Rikishi: What Could Have Been?

[OYDK]

After years of toiling in the undercard and tag team scene and failing to develop any sort of momentum, the man formerly known as Fatu and The Sultan was finally able to break out as Rikishi in 1999. Taking the gimmick of a bleached blond, thong wearing, dance machine, Rikishi was able to rise to heights that I don't think anybody expected, ultimately becoming one of the most over acts on the entire roster. Now a lot of people will say that Rikishi will best be remembered for The Stink Face, and while that might be true, I've always thought that if things had gone a bit differently, maybe Rikishi would have made it to the Hall of Fame for much different reasons.

My thread basically revolves around Rikishi's strong heel push in 2000 and WWE's failure to capitalize on the enormous heat that he had. It seemed to me like they were building Rikishi alongside Kurt Angle as their heels of the future, when all of the sudden Rikishi's push was dropped pretty much out of nowhere. For the ones that don't remember, throughout 2000 there was a story line revolving around an "investigation" to find out who ran down Stone Cold Steve Austin. Now it was very obvious that whoever was chosen as the "hitman" was going to get a pretty significant push, so the reveal of Rikishi as that person was quite shocking. At the time, he was crazy over as a face and it seemed like there were huge plans in store for him as a heel. He'd go on to feud with Stone Cold, The Rock, and The Undertaker before being thrown in a tag team with Haku and turning face again shortly after.

The thing that has always gotten me was the fact that there didn't seem to be any legitimate reason for ending Rikishi's push. In my opinion, he was one of the most agile big men in the company, he was great in the ring and his style was unique on the mic, and he was very good at drawing heat. It's not like his run as a heel wasn't working. People may laugh at this now, but I've always wondered at whether Rikishi had the chops to cement himself as one of the greats. The guy still wrestles today, arguably he could have been a reliable main eventer for 15 years had his push never been halted.

Which brings me to my questions:

Why was Rikishi's push ultimately stopped?

What could have been if it wasn't?

 

[justinept]

I feel like I remember his heel run differently... The heat Rikishi received wasn't heel heat. It was people voicing their opinion because they were legitimately let down that Rikishi was getting pushed into such a prominent role.

People can correct me if they remember it differently, but I remember people shitting all over the Rikishi reveal from the beginning because it wasn't nearly as big a payoff as people expected it to be. We're talking about writing off the biggest star in wrestling for a full year by running a program where someone ran him over with a car. That's game-changing for the WWE. Throw in the insanity of how they wrote him off, that fans were legitimately discussing theories on the matter for a full year, and I'm telling you that the hype surrounding the reveal was too great for anyone to be satisfied that it was Rikishi.

People wondered if it was Triple H, hell bent on ascending to the top of the mountain (turns out, it mostly was). They thought maybe it was The Rock, trying to be the undisputed biggest draw in the company. People wondered if McMahon would bring in a major star from WCW to get the honor, using the logic that he was trying to win the war for his old company. Others thought maybe someone like Jericho, Benoit or Angle would be given the honor of ascending to the main event scene by being revealed as the driver.

Nope. None of that. It was Rikishi. Come on! Forget that the guy wasn't even on the roster at the time of the hit and run... We're talking about a guy who was a mid-card talent that had spent the previous year working a mostly comedic gimmick, a guy who was a peg below each of Benoit, Jericho and Angle. Sure, it was funny to watch the fat guy dance... or to see him stick his mostly bare ass in some poor guy's face... but no one looked at the guy and said: This guy needs to be in the main event - especially not over guys like Benoit, Jericho and Angle!!!!

His closest comparison on today's roster would probably be Big E. They're both big guys who are getting over by being silly. But seriously, if the WWE ran an angle where John Cena got hit by a car and missed a year of action - you'd probably shit all over it if the year-long wait resulted in Big E being revealed as the driver!

 

[Radical Canadian Goose]

I feel like I remember his heel run differently... The heat Rikishi received wasn't heel heat. It was people voicing their opinion because they were legitimately let down that Rikishi was getting pushed into such a prominent role.

People can correct me if they remember it differently, but I remember people shitting all over the Rikishi reveal from the beginning because it wasn't nearly as big a payoff as people expected it to be. We're talking about writing off the biggest star in wrestling for a full year by running a program where someone ran him over with a car. That's game-changing for the WWE. Throw in the insanity of how they wrote him off, that fans were legitimately discussing theories on the matter for a full year, and I'm telling you that the hype surrounding the reveal was too great for anyone to be satisfied that it was Rikishi.

