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#3 Slowing Yoko (1993)
In late 1992, there were few sights more impressive – or terrifying, if you were standing across the ring from him – than Yokozuna.
Debuting at the tail end of 1992 under the guidance of the wily, veteran manager, Mr Fuji, Yokozuna was packaged as a mighty, dominant sumo specialist with a hunger for causing pain and suffering in the squared circle.
The velocity of his push into the main event scene in what was then the World Wrestling Federation is, actually, often overlooked. He went from his debut match on WWF television to winning the WWF title in the main event of Wrestlemania IX in the space of barely three or four months. And it is, arguably, all because he was the winner of the 1993 Royal Rumble.
Had this massive, 500-plus behemoth actually stalled during his rapid ascent through the card, the remainder of 1993 – and 1994 as a result – would been borderline unrecognisable. Yoko need to last just 14 minutes 53 seconds in the match before winning it, but the likes of Tatanka, Ted DiBiase and even Bob Backlund all put in stellar showings and could have gone to face Bret Hart at Cesar’s Palace for the gold, an altogether different story to the one that the late, great Yokozuna will be fondly remembered.
