Let's Talk About: Rikishi

[PILLS! PILLS! PILLS! 0]

Seriously, Jericho, Eddie, and Benoit all eliminated early and Rikishi gets to the finals?

 

Rikishi was extremely over at the time, though. More so than anybody that you just mentioned.

[haws bah gawd 0]

Seriously, Jericho, Eddie, and Benoit all eliminated early and Rikishi gets to the finals?

 

Rikishi was extremely over at the time, though. More so than anybody that you just mentioned.

 

I'll agree. There was a time when Rikishi was close to, if not the top face on the roster as far as crowd response is concerned.

[The Buzz 0]

Then he hit Austin with a car, and that all went to shit.

[Silence 0]

Then he hit Austin with a car, and that all went to shit.

 

"I did it for....Da Rock!"

[Dobbs 3K 0]

I've always wondered if WWE could bring Rikishi back at some point. He'd still get a big reaction, and would actually fit in well with some of the current guys. It would be nice if they would bring a few guys back from the '90s (beyond Goldust), instead of always focusing on way over the hill guys from the Hogan era for the nostalgia pops (Duggan, Piper, Slaughter, etc). Heck, if nothing else, Rikishi could always team with Manu or Umaga as a New Samoans kind of tag team.

 

And yes, thank goodness for the lack of wrestler deaths this year. A few of the old timers left us, but at least there haven't been any deaths of current guys, or guys who were recently on TV.

[BruteSquad_BRODY 0]

Rikishi is on the "S" list for telling WWE he was hurt, then he worked an indy date or something, and was canned.

[Thanks for the Fish 0]

I was digging Rikishi until he started doing the stink face - it was just silly to appeal to VKM's sense of humor, and that basically became all he was. When he first debuted I thought he was going to be a destroyer - I remember he did like three finishers during the match, the jumping sitdown piledriver, the Bonzai Drop and another that slips my mind.

[USC Wuz Robbed! 0]

The running BUTT to the face?

[Silence 0]

The running BUTT to the face?

 

Edit: Never mind, that was about the other finisher.

[Bigelow34 0]

I remember going to a Smackdown a week or so before RR 2000 and being totally in shock at how over he and Too Cool were live. The place erupted. They were just slightly behind Rock and the Cactus Jack appearance we got off camera. I thought for sure he was destined for big things at that time.

[cabbageboy 0]

Rikishi's heel turn in late 2000 was one of the all time worst heel turns ever, going along with Tatanka in 1994. The jury is out on how much his face run had left, but it certainly had a lot left when he turned heel. The problem at the end is what could the WWF do with Rikishi long term? He was too much of a comedy act to put the world title on, he didn't fit the classic IC champion mold, and Too Cool were the tag team of that group.

 

I remember seeing Too Cool/Rikishi vs. Edge/Christian/Angle as the opener for Judgment Day 2000 and the crowd at the arena went crazy for that match. Thing is, the guys on the heel side all worked well together and also as singles wrestlers, whereas the same can't be said for the Too Cool/Kishi side.

[King Kamala 0]

As I pointed out in the "What Did Your Parents Think About Wrestling" thread, he was one of the few wrestlers my dad liked. He actually met him once working out at the local gym with Rey Mysterio Jr on the day of a house show back in '03ish. My dad asked him to autograph something for us and Rikishi told him he would after he was done with his workout but alas Dad forgot to ask him again and my dreams of having autographs from all of the members of Too Cool (Scotty 2 Hotty is from the area and seemingly did an autograph signing around here once every three months from '98 on and I got Brian Christopher's at an indy show in '02) were dashed! Dashed!

 

All kidding aside, I think if Rikishi could have toned down the comedy schtickwithout totally eliminating it, he could have been a good semi-main eventer, occasional main eventer.Just look at his IC title run and feud against Val Venis as a sign of his potential. People just loved the guy in Spring and Summer of '00. . I don't think anybody would argue that his heel turn killed his career. But his face turn after that was just as bad and cemented his reputation as strictly a comedy wrester. He had injury problems too IIRC and that certainly didn't help at all either.

[Diamonddust 0]

I still remember the crowd heat he had going during that Smackdown match against Triple H.

 

Being in the 10 Man Tag-Match on that Dallas Raw didn't hurt either.