People wondered if it was Triple H, hell bent on ascending to the top of the mountain (turns out, it mostly was). They thought maybe it was The Rock, trying to be the undisputed biggest draw in the company. People wondered if McMahon would bring in a major star from WCW to get the honor, using the logic that he was trying to win the war for his old company. Others thought maybe someone like Jericho, Benoit or Angle would be given the honor of ascending to the main event scene by being revealed as the driver.

Nope. None of that. It was Rikishi. Come on! Forget that the guy wasn't even on the roster at the time of the hit and run... We're talking about a guy who was a mid-card talent that had spent the previous year working a mostly comedic gimmick, a guy who was a peg below each of Benoit, Jericho and Angle. Sure, it was funny to watch the fat guy dance... or to see him stick his mostly bare ass in some poor guy's face... but no one looked at the guy and said: This guy needs to be in the main event - especially not over guys like Benoit, Jericho and Angle!!!!

His closest comparison on today's roster would probably be Big E. They're both big guys who are getting over by being silly. But seriously, if the WWE ran an angle where John Cena got hit by a car and missed a year of action - you'd probably shit all over it if the year-long wait resulted in Big E being revealed as the driver!

I agree with all of this. I didn't hate Rikishi, I hated the fact that the reveal turned into Rikishi. I was disappointed in the fact that it wasn't HHH, Rock Or Jericho. It was such a huge angle, that coincided with such a huge let down, reminiscent in recent times, by the Anonymous GM angle. To me his heel turn was set up to be a major letdown, based on the angle and anticipation that let into it.

 

[therockiswwf]

I just watched the year 2000 and I have to say they made a huge mistake by making Rikishi the guy that did it. The reason is very simple, (stealing this from Klunderbunker) HE IS A DANCING FAT MAN IN A THONG.

Rikishi was not good at promos. In fact, he was awful. He would trip up a lot and wasn't that smooth. Think Roman Reigns with less English ability. He was also very fat. To the point where honestly he just couldn't do that much. Not really sure why you remember him being so agile at the time, he wasn't. His heel turn massively flopped with the fans. Some of the crowd would boo him but most just stayed silent.

He was over because he was fun. Fans didn't want to see him main event. They wanted him to come out, do a quick match, stick a heels face in his ass, dance and then leave.

I think the more interesting thing here is why did they pick Rikishi at first instead of HHH. My theory is at the time HHH was slowly turning face. Fans were starting to cheer him a lot and he even would pal around with Foley. Since that was going so well, they probably thought well lets use someone else. Now why of all people they would choose Rikishi, I have no idea. But that is my theory as to why HHH wasn't chosen at first.

 

[TStorm]

There was a lot of speculation about it, with Austin basically going through the entire roster after he returned, the angle was a big deal because obviously Austin was apart of it. It was made into a big deal, which made the reveal that it was Rikishi who did it, and claimed that he did it for The Rock, it became a bigger deal because Rikishi was essentially feuding with The Rock after that, and obviously Austin wanted to destroy him for what he'd done as well.

The problem? He was never placed as any kind of threat to either The Rock or to Austin. Austin pretty much destroyed him to the point that Austin was arrested for trying to almost kill Rikishi. Rikishi wasn't anywhere in The Rock's league, he did it for The Rock, and had to use a car to do it, essentially presenting himself as nothing but a coward and showing that The Rock was above him, simply because of the means he had to go about doing it.

The crowd, as memory serves, despised it, it did nothing for Rikishi. It split up one of the most over acts in the company in the process. It went over so badly that they eventually had to turn attention back onto HHH (who was originally suspected of being the one that did it, had every motive to do it, and was the most obvious person to do it).

It was a swerve, but a poorly executed swerve, they knew everyone would think HHH was involved, Rock was cleared of any involvement (in the people's eyes, nobody wanted to hate The Rock at this time), so you had two options. Go with the most obvious choice in Triple H or find someone that has a connection to someone in the event and use him. Hence the, "I did it for the Rock" and the "Great White Hope" motive.

