Let's Talk About: Rikishi

[King Kamala 0]

Two reasons and I'm not 100% sure either one is correct. One is I think Rikishi went down with another injury around that time. Second, I vaguely remember The Brothers of Destruction Vs Rikishi and Haku being a potential matchup for WrestleMania X-7 and then hearing a rumor that The Undertaker complained about being in such a low profile match up for the huge show in his hometown.

 

And that was a pretty badass team. I really thought they were both finally going places. Haku/Meng(or King Tonga if you weel) had never really properly utilized IMHO by WWF or WCW and it looked like it might happen with this team but then Rikishi gets injured and he's stuck with Sunday Night Heat and Jakked duty until he gets released a couple years later.

[Psycho Penguin 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.

 

I used to watch Jakked a lot back then. Was this the match against Tracy Smothers and his name was Rikishi Fatu? I remember that match for some reason.

 

Anyways.. I liked Rikishi's heel turn. I didn't see it coming, and I thought the explanation was plausible (he was helping his friend out. What motivation would Billy Gunn have had? Helping his friend out.) They were setting it up perfectly, but I didn't see it coming until it happened. Great storyline. And his heel turn had potential, the problem is he jobbed hard in his 2 main event programs, HHH took the spotlight, and he was shoved into a tag team with Haku as a mid carder. While I liked that team, it wasn't going anywhere.

[Wrestlefreak 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.

 

This is similar to what they did with "Phat" Albert's heel turn in 2002. That has nothing to do with Rikishi, but your post just reminded me of it.

[Bigelow34 0]

Two reasons and I'm not 100% sure either one is correct. One is I think Rikishi went down with another injury around that time. Second, I vaguely remember The Brothers of Destruction Vs Rikishi and Haku being a potential matchup for WrestleMania X-7 and then hearing a rumor that The Undertaker complained about being in such a low profile match up for the huge show in his hometown.

 

And that was a pretty badass team. I really thought they were both finally going places. Haku/Meng(or King Tonga if you weel) had never really properly utilized IMHO by WWF or WCW and it looked like it might happen with this team but then Rikishi gets injured and he's stuck with Sunday Night Heat and Jakked duty until he gets released a couple years later.

 

I loved that team too and was pretty excited when Haku returned. They had good potential to be a bad ass team during a time when there weren't any. Rikishi's injury derailed the team and I have a feeling they would have had a tag match at Wrestlemania before Taker got slotted with Hunter. Unless Taker/Hunter was already penciled in before that injury, not sure.

[Dobbs 3K 0]

Yeah, I was kind of excited for the bad ass Samoan tag team, then they quickly faded away. I think Haku decided to retire or something?

[Bigelow34 0]

Haku actually stuck around for a bit as he was part of the WWF Mob that defended their territory against the Alliance later in the year. Rikishi's injury was what did them in as major players, I think.