That Was Then 7.13.07: Stars Of The 90s - Yokozuna
Posted by Sam Caplan on 07.13.2007
Yokozuna was one of the most undeservedly underrated wrestlers of the 90s, and this week I'll look at the success he had in the face of his lifelong struggle with his weight.
The WWF has long been known as a place where unnaturally large men have been pushed as the stars of the promotion, and there weren't many men larger than Yokozuna. He was a member of the Anoa'i family of Samoans that have long been associated with the WWF, but instead of coming in with his brother Samu and cousin Fatu as a third member of the Headshrinkers, he was repackaged as a Japanese Sumo Grand Champion, or Yokozuna. At 505 pounds at the time of his debut, there weren't many men in wrestling history who were as big or bigger than him, but he was more than just a big fat guy: he was incredibly agile for his size and understood how to work a match instead of having smaller, more talented guys work around him.
Part I: World Champion
Yokozuna, managed by Mr Fuji, made his debut in the Fall of 1992, literally squashing several people leading into his quick and effortless victory over Virgil at Survivor Series 1992. After Survivor Series, he continued destroying everyone he was thrown in the ring with, but few suspected the direction his career was about to take. He entered the 1993 Royal Rumble and, while many predicted a Rumble win for the Undertaker or Mr Perfect, both had already been eliminated by the time he got in and there were few left who would be able to stop him. He singlehandedly eliminated Earthquake with a belly-to-belly suplex over the top, then fought off everyone else in the ring by himself when they ganged up to try and eliminate him. One by one they were thrown out, including former WWF Champion Bob Backlund, who had gone over an hour before Yoko disposed of him. It came down to Yokozuna and Randy Savage and even though Savage got a good run at Yokozuna, he would fall short and literally be launched over the top rope, giving Yokozuna the Rumble win and a WWF Title shot at Wrestlemania 9.
At Wrestlemania, Yokozuna challenged then-champion Bret Hart, who had been having a fairytale title run, but even though Bret was able to get him down and put him in the Sharpshooter, Mr Fuji threw salt in Bret's eyes and allowed Yokozuna to roll on top for the win and the WWF Title. Unfortunately, Fuji issued an immediate challenge to Hulk Hogan, and Hogan defeated Yokozuna in seconds to regain the WWF Title when he wasn't even scheduled to get a title shot that night. However, Hogan wasn't long for the WWF, and ended up dropping the title back to Yokozuna at the first King Of The Ring PPV when a photographer's flash bulb blew up in Hogan's face, and Yokozuna put Hogan away with his very own legdrop to regain the WWF Title. This run ended up being significantly longer than the first, and he went on a long string of dominating title defenses. He defeated Crush, Randy Savage, Bret Hart, Jim Duggan, both Steiners, Tatanka, and others.
His first PPV title defense was against Lex Luger, who had bodyslammed him on the deck of the USS Intrepid and then gone on a months-long grassroots campaign to build support for a title shot. Luger won by countout, but Yokozuna retained the title. The Luger-Yokozuna feud continued through the Fall of 1993, and they captained opposing teams at the Survivor Series. Yokozuna got into a brawl outside the ring with the Undertaker and both were counted out, but Undertaker clearly scared Yokozuna, and he tried using that to his advantage by challenging Yoko for the WWF Title in a casket match at the Royal Rumble. In one of the more infamous Undertaker episodes, Yokozuna defeated him with the help of nine other men and then the Undertaker delivered a monologue and ascended into the heavens. After defeating the Undertaker, people started to wonder who would ever be able to take the title from Yokozuna.
The answer came at Wrestlemania 10. The same night Yokozuna beat the Undertaker, Lex Luger and Bret Hart co-won the Rumble match, and as a result they were both entitled to a WWF Title shot at Wrestlemania 10. Luger got to go first and though he again seemed on the verge of beating Yokozuna, crooked ref Mr Perfect disqualified Luger and sent Yokozuna to the second WWF Title match to close the evening. Although Bret had lost to his brother Owen in the opener and injured his knee in the process, a strange stroke of luck saw Yokozuna lose his balance and fall off the ropes while going for the Banzai Drop, and Bret covered him to regain the title.