It was just a bad swerve that didn't really do anything for anyone, and it was something that did hurt Rikishi in the process. If they'd just gone with the obvious choice of HHH, Rikishi would have been fine and wouldn't have lost momentum, because they didn't, Rikishi was still over when he turned face again, but he never was quite as over as he was before that point.

I'd also like to add. Remember who the target was, it was Stone Cold Steve Austin, and this was the angle that took him out for an extended period of time. Whoever did it, they wanted Austin to get revenge on them, and it was even better if the crowd hated them for it. Nobody wanted to hate Rikishi, he was a beloved babyface, he was over with the crowd, they loved the guy, but HHH? How could they not hate this guy and how could the crowd not love seeing Austin get revenge on HHH, and they did, they loved every moment of Austin beating the hell out of him.

 

[OYDK]

Damn, to be honest I was only like 10 years old when this went down. It's pretty cool to hear about what people were thinking at this time, I really had no idea that Rikishi as the reveal went over so horrendously. I was mostly just going off of straight crowd reaction when I said he had a ton of heat, but I guess I was way off here.

Well, now I know.

 

[Vanilla Midget]

It was poorly received as the silly fun babyface was suddenly the horrendous villain. It was a lot like Brodus Clay's heel turn (except in the main event scene), for anyone looking for a modern comparison. Fun loving guy, "for the kids" act, straight up tries to murder a guy. It caught you off guard.

It would be like Koko B. Ware trying to kill Hulk Hogan or Snuffleupagus on Sesame Street starting to sell meth to kids. The dude with the big trunk gone bad.

I think Rikishi's bad guy turn could have worked, but they didn't try and change the look of the character. Sure, they gave him that gangster theme, but he was still a fat guy in a thong, which is funny, not villainous.

If the idea was to push Rikishi as the next mega heel, then they should have turned him into a Umaga type character and embraced the Samoan heritage. If they wanted to keep him in the thong, they should have added leggings like Yokozuna. The stinkface was always only going to work as a babyface.

He lost consecutive matches to Austin and The Rock. Then Triple H went from tween to heel and severed ties with Rikishi almost as soon as they started up their alliance. Suddenly Rikishi was just a loaner asshole with a huge fat butt in a thong. Who cares?

They probably should have given him some leggings and kept him aligned with Triple H and Stephanie. I might have considered having Steph manage Rikishi in this time. Maybe putting him with some kind of heater could have worked too. Test and Albert weren't doing much in this time, and Right to Censor might have fit with a newly conservative monster in Rikishi.

Rikishi was chosen because Triple H was too obvious and they wanted to give the honours to a newly minted top tier star. There aren't a lot of great choices here on the roster that weren't already established main eventers.

You have to take out anyone that was employed by WCW in November 1999, you also have to remove anyone that you don't want to turn heel. Jericho was one of their main midcard babyfaces, so he was out. The Radicalz were all in WCW.

It was basically going to be Jericho, Angle, or Rikishi. Angle was already over and the WWF champion, and Jericho was your star of the future lighting it up in the midcard. Rikishi was a risk, but ultimately a safe choice. He was a veteran at this point in his career, and had nothing to lose if he flopped in the role.

We could be looking back at this differently if they invested into Rikishi's look and his presentation. He never one a single ppv match as a heel, got injured in early 2001, then turned face almost upon return. Austin had to win the first match, but why did Rock win Rikishi' second as a heel? Why didn't they send Rikishi into the IC or European title divisions instead of making him canon fodder at the awkward Armageddon 2000 hell in a cell match? Oh well.

 

[EastCoastFan]

I have to disagree. Rikishi's heel turn in 2000, with him being revealed as the driver who ran down Steve Austin, just came too far out of left field. He was very popular with Too Cool, and there was no need to turn him. It just seemed like a copout. Maybe not as bad as Hornswoggle being revealed as Vince McMahon's illegitimate son, but a copout nonetheless.

Yes, there was some logic to his excuse (he "did it for the Rock", taking out Steve Austin so Rocky could be top guy with no competition), but it just wasn't believable, to the point the WWF had to reveal HHH as the mastermind behind it in an effort to salvage it. Rikishi was just not right as a heel. Any crowd heat there was was because the whole angle was stupid, not because fans hated him.

