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Vince McMahon has feuded with several superstars over the years. Normally, when the WWE Chairman feuds with a certain star, it's because he wants to elevate them to the next level. Rikishi was in line for a push in the early 2000s, and Rico Constantino spoke about the "accidental" title change that happened.
Constantino is a wrestling veteran who has been credited for helping John Cena during his OVW and early main roster days. Some big names in the industry truly believe that Cena wouldn't have had his break without the former Tag Team Champion's help. Although Rico Constantino isn't as celebrated a name as Cena, he still played an important role during his WWE tenure.
Rikishi enjoyed a brief tag team title reign with Rico, who was the stylist of Chuck and Billy upon his main roster debut. Speaking to Dr. Chris Featherstone and Kenny Bolin on UnSKripted, Rico revealed how the "accidental" tag team title change at Judgement Day 2002 took place:
"The first part of it, with me and Billy and Chuck. This was the time Rikishi was feuding with Vince [McMahon]. And Vince was doing bad things to Rikishi. He wanted all three of us to bounce on Rikishi and destroy him. It wasn't supposed to go his way and we triple-teamed him. And of course, the finish ended up with me kicking Chuck with a sidekick and Rikishi dropped me and then I fell on Chuck, and we became the tag team champions. I took the belts away from my own guys." (6:10 onwards)
It was a hilarious storyline which led to the duo having a brief tag team title run before Rico helped Chuck and Billy gain them back.
Check out the entire episode of UnSKripted:
Vince McMahon was high on Rikishi during the Attitude Era
All signs seemed to indicate that Vince McMahon viewed Rikishi as a potential main eventer. A classic example is his involvement in the Armageddon 2000 Hell in a Cell match involving five other elite superstars - The Rock, 'Stone Cold' Steve Austin, Kurt Angle, Triple H and The Undertaker.
It was in this match where Rikishi took the big bump from top of the cell. He was involved in big spots throughout that time, but ultimately, his push as a singles star seemed to fizzle out.
It would have been interesting to see how things would have worked out for Rikishi had Vince McMahon decided to pull the trigger on him. It's hard to blame McMahon for being hesitant, especially when looking at the level of elite talent that was present in the main event scene of WWE at the time.
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