Part II: You Can Never Keep A Good Samoan Down
Yokozuna didn't immediately challenge for a WWF Title rematch after Wrestlemania 10, and in fact was drifting aimlessly now that he was out of the WWF Title picture. He formed a formidable team with Crush to challenge the Headshrinkers for the WWF Tag Team Title at King Of The Ring 1994, but he was unable to replicate his championship success of the previous year and he and Crush lost. He wasn't even booked on Summerslam 1994 after main eventing the previous year, but one man who was booked was the Undertaker, who returned after disappearing following his loss to Yokozuna at the Royal Rumble and defeated an Undertaker impostor. With the Underfaker out of the way, he decided to avenge his earlier loss to Yokozuna, and challenged him to a casket rematch, but this time he would have of all-around badass Chuck Norris at ringside to make sure there was no interference like there was in the first match. With Norris watching his back and stopping several wrestlers from coming to the ring, the Undertaker defeated Yokozuna, and Yokozuna disappeared from the WWF entirely following the loss.
Fast forward four months to Wrestlemania 11. Owen Hart had been complaining that he had never gotten a shot at the WWF Tag Team Title, and said that he and a mystery partner would challenge the Smoking Gunns for the title at Wrestlemania. Some of the predictions flying around included Chris Benoit and Jake Roberts, but instead Yokozuna made his surprise return to the company, and you might as well have handed the title to Owen and Yoko right then and there. The Smoking Gunns were totally overmatched against this new team and even though they got a brief advantage when Owen was in the ring, when Yokozuna got in their offense was totally ineffective. Yokozuna crushed both of them and then tagged Owen in so he could make the cover and give them the title. Yokozuna was once again a champion.
Owen had chosen Yokozuna mostly because Yokozuna had done what he never could: beat Bret Hart for the WWF Title. That might seem like an odd qualification, but you can't argue with the results. Owen and Yokozuna went on to be the most dominant Tag Team Champions the company had seen since the heyday of Demolition, and had taken the big man/little man dynamic of the original Hart Foundation and turned it up several notches. Both men were at the top of their game at this point, and they easily defeated every team thrown in their path, including Savio Vega & Razor Ramon, Lex Luger & Davey Boy Smith, the 123 Kid and Bob Holly, and several rematches with the Smoking Gunns. They seemed unstoppable until they got to the third In Your House PPV where they faced WWF Champion Diesel and Intercontinental Champion Shawn Michaels in a Triple Header match where all three title were on the line. Owen missed the match and Davey Boy Smith was put in as a substitute, but Owen did finally make it to the arena and got in just long enough to get powerbombed by Diesel, giving the Kliq the WWF Tag Team Title for a second time.
Or so they thought. Because Owen was not legally a participant in the match, Diesel had effectively pinned a phantom wrestler, and the title was returned to Owen and Yokozuna. The next night they had another rematch with the Smoking Gunns on Raw, and even though they again had things well in hand, Yokozuna mistimed a splash and landed on Owen, leaving Owen easy prey to again take the fall, and Owen and Yokozuna had lost the title for the second night in a row. Following that second loss, Yokozuna went into a bit of a slump, going to a double countout with King Mabel at In Your House in Winnipeg and losing the match for his team at Survivor Series 1995. He was no longer teaming regularly with Owen either, so it was unclear what direction his career would take going into 1996.
Part III: He Can Speak English?!
A dream match was about to become a reality at the Royal Rumble, as former WCW World Champion Vader made his WWF debut in the Rumble match, which also included Yokozuna. This was a "what if?" match going back to 1993 when both men were dominating monster champions of their respective promotions at the same time and people would wonder who would win if they ever faced each other. Though they were both managed at the time by Jim Cornette, they fought in the Rumble match and, as they tried to eliminate one another, Shawn Michaels dumped them both out of the ring, and they continued fighting after being eliminated. Vader got himself suspended the night after the Royal Rumble for attacking WWF President Gorilla Monsoon, but Yokozuna continued having problems with Jim Cornette, who was losing confidence in Yoko by the day. After much verbal abuse from his manager, Yokozuna had finally had enough and was going to straighten Cornette out shortly after the Royal Rumble, but he was attacked by Davey Boy Smith and Owen Hart and Cornette escaped. After leaving Cornette's camp, Yokozuna surprisingly started cutting promos in English. He teamed with Jake Roberts and Ahmed Johnson to face Owen, Davey Boy, and the reinstated Vader at Wrestlemania 12 with the stipulation that Yokozuna would get give minutes with Cornette if his team won, but they ended up losing.