 

[Soulblazed]

I agree with the main points on why Rikishi's heel turned sucked ass..Though, I'm surprised none of ya'll mentioned the ONLY good part about Rikishi's heel turn-His feud with Val Venis...

That feud easily produced the best singles matches/chemistry that either wrestler had in a singles feud. Rikishi murdered Venis with Superfly Splashes..He hit one onto Val from off the top of the Smackdown stage as well as in a damn good steel cage match from the top of the cage.

Also I agree with Vanilla Midget saying that Rikishi should've changed up his wrestling attire..I think instead of a mawashi-like Yokozuna look, he could've wrestled in an ass kicking suit(think the type of suit Phineas or Henry Godwin wore (who both used their real names during that angle) when they were in that short angle as Jarrett's bodyguards.

Rikishi Superfly Splashing Val off the stage
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=74Cl9CrZ6ZM

Rikishi Superfly Splashing Val off the steel cage
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z4X3zKT3LFo

Val Venis vs Rikishi in a singles match for the IC Title on Smackdown. Taz ran in at the end and hit Rikishi in the head with a camcorder which allowed Venis to hit the Money Shot on Rikishi and win the IC Title. It was also ironic that the crowd was actually chanting "Rikishi" pretty loud seconds before Venis hit the Money Shot and won the IC Title from Rikishi.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GATKhy-bO2s

 

[Hollywood Naitch]

His push got cancelled because he just wasn't over enough as a heel and fans were still disappointed with WWE's choice of Rikishi as the guy who ran down Stone Cold Steve Austin at Survivor Series 1999. The thing that annoyed me was that Rikishi wasn't even on the roster at the time of the attack!

He was incredibly popular as the fat, dancing face with Too Cool and was more than deserving of his run as Intercontinental Champion, but as a main event level heel? Nahhh. He was perfect as the funny mid-carder who was athletic for his size, but his popularity stemmed from the sight of his fat ass being rubbed in people's faces and the dancing. Take that away and his selling point had gone. The Stink Face didn't work in his heel run.

Let's be honest, with a roster like WWE had in 2000, with Rock, Austin, Undertaker, Kane, Benoit, Guerrero, Jericho, Angle etc, did anyone really want to see Rikishi as a main eventer? His matches were rarely great (I know he did have a good series with Val Venis), but he was never a top-of-the-card talent.

The OP says he could have been a main eventer for FIFTEEN YEARS? Are you kidding me? In just a couple of years we saw the likes of Orton, Cena and Batista debuting, plus all the new arrivals like Booker T, RVD and and the rise of Edge to main event superstar...Rikishi wouldn't have been able to hang with any of them.

In hindsight, it was a bad move having him revealed as the guy who ran down Stone Cold.

 

[OYDK]

His push got cancelled because he just wasn't over enough as a heel and fans were still disappointed with WWE's choice of Rikishi as the guy who ran down Stone Cold Steve Austin at Survivor Series 1999. The thing that annoyed me was that Rikishi wasn't even on the roster at the time of the attack!

Yeah, I found this pretty ridiculous too. And the fact that Foley figured it out simply because Scotty mentioned Rikishi was backstage that night... didn't make much sense. I'm curious, did crowd reaction change for Rikishi when it was revealed that HHH was actually the "mastermind" behind the whole thing? Did they accept that story or were people still disappointed with original Rikishi reveal?

He was incredibly popular as the fat, dancing face with Too Cool and was more than deserving of his run as Intercontinental Champion, but as a main event level heel? Nahhh. He was perfect as the funny mid-carder who was athletic for his size, but his popularity stemmed from the sight of his fat ass being rubbed in people's faces and the dancing. Take that away and his selling point had gone. The Stink Face didn't work in his heel run.

The was I see it, he deserved to get the push. As I mentioned in OP, Rikishi was one of the most over acts on the roster, and while that may have been primarily because of the Stinkface and the dancing, it would have been dumb of WWE not to try and do something with that momentum in my opinion. Perhaps turning him heel wasn't the way to go, though hindsight is always 20/20.

Let's be honest, with a roster like WWE had in 2000, with Rock, Austin, Undertaker, Kane, Benoit, Guerrero, Jericho, Angle etc, did anyone really want to see Rikishi as a main eventer? His matches were rarely great (I know he did have a good series with Val Venis), but he was never a top-of-the-card talent.

