Bret Hart Thought He Could Get Young Rocky Maivia Cheered, Claims Bruce Prichard

Not every character can click when it comes to professional wrestling. Dwayne Johnson eventually captured the love of millions and millions of fans as "The Rock," but it was as Rocky Maivia — a clean-cut babyface — that he made his WWE debut. Crowds turned hostile on the young superstar, but Bret Hart, who mentored him backstage during his first year with the company, believed he could get him cheered. WWE executive Bruce Prichard recounted that moment in time recently on "Something to Wrestle,"

"By this point, yeah, the Rocky Maivia experiment was still taking place," Prichard began. "And from Bret's point of view, Bret wanted to work with Rock. And Bret wanted to work with him and thought that he could get him to be that babyface on the other side." At the time, fans simply weren't connecting to Maivia, even though it was apparent that Hart was now succeeding as a heel. From Maivia's debut at Survivor Series 1996, he was pushed hard, picking up early wins over the likes of The British Bulldog, "Razor Ramon," Triple H, and The Sultan [Rikishi] across house shows and WWE programs such as "WWE Raw" and "WWE Shotgun Saturday Night." On February 13, 1997, he'd taste WWE gold for the first time by beating Helmsley again, this time for the Intercontinental Championship.

Meanwhile, Maivia and Hart only met on one occasion inside the ring. On March 31, 1997, during an episode of "Raw," Maivia retained his Intercontinental Championship by defeating "The Hitman" via disqualification. And ultimately, Hart never got the chance to deliver on his belief that he could get the fans on Rocky's side. "Unfortunately, that never came to fruition," Prichard stated.

If you use any quotes from this article, please credit "Something to Wrestle" with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.