He concentrated on a singles feud with Vader after Wrestlemania, and faced him in a singles match the next night on Raw, but was injured when Vader repeatedly splashed his leg, and the injury was so bad that he was out of action for two months, which was an amazing thought when you consider how unstoppable he had been prior to the end of the year before. In another in a string of embarrassing scenes through this part of his career, Yokozuna couldn't be taken away on a stretcher because of his size, and instead they had to get a forklift to get him out of the ring. He made his return at Beware Of Dog and faced Vader in a rematch, but despite Yokozuna's best efforts he was defeated. He followed that up with a loss to Owen which severely shook his confidence, and it only got worse when he was cleanly defeated by WWF Champion Shawn Michaels on Raw and, now for the third year in a row, wasn't on the Summerslam PPV itself, facing Steve Austin in a preshow match. Yokozuna lost again, but this was perhaps the most embarrassing loss of his career, because he climbed the turnbuckle to go for the Banzai Drop, but he had gotten so heavy that the ropes broke and he fell off and knocked himself out.
It wasn't just the Austin match, Yokozuna's weight had become a serious problem for him. He was slightly over 500 when he made his WWF debut in 1992, and within a year had bulked up to around 575. At the point he won the Tag Team Title with Owen, he was almost 650. His weight was affecting his mobility and stamina, and his matches (or participation in tag matches) became noticeably shorter. In fact, it would not be unreasonable to assume that he had been put in a tag team with Owen Hart to cut down on his in-ring activity. By late 1996, his health was a serious concern for the WWF, and though he was on the Survivor Series PPV, his activity was severely restricted, and following the PPV, he disappeared entirely. He was over 700 pounds by this point, and the WWF was seriously concerned that he would have a heart attack and die, and they didn't want that to happen on their watch, so they took him off the road entirely.
Yokozuna remained under WWF contract and was told that if he got his weight under control he would be allowed to return to work, but he was never able to and his contract expired in early 1998. He found it very difficult to get work after that because several state athletic commissions wouldn't allow him to wrestle because of his weight. He spent a lot of time wrestling overseas because there weren't many places he could work in the US. He made a sadly memorable appearance on the ill-fated Heroes Of Wrestling PPV, teaming with Jake Roberts to face Jim Neidhart and King Kong Bundy. It was originally supposed to be two separate singles matches, but they were combined into a tag team main event because of Jake being heavily inebriated and Yokozuna's weight, which was said to be over 800 pounds by that point.
Conclusion
Unfortunately, the Heroes Of Wrestling show would be Yokozuna's last high-profile appearance. In October of 2000, Rodney "Yokozuna" Anoa'i died of a heart attack in Liverpool, England at age 34. His weight was said to be a major factor in his early death.
A lot of people, myself included, didn't appreciate how good Yokozuna was at the time or what he meant to the business. Despite his size, he was always a great worker who had a moveset that looked like it could kill someone, yet he was always able to protect his opponents with even the most deadly looking moves. More than that, though, he was unique in that he was the only long-term heel World Champion the WWF ever had, running with the title for almost ten months. It was something that had just never been done in the WWF before outside of a seven month run for Billy Graham, and it built a great title reign for him because every time some huge babyface came along and everyone though he was going to drop the belt, he ended up keeping the belt by any means necessary. By the time he dropped the WWF Title to Bret Hart at Wrestlemania 10, people were ready for anyone to come along and beat him. I know that I personally was totally deflated after he kept the title against Luger because I didn't think Bret could beat him, and popped huge when he did. That just showed how well booked his title reign was, and he never had any problem putting people over after he lost the title. In a business, and promotion for that matter, that is full of talentless big men, Yokozuna was a big man who was so good that you didn't realize how good he was.