Eh, I always found his matches to be the better of all the big men in the company at this time, except maybe The Undertaker. Rikishi was someone who could go out and hang with Taka Michinoku or The Big Show. He was a good match-up. He may not have been Chris Benoit or Kurt Angle, but he was also 400 pounds. As for Rikishi in the main event, again, I thought he could have been a good long-term option as an upper-carder who gets the odd title match now and again. Maybe not a cemented main eventer, but similar to the role that Sheamus or Del Rio currently occupies.

The OP says he could have been a main eventer for FIFTEEN YEARS? Are you kidding me? In just a couple of years we saw the likes of Orton, Cena and Batista debuting, plus all the new arrivals like Booker T, RVD and and the rise of Edge to main event superstar...Rikishi wouldn't have been able to hang with any of them.

I think he could have very much hung with these guys. His feuds with Rock and Austin were pretty good and if he can keep up with them, he should be able to keep up with the others you listed. Plus, by the time all these guys had debuted or got their pushes it was already 2005, which means that had they continued his run in the main event , he would have been there for 5 years already. He would have been the one putting all these young guys over.

In hindsight, it was a bad move having him revealed as the guy who ran down Stone Cold.

Now, I see this.

 

[shooter_mcgavin]

To be honest I was more disappointed that it was Triple H being the mastermind than Rikishi being the driver. After teasing that Triple H didn't hit Austin it would have been a let down that it was Triple H all this time. I knew it wasn't going to be The Rock since he was really hot at that point but I wished it was some we didn't expect but would have made a compelling storyline.

Triple H was more of the same IMO.

I actually didn't mind that Rikishi was the driver, he would have been a good temporary stop gap for Austin as he was at No Mercy until the main culprit was revealed.

Though I admit outside perhaps Shawn Michaels, Vince McMahon (who was already a heel at this point so that was a non starter), Big Show (who was a non-factor at the show at the time). There weren't really any good options on who would have been the main guy.

That said maybe they should never have done the hit and run angle. I mean Survivor Series was advertised as Austin vs. HHH vs. Rock, which is as big as a main event as you can get and having Big Show replace Austin was a terrible idea and made the match from really exciting to extremely mediocre (sorry but inserting The Big Show in any match automatically makes it worse).

They should just have a straight up Triple Threat with Triple H using his sledge hammer to injure Austin's neck then Triple H retaining the title. I mean there was no point for Triple H to lose the title again if the plan was to get Triple H as a top heel.

Anyways going back to Rikishi, his heel turn was fine especially with Haku (not sure why Haku left though) was he going to be a top heel. Nope but as a stop gap mid card heel (i.e. what Mark Henry does most of the time) Rikishi is just fine. Not sure why his push go pulled so quickly, maybe he was just too fat work with?

 

[The Brain]

For the most part I agree with what's been said. Honestly, it probably wouldn't have mattered too much but one thing worth mentioning is Rikishi did suffer a minor injury during the spring of 2001 which caused him to miss mania. It wasn't a good mania to miss. I'm not sure what kind of role he would have had anyway but being out of sight out of mind during what many consider to be the greatest mania ever shortly after the heel turn killed whatever momentum Rikishi had left (if he still had any at that time anyway). In just a few months Rikishi went through feuds with Austin, Rock, and Taker. Sounds great except they were pretty one sided and very short. WWF took a years worth of stories and finished them in four months. Plus by the time Rikishi was ready to come back the invasion angle was about to get started. Even if Rikishi was meant to be someone in that angle, which he probably wasn't, he came back as a face and was immediately injured again and was out for about six months. All the momentum was gone by the time he came back from that injury.

I agree with the main points on why Rikishi's heel turned sucked ass..Though, I'm surprised none of ya'll mentioned the ONLY good part about Rikishi's heel turn-His feud with Val Venis...

This was during the summer before Rikishi turned heel.

 

[Stone Cold Tea]

Everybody here has covered the reason for them been let down with Rikishi. I have a different theory to his push stopping.

As you noticed, he vanished off of our screens when he broke up with Haku. Now him and Haku had been having a nice little rivalry with 'Taker and Kane. Now as far as I'm aware, Haku got fired for having some STD after he bled allover 'Taker. ( This is my theory because I recently watched all the '01 Raws and that's when Haku vanished, Also I;m sure I have heard this before).