[Cheech Tremendous 0]

The heel turn didn't work out, but it wasn't the worst idea in the world. He was one of the most over wrestlers on the roster during the Spring and Summer of 2000. But heading into the fall he was behind the Rock, Austin, and HHH on the face side (and probably Jericho too). I think the feeling was that there was an open main event slot for Rikishi on the heel side. Things obviously didn't work out that way.

 

The biggest problem with the heel turn was that there was really no motivation. He wasn't even in the company when Austin was hit, and there wasn't any foreshadowing or motivation. Couple that with the fact that he had to put Austin over big in his return program and really, there was no place for him to go. Bad timing and bad booking.

[The Truthiness 0]

His feud with Val Venis over the IC title was good.

[King Kamala 0]

The heel turn didn't work out, but it wasn't the worst idea in the world. He was one of the most over wrestlers on the roster during the Spring and Summer of 2000. But heading into the fall he was behind the Rock, Austin, and HHH on the face side (and probably Jericho too). I think the feeling was that there was an open main event slot for Rikishi on the heel side. Things obviously didn't work out that way.

 

The biggest problem with the heel turn was that there was really no motivation. He wasn't even in the company when Austin was hit, and there wasn't any foreshadowing or motivation. Couple that with the fact that he had to get put Austin over big in his return program and really, there was no place for him to go. Bad timing and bad booking.

 

Hell of a point there, Cheech. Rikishi as a heel wasn't a terrible in theory because really where could he go from there? He had just about hit his ceiling as a babyface at that point. They just turned him heel in perhaps the worst way they could have.

[Dobbs 3K 0]

Maybe it would have been better if he had turned heel on his buddies in Too Cool, and then cut a promo how he was sick of being viewed as a joke, and hanging out with a couple whiggers, etc. Then they could put him over having him squash Scotty and Christopher in a blow off handicap match, and go from there, booking him as a bad ass mosnter heel.

[Papacita 0]

I think KK hit the nail on the head when suggesting that the face turn in 01 was probably as bad, if not worse, than the heel turn. The heel turn was poorly executed, but I could at least respect that more than the "we liked you better when you danced" excuse they used to reset him. At least with the former there was some interest in seeing the confrontation with Austin. When they turned him face, they basically buried a character they'd spent a good six months trying to build up with no build to the turn, and IIRC the turn didn't even set up any kind of program so there was absolutely no reason to care. I've never been that huge a fan of his, but this turn always bothered me because WWF more or less told the audience that he wasn't a threat and that he was nothing more than a midcard comedy act, which I think was a lot more damaging than the heel turn.

[King Kamala 0]

Yeah, I'm trying hard to think of a lazier turn than that one and I'm coming up blank. He was still kind of overafter he turned back face (He got the third biggest pop of the night behind Edge and Rey Mysterio Jr at a SD! house show I went to in the summer of '02) but it was more of a "hey, this guy is kind of funny" pops than the kind of a pop a huge babyface would get.

[Mos_Def 0]

Rikishi's heel turn in late 2000 was one of the all time worst heel turns ever, going along with Tatanka in 1994. The jury is out on how much his face run had left, but it certainly had a lot left when he turned heel. The problem at the end is what could the WWF do with Rikishi long term? He was too much of a comedy act to put the world title on, he didn't fit the classic IC champion mold, and Too Cool were the tag team of that group.

 

I remember seeing Too Cool/Rikishi vs. Edge/Christian/Angle as the opener for Judgment Day 2000 and the crowd at the arena went crazy for that match. Thing is, the guys on the heel side all worked well together and also as singles wrestlers, whereas the same can't be said for the Too Cool/Kishi side.

 

I think the failure of the turn had a lot to do with the WWF's lack of commitment to it. It was really a good shocker, and the motivation behind it was great --- WWF racism. That shit could have been dynamite. Instead of turning up the heat on it, they kinda shied away from it almost immediately. Internally they definitely had second thoughts and it showed.

[JJMc 0]

The biggest problem with the heel turn was that there was really no motivation. He wasn't even in the company when Austin was hit.

 

I think he actually came in around late-October/early-November, but still, it is a stretch.

[Hunter's Torn Quad 0]

Yeah, I'm trying hard to think of a lazier turn than that one and I'm coming up blank.

