WWE Hall of Fame inductee Lia Maivia lived a colorful, controversial life

Greg Oliver

Lia Maivia WWE Hall of Fame banner
Lia Maivia WWE Hall of Fame

Lia Maivia, who promoted in Hawaii under the Polynesian Pro Wrestling banner, from 1982 to roughly 1988, is being inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame Class of 2024.

The Rock made the announcement in a Facebook video on April 1.

She took over the promotion after the death of her husband, “High Chief” Peter Maivia. While there were many woman promoters through the years, including Manda Gunther and even Mae Young, only Ann Gunkel, who ran the Georgia territory after her husband, Ray, died, had the longevity and impact that Lia Maivia did.

Their two adopted children, Ata Maivia and Peter Maivia Jr., would each contribute to the wrestling world in their own ways.

Maivia Jr. had a modest career, often wrestling in Hawaii. “My dad was my idol, he was so big and so strong and extremely popular. Even though he was a top wrestler, he never forgot the Samoan people he ruled over,” Maivia Jr. said in 1988. “He returned home as often as possible to make sure everything was OK. My dad told me he wanted me to be a wrestler and make him proud, so I knew early in life what I had been chosen to do. I have dedicated myself to following in my father’s footsteps, as he wished.”

Mataniu Feagaimaleata Johnson — Ata — married Canadian pro wrestler Rocky Johnson (born Wayde Bowles). They had one son together, who fans all know as Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson; The Rock is not only wrestling one night of WrestleMania 40 in Philadelphia, but he is also on the Endeavor board.

The induction of Lia Maivia plays into the whole WWE “Bloodline” storyline with Roman Reigns, the Usos, Solo Sikoa and The Rock.

On the Young Rock TV show on NBC, Lia Maivia was played by Ana Tuisila. The show touched upon Lia Maivia’s arrest and subsequent acquittal for extortion in late 1989.

Maivia, then 57 years old, and her business partners Ati So’o and Larry Heiniemi — who wrestled as Lars Anderson — were charged with extorting a competing promoter, John R. “Dunbar” Wakayama. They were accused of a threatening phone call and demanding $5,000. An FBI wiretap had caught the conversation.

A jury acquitted the three after a trial that almost went six weeks.

“I love the jury,” said Maivia after the acquittal. “God knows I’m a lady innocent.”

“High Chief” Peter Maivia was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in March 2008; Lia Maivia died later that year, on October 19, 2008.

In a lengthy 2013 interview with this author, Ata Maivia recalled the last time she saw her mother.

She had been by to see visit Lia on the Saturday night, as Ata and friends were going on a cruise.

“She’s dancing the hula and singing us off. As we’re leaving, she says, ‘If I die tomorrow, I die happy from seeing all you girls. Do the hula!’ We were doing the hula as we were leaving. And she died, she did die the next morning,” recalled Ata.

Her son, Dwayne, called her on the cruise ship.

“The girls and everybody are all around me, holding me up, hysterical crying. Dwayne goes, ‘Mom, I’ve got to get you off the ship. Now listen to me — I’m going to send a helicopter, but you’re the only one that can get on the helicopter.’ ‘No, I’m not leaving on a helicopter. If I leave the ship, I have to leave with all my sisters and all the girls!’ He says, ‘No, Mom, the helicopter will go down.’ I’m the lightest one, at 150-something; the heaviest one was 300, 400. He said, ‘Mom, the helicopter will go down.’ I went from hysterical crying to hysterical laughing, and they thought I’d lost it. They knew something bad was happening on the phone with me, but they didn’t know it until I got off the phone. I couldn’t tell them what Dwayne said, but that was his way of getting me to snap out of it.”

Dwayne’s distraction helped. “It worked, because it got me through it.”

The funeral followed.

“The day we laid her to rest was my 60th birthday. My speech and my farewell to her was like, ‘You brought me into this world 60 years ago, and you leave me on the day.’ I was mad at her for leaving me,” said Ata.

The WWE Hall of Fame Class of 2024 now includes Lia Maivia, Paul Heyman, Bull Nakano, the tag team U.S Express, Thunderbolt Patterson and Muhammad Ali. The induction will be April 5th at Philadelphia’s Wells Fargo Center.

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