Now granted teaming with Haku wasn't the biggest of pushes, but Rikishi was been put in important matches in the Main Event on T.V during this time. After this Rikishi totally vanished off of our screens. This makes me think this is the exact point where they decided fuck it with his push, and had him return at 'Mania x7 as part of Too Cool. Part of me thinks maybe he was pencilled in for a match against 'Taker at 'Mania that year. After all he did get thrown off the cell by him, they was heavy interaction in the Rumble and they did have the tag team feud. The fact the BOD competed at NWO in a tag match makes me think maybe just maybe Rikishi and Haku were meant to be in that match, then we would get Rikishi and 'Taker at 'Mania. That's me getting a little too far ahead of myself though.

Oh yeah, and he wasn't that good.

 

[Stone Cold Tea]

There weren't really any good options on who would have been the main guy

Kurt Angle. Didn't he debut the same night? Then during Austins time out he ascended to the top and just to bring it full circle he won the title on the night of Austins PPV comeback.

 

[justinept]

Kurt Angle. Didn't he debut the same night? Then during Austins time out he ascended to the top and just to bring it full circle he won the title on the night of Austins PPV comeback.

Angle would've been a great choice. The guy was on fire, and probably benefited from Austin's absence more than any wrestler on the roster. It would've been interesting to explore the idea that he stacked the deck in his favor from day one by running down Austin in a car...

But let's not get caught up in the idea that it had to be someone on the roster. Wrestling fans, we're easily excitable. We don't always take logic and contracts into account. We see that Austin got hit by a car in November 99, and then we spend the next year wondering who the WWE is going to reveal as the driver. Then, July 2000 comes, and Hulk Hogan is basically dumped by WCW. We didn't know the extent of that situation, nor did we know if Hogan was a free agent (he wasn't), but we also didn't care.

Seriously - that's the level of speculation that we had back in November 2000 when Austin returned. There were people that literally believed it could be a returning Hulk Hogan, looking to have that highly-anticipated program with Stone Cold Steve Austin. I know it sounds ridiculous, but that was the expectation --- which is why Rikishi never had a chance to succeed.

 

[Mustang Sally]

Why was Rikishi's push ultimately stopped?

Once the OP posed this question, I found myself thinking about it, and no matter how I tried, I couldn't pick a point in which Rikishi turned full heel or when he became full fool ('Back that ass up!'). It was a gradual process over years and seemed to coincide with his enormous weight gain.

I mean, really.......think of how Fatu looked and how Rikishi looked. I found it hard to believe they were the same guy, even with The Sultan offering a mid-point between the two. What, was the man hooked up intravenously to a fudge drip?

For people who perform in their underwear in front of thousands of people, it's still not considered bad when pro wrestlers put on a few pounds. (Not women! Oh, no. That's a big deal)

But Solofa Fatu turned himself into a living joke, leaving him as the jolly fat man whom we enjoyed watching as he danced around the ring and whose career was defined by having a fat ass.

Heel run? If anything, it didn't last because management decided the man looked too much like a buffoon to have a run as a dangerous heel. I remember being highly puzzled and disappointed when Rikishi was announced as the driver of the vehicle that hit Steve Austin........mostly because I wondered how he ever fit behind the wheel of a car.

 

[Stone Cold Tea]

I remember being highly puzzled and disappointed when Rikishi was announced as the driver of the vehicle that hit Steve Austin........mostly because I wondered how he ever fit behind the wheel of a car.

And this is the height of Sally thinking mean things about people.

At the time I was only 8 so I guess if they told me there was a bad guy who could kick Austins ass, I didn't consider the fact he danced around in a thong in the months prior.

 

[therockiswwf]

Everybody here has covered the reason for them been let down with Rikishi. I have a different theory to his push stopping.

As you noticed, he vanished off of our screens when he broke up with Haku. Now him and Haku had been having a nice little rivalry with 'Taker and Kane. Now as far as I'm aware, Haku got fired for having some STD after he bled allover 'Taker. ( This is my theory because I recently watched all the '01 Raws and that's when Haku vanished, Also I;m sure I have heard this before).

