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WWE Hall of Famer Rikishi talks about not wanting to become a spin-off character of Yokozuna in WWE.
From one half of The Headshrinkers to The Sultan, Solofa Fatu Jr. (a.k.a.) Rikishi has portrayed several characters before landing the role of a thong-wearing Saoman stud. He is part of a long lineage of Samoan wrestlers which consists of The Rock, The Usos, Roman Reigns and more.
In a recent interview with Bally Sports, the 56-year-old talked about the origin of his character and how he wanted his character to be original and not just a rip-off of Yokozuna:
“In regards to my characters, I was honored to do this character Rikishi. I didn’t want it to have a spinoff of my cousin’s character [Yokozuna, out of] respect to him; so when that character came to me from Vince McMahon, we talked about it...I went home, and I showed the picture to my kids, and I showed my family...But I just wanted to get confirmation from my family that they were ok with it. And soon when I got the green light from my family, the rest was history." [H/T - Wrestlezone]
The rest was history as he made a wonderful career out of hitting people with the stink face and joined the WWE Hall of Fame.
Rikishi talks about his famous victory dance
Unlike other superstars, the 56-year-old had a different way of celebrating his victory. Way before Fortnite added a victory dance, the WWE Hall of Famer was doing it every week on RAW.
The superstar had a unique idea which added to his funky personality and made him a bigger star. In the same interview, Rikishi talked about how they came up with the idea for him to bust some moves after every victory:
“I said, you know, every time a wrestler wins, they put their hand up and raise their hands, or they would go to their corner and raise their hands… I said, ‘How about we flip the script on these people? How about we turn this wrestling arena into a club? Let the lights go down, and all the bulbs turn different colors?... We tried it there, and next thing you know, we’re on the following week; we’re already on Monday Night RAW, and the rest was history.” [H/T - Wrestlezone]
Fatu contributed a lot to his character, which made him a star who eventually joined the WWE Hall of Fame. It will be interesting to see if he comes back to WWE programming as his sons and cousin are at the top of WWE as Unified World and Tag Team Champions.