It was kind of hard to see Rikishi has having a legitimate grievance that he was taking too far when the guy he supposedly ran over Austin for was already the unofficial top babyface in the company, ridiculously over, and someone the company were clearly behind. Maybe they were aiming for the victim mentality demographic?

 

[PILLS! PILLS! PILLS! 0]

The biggest problem with the heel turn was that there was really no motivation. He wasn't even in the company when Austin was hit.

 

I think he actually came in around late-October/early-November, but still, it is a stretch.

Detective Foley mentioned that when the hit-and-run went down that Linda McMahon was preparing the paperwork to sign a new superstar, which was, of course, Rikishi. That is how he was placed in the building on the night of the incident.

[King Kamala 0]

The biggest problem with the heel turn was that there was really no motivation. He wasn't even in the company when Austin was hit.

 

I think he actually came in around late-October/early-November, but still, it is a stretch.

 

I was just checking this on Graham's website the other day. He debuted on Jakked the night before Survivor Series. So even though he did technically debut, I'm sure 99% of the viewers didn't know that*.

 

 

*I was in the 1%...for some reason, I was a loyal Jakked viewer. God bless being a mark who will watch (or at least tape, in this case) any wrestling that's on television.

[Papacita 0]

Yeah, I'm trying hard to think of a lazier turn than that one and I'm coming up blank.

It was kind of hard to see Rikishi has having a legitimate grievance that he was taking too far when the guy he supposedly ran over Austin for was already the unofficial top babyface in the company, ridiculously over, and someone the company were clearly behind. Maybe they were aiming for the victim mentality demographic?

I think the explanation made sense. As over as Rock was in 99, he was still Austin's number two and didn't really surge into the mainstream until Austin went down. Not only that, but Austin was actually facing the Rock in the main event the night he got run down. I dunno how the racism aspect really would've gone over had they played it to the max, but I think they had something with the notion of Rikishi taking credit for all of Rock's success.

 

It just really would've helped if they had done something to condition people to accept him in that role. I don't even think the majority of the fanbase even knew Rock was Samoan at the time, much less that he was related to Rikishi. Also, that sudden switch from dancing fat man to race-conscious militant (I even remember him wearing dashikis on TV for a period) was pretty hard to reconcile, especially when he's still walking around in a thong every week. Just one of those things you can tell they really didn't think through.

[Ed Wood Caulfield 0]

Yeah, I'm trying hard to think of a lazier turn than that one and I'm coming up blank.

It was kind of hard to see Rikishi has having a legitimate grievance that he was taking too far when the guy he supposedly ran over Austin for was already the unofficial top babyface in the company, ridiculously over, and someone the company were clearly behind. Maybe they were aiming for the victim mentality demographic?

 

The Rock even mentioned this himself in the interview he did after Rikishi turned heel. He said, "Even before Rikishi came into the company, I was already a 3-time WWF Champion."

 

[Ed Wood Caulfield 0]

It just really would've helped if they had done something to condition people to accept him in that role. I don't even think the majority of the fanbase even knew Rock was Samoan at the time, much less that he was related to Rikishi. Also, that sudden switch from dancing fat man to race-conscious militant (I even remember him wearing dashikis on TV for a period) was pretty hard to reconcile, especially when he's still walking around in a thong every week. Just one of those things you can tell they really didn't think through.

 

Rikishi made it an act to put his tights up from that point on to give the Stinkface, even after he turned face again. So, most of the time, he did wrestle in what appeared to be regular wrestling trunks.

[Cran Da Maniac 0]

The biggest problem with the heel turn was that there was really no motivation. He wasn't even in the company when Austin was hit.

 

I think he actually came in around late-October/early-November, but still, it is a stretch.

Detective Foley mentioned that when the hit-and-run went down that Linda McMahon was preparing the paperwork to sign a new superstar, which was, of course, Rikishi. That is how he was placed in the building on the night of the incident.

 

 

And I remember when they Det. Foley was asking different blond wrestlers what they were doing, and S2H makes the reference that him and GMS were hanging in the back with Rikishi.

[jm29195 0]

No love for the early 2001 tag team with Haku?

[King Cucaracha 0]

Yeah, whatever happened with that? It seemed like they were destined to feud with Taker and Kane, or at least face them at NWO, then they just kinda disappeared. Did one of them go down with an injury? Or am I imagining that?