Now granted teaming with Haku wasn't the biggest of pushes, but Rikishi was been put in important matches in the Main Event on T.V during this time. After this Rikishi totally vanished off of our screens. This makes me think this is the exact point where they decided fuck it with his push, and had him return at 'Mania x7 as part of Too Cool. Part of me thinks maybe he was pencilled in for a match against 'Taker at 'Mania that year. After all he did get thrown off the cell by him, they was heavy interaction in the Rumble and they did have the tag team feud. The fact the BOD competed at NWO in a tag match makes me think maybe just maybe Rikishi and Haku were meant to be in that match, then we would get Rikishi and 'Taker at 'Mania. That's me getting a little too far ahead of myself though.

Oh yeah, and he wasn't that good.

It was Randy Orton's father that bled on Taker with a STD. Not Haku.

Haku was brought in as more of a Fuck You to WCW. It was obvious they really didn't have a plan for him. Haku and Rikishi failed to get any sort of reaction, so that didn't help. Haku I think lasted until early 2002 (not entirely sure on that though).

 

[Soulblazed]

For the most part I agree with what's been said. Honestly, it probably wouldn't have mattered too much but one thing worth mentioning is Rikishi did suffer a minor injury during the spring of 2001 which caused him to miss mania. It wasn't a good mania to miss. I'm not sure what kind of role he would have had anyway but being out of sight out of mind during what many consider to be the greatest mania ever shortly after the heel turn killed whatever momentum Rikishi had left (if he still had any at that time anyway). In just a few months Rikishi went through feuds with Austin, Rock, and Taker. Sounds great except they were pretty one sided and very short. WWF took a years worth of stories and finished them in four months. Plus by the time Rikishi was ready to come back the invasion angle was about to get started. Even if Rikishi was meant to be someone in that angle, which he probably wasn't, he came back as a face and was immediately injured again and was out for about six months. All the momentum was gone by the time he came back from that injury.



This was during the summer before Rikishi turned heel.

Ya know what, you're right! I didn't watch a lot of the WWF during 2000 hence I mixed things up.

Also, I was one of the few fans of the Rikishi and Haku tag team..It's too bad Haku didn't last past 2002..I've been a Haku fan since the 80s and was hoping Haku would've gotten a meaningful IC Title run if anything..

 

[Jonyboyuk2]

I agree with the poster - Rikishi had a strong following before the stupid stone cold storyline. It was senseless. at least he got in the HOF. Which I don't think he merits tbh

 

[sMark]

I guess plan A was The Big Show - replace Austin at SS, win the title, became McMahon's guy...until he went down to OVW because of overweight..so WWE needed a replacement, since the plan was to make Austin feud with a monster like guy (kinda like Hogan in 80's), they choose another behemoth in Rikishi, thought i can't understand why they didn't pick Kane.

 

[DirtyD79]

What could have been is what happened. Rikishi was a midcard comedy act. That said I don't fault WWE for trying to give him a main event push and put him in a big storyline since he was pretty popular. Unfortunately the reason he was popular was because of being the dancing fat guy. Once they took that away from him he really didn't have much else to work with.

 

[shooter_mcgavin]

Kurt Angle. Didn't he debut the same night? Then during Austins time out he ascended to the top and just to bring it full circle he won the title on the night of Austins PPV comeback.

I was thinking that but Angle just debuted that night and he was as far from the World Title picture as he can get. What motivation would he have to hit Austin at the time?

Though I am thinking could Stephanie McMahon been another possible choice?

 

[The Brain]

I was thinking that but Angle just debuted that night and he was as far from the World Title picture as he can get. What motivation would he have to hit Austin at the time?

Though I am thinking could Stephanie McMahon been another possible choice?

I've said it many times before that Kurt Angle would have been the perfect choice. With Angle just debuting that night he could have decided to take Austin out. Angle was the "real athlete" that stood for integrity that could have been motivated to take out the foul mouthed, beer swilling, brawler that didn't show respect to anybody. The Olympic champion could have decided Austin wasn't the kind of guy that should have been in the same company as him and in a hypocritical heel move he could have ignored his own integrity by taking Austin out in such a cowardly way. And Angle's plan would have worked too as he became a star in Austin's absence and was about to become champion upon his return. For as obvious as Austin vs. Rock at WM17 was I think if WWF played their cards right Austin vs. Angle could have been a great mania main event if they revealed Angle as the driver.