 After losing the Intercontinental Championship to Owen Hart on April 28, 1997 Raw Is War, and suffering a knee injury in a match against Mankind, Maivia returned as a heel. Along with Faarooq, D 'Lo Brown, and Kama, he formed a stable called the Nation of Domination. During this time, he refused to acknowledge the "Rocky Maivia" name, instead referring to himself in the third person as "The Rock". He insulted the audience in his promos, as well as WWF television interviewers, once calling Kevin Kelly an "ugly hermaphrodite".
