10 WWE Mega-Pushes Fans Hated BEFORE Roman Reigns & John Cena

10. The Rock

The problem with Rocky Maivia was that there was no problem with Rocky Maivia.

By late-1996, maturing and evolving wrestling audiences wanted their characters broken, pushed to breaking point, or breaking out. The New World Order allowed Hulk Hogan to turn his entire career upside down in front of millions that had once adored it the right way up, Stone Cold Steve Austin's teasing and testing of Bret Hart forced uncomfortable questions about what represented genuine "cool" in cynical times, and Shawn Michaels suited the jagged edge reality of his life so much more than the white meat run thrust upon him.

Brand new out the box and aw-shucks-so-glad-to-be-here hadn't worked for years, but it came across much worse when fans were so gleefully willing to reject it.

"Die Rocky Die" was one of the signs The Rock latched on to when he turned heel, but the potency wasn't in the literal meaning of words but what they represented. Rocky Maivia had to die so the future 'Great One' could live - a rapidly changing World Wrestling Federation had no place for a guy without a bit of lived-in baggage.

He'd pay forward his entrance into the Nation Of Domination a year later, too...