What’s the story?
Former WWE star Rikishi was set to wrestle for New York-based Warriors of Wrestling over the weekend, but that didn’t quite happen.
WWE Hall of Fame inductee Rikishi was supposed to take part in the 6-man tag main event match at New York-based Warriors of Wrestling on Saturday night. After turning up, and signing autographs, he apparently refused to wrestle in the scheduled match. Promoter Joe Bellini took to Facebook to explain the situation from his side of things.
In case you didn’t know....
Rikishi is a former WWE Intercontinental Champion and three-time WWE Tag Team Champion, as well as being inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2015.
He is probably best known in the WWE for his association with the Too Cool tag team of Scotty Too Hotty and Grand Master Sexay, as well as being the man who (in a storyline) ran over Stone Cold Steve Austin at the request of Triple H to take him out of the company.
The heart of the matter
Whilst we only know the story from the side of the W.O.W. promoter, we may never hear any response from Rikishi. It is alleged that a fee was agreed with Rikishi and that he made more money from selling autographs at the event during the interval, before telling the promoters that he wasn’t going to take part in the main event.
There could be a very good explanation for the fact that he didn’t take part in the match, but with no response from the former WWE man we can only go on the facts that we have been given.
What’s next?
This lack of professionalism by Rikishi could be held against him when he looks for future dates on the Indie circuit. It doesn’t stand him in good stead if a company books and advertises him to wrestle at an event, only for him to decide he doesn’t want to fulfil the booking and take part in the match.
Some fans may only have been at the event to see him wrestle, and may have left with a bad taste in their mouths.
Sportskeeda’s take
Until we actually see any kind of response from Rikishi on the incident, it is hard to really judge the whole situation. On the face of it, it looks like Rikishi has taken the money on offer and failed to fulfil his commitments to the company.
There could be a legitimate reason as to why Rikishi didn’t take part in the scheduled match, but as of now, we can only see that he didn’t want to take part, after being paid to do so. If that is the case, then Rikishi should be a man that promoters, especially Warriors of Wrestling, avoid using in the future.
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