996)|Survivor Series]] on November 17, in an [[Elimination tag team match|eight-man elimination tag match]]; he was the sole survivor and eliminated the final two members of the opposing team, [[Brian Adams (wrestler)|Crush]] and [[Goldust]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.wwe.com/shows/survivorseries/history/1996/results/ |title=Survivor Series 1996 official results |publisher=[[World Wrestling Entertainment]] |access-date=March 19, 2008 |archive-date=December 11, 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071211021831/http://www.wwe.com/shows/survivorseries/history/1996/results/ |url-status=live }}</ref> On February 13, 1997, he won the [[WWE Intercontinental Championship|Intercontinental Championship]] from [[Triple H|Hunter Hearst Helmsley]] on a Thursday edition of ''Monday Night Raw''.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.otherarena.com/htm/cgi-bin/history.cgi?1997/raw021397 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061026201823/http://www.otherarena.com/htm/cgi-bin/history.cgi?1997%2Fraw021397 |archive-date=October 26, 2006 |title=WWF Thursday Raw: February 13, 1997 |publisher=The Other Arena |access-date=March 19, 2008 |url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.wwe.com/inside/titlehistory/intercontinental/322532 |title=Rocky Maivia's first Intercontinental Championship reign |publisher=[[World Wrestling Entertainment]] |access-date=March 19, 2008 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070410102450/http://www.wwe.com/inside/titlehistory/intercontinental/322532 |archive-date=April 10, 2007}}</ref><ref>{{cite episode |series=WWF Television |title=[[WWE Raw|WWF Monday Night Raw]] |network=[[USA Network]] |airdate=March 31, 1997 |quote=The camera goes backstage after Steve Austin's in-ring interview, and Jim Ross says: "There, you see The Rock."}}</ref> Maivia then successfully defended the title against Helmsley at [[In Your House 13: Final Four]] on February 16.

Johnson's first [[WrestleMania]] match came at [[WrestleMania 13]] on March 23, where he was victorious in his Intercontinental Championship defense against [[Rikishi (wrestler)|The Sultan]]. WWF fans started to reject his character and push from the company.<ref name="MondayNightWars01-12">{{cite AV media |title=Monday Night War S01 E12:The War Gets Electrified |publisher=WWE}}</ref> He defeated [[Bret Hart]] by disqualification in a title defense on the March 31 episode of ''Raw is War''.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://thehistoryofwwe.com/97.htm|title=Ring Results: 1997|first=Graham|last=Cawthon|date=January 16, 2023|publisher=The History of WWE|access-date=January 2, 2023|archive-date=January 2, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230102180618/http://thehistoryofwwe.com/97.htm|url-status=live}}</ref> Behind the scenes, Hart mentored Johnson for his first year in WWF<ref>{{cite web |author=Oliver, Greg |url=http://www.canoe.com/SlamWrestlingArchive/feb24_rocky.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/19991011034221/http://www.canoe.com/SlamWrestlingArchive/feb24_rocky.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=October 11, 1999 |title=A piece of The Rock |work=Slam! Wrestling |date=February 24, 1998 |access-date=August 26, 2018 |publisher=[[Canadian Online Explorer]] |author-link=Greg Oliver }}</ref> and refused to be booked to take the title from him.<ref>{{Cite book |ref={{harvid|Hart, Bret|2007}} |last1=Hart |first1=Bret |title=Hitman: My Real Life in the Cartoon World of Wrestling |publisher=[[Random House Canada]] (Canada), [[Grand Central Publishing]] (US) |year=2007 |page=420 |no-pp=y |isbn=9780307355676|title-link=Hitman: My Real Life in the Cartoon World of Wrestling }} {{ISBN|978-0-307-35567-6}} (Canada) {{ISBN|978-0-446-53972-2}} (US)</ref> 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.<ref name="slam">{{cite web |url=http://slam.canoe.com/Slam/Wrestling/Bios/rock.html |title=The Rock Bio |last=Milner |first=John |access-date=April 13, 2008 |work=Slam! Sports |publisher=[[Canoe.com|Canadian Online Explorer]] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150519192214/http://slam.canoe.com/Slam/Wrestling/Bios/rock.html |archive-date=May 19, 2015}}</ref><ref name="yahoo"/>

After losing the Intercontinental Championship to [[Owen Hart]] on the April 28 episode of ''Raw Is War'',<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.otherarena.com/htm/cgi-bin/history.cgi?1997/raw042897 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061026201852/http://www.otherarena.com/htm/cgi-bin/history.cgi?1997%2Fraw042897 |archive-date=October 26, 2006 |title=WWF Raw: April 28, 1997 |publisher=The Other Arena |access-date=March 18, 2008 |url-status=dead}}</ref> Maivia suffered a legitimate knee injury in a match against [[Mick Foley|Mankind]] in June and spent several months recovering.<ref name="slam" />