RIKISHI DISCUSSES BRINGING ULTIMATE WARRIOR OUT OF RETIREMENT, THE DIRECTION HE’S TAKING N.W.E., WHY HE HASN’T RETURNED TO WWE (EVEN FOR A ONE SHOT DEAL) AND MORE
By WorldWrestlingInsanity.com
The 120th edition of JG’s Radio Free Insanity is on the air and available right now at WorldWrestlingInsanity.com (Flash and MP3 download) This week’s show features the man who made the Stinkface famous…Rikishi.
James Guttman fills everyone in on this week’s guest right off the bat. Rikishi is famous for his wrestling career, but it’s his promoting career that’s getting people talking today. As one of the forces behind Nu Evolution Wrestling, Kishi had a big hand in resigning Ultimate Warrior to a wrestling promotion. Now, the Warrior is set to take on ClubWWI.com Audio Host and N.W.E. Champion Orlando Jordan on June 25th. It doesn’t end there, though. Alongside Rob Van Dam, Ultimo Dragon, Chris Masters, and others, Warrior is helping to put the company on the map and Rikishi has made a lot of that happen. This week’s interview actually took place from the Canary Islands, where the latest Nu-Evolution tour is going on.
Rikishi’s full ClubWWI.com interview featured talk of a number of subjects including: His Initial Reaction To The Rikishi Gimmick, What He Was Worried About, Who Came Up With The Gimmick, His Wrestling Family, Exclusive Thoughts on His TNA Stint, The Too Cool Connection, Why Scotty 2 Hotty Was Worried, Disappointment Over The End of “The Sultan,” The Stinkface, Memories of Yokozuna, The Headshrinkers, His Wrestling Family, and More.
Aside from Rikishi, over 120 star interviews are available on ClubWWI.com for less than five dollars a month. Among the other guests you can hear from are: Jesse Ventura, Terry Funk, Jerry Lawler, Vince Russo, Eric Bischoff, Ahmed Johnson, Bobby Heenan, Kevin Nash, The Iron Sheik, Sid Vicious, Paul Bearer, Bruno Sammartino, Sean Mooney, Scott D’Amore, Tito Santana, Al Snow, Tod Gordon, Charlie Haas, Tom Prichard, Jacques Rougeau, Paul Roma, Tammy Sytch, Too Cold Scorpio, Ole Anderson, Kid Kash, Ivan Koloff, Jackie Gayda, John Heidenreich, Jimmy Hart, Jimmy Valiant, Rick Martel, Bad News Brown, Nick Bockwinkel, Dory Funk Jr, Diamond Dallas Page, Rob Conway, Sylvain Grenier, Buff Bagwell, Christian Cage, Jazz, Demolition Ax and Smash, Koko B. Ware, Ricky Morton, Dustin Rhodes, Damian Demento, Fred “Shockmaster” Ottman, Cpl. Kirchner, One Man Gang, Scott Steiner, Shawn Stasiak, Ted DiBiase, Ivory, Chris Masters, Elix Skipper, Kamala, Samoa Joe, Giant Bernard, Bill DeMott, Juvi “Juice” Guerrera, Nora “Molly Holly” Greenwald, Nick Dinsmore, Harley Race, Bull Buchanan, D-Lo Brown, Road Warrior Animal, Missing Link, Slick, Nidia, George Steele, Christy Hemme, Disco Inferno, Paul Ellering, Vito, Steve Blackman, Bushwhacker Luke, AJ Styles, Chris Daniels, Dennis Stamp, Shawn Daivari, Kevin Sullivan, B.G. James, Ron Killings, Zach Gowan, Dan Severn, Earl and Dave Hebner, Spike Dudley, Rodney Mack, Larry Zybszko, Rick Steiner, Mae Young, and many, more.
From there, JG talks about the next uncut shoot interview coming at you on Wednesday. It’s a brand new ClubWWI shoot and will be one that you will fall in love with. Also, while you’re on the Club, check out the new 3:10 Countdown. Three columnists. Each takes a promotion. Then, they do a countdown with 30 in all. The first edition features James, Mike Rickard, and Canadian Bulldog running down the Top Ten Worst Gimmicks in the History of WWE, WCW, and TNA.
With that, JG cues up clips from Kishi’s ClubWWI.com interview.
James Guttman says that this week’s guest has done enough for 5 careers and says that you can call him Big Keesh when you back dat ass up. Rikishi laughs and thanks for him the interview. Guttman says that Keesh is on location from Spain. Kishi confirms that and replies that he’s getting ready to back dat ass up on the Canary Islands.
Before anything else, JG asks Rikishi to tell fans about his life nowadays.
“Well Rikishi right now is part of a new company that’s been going on out here called Nu Wrestling Evolution and basically we’ve got kind of a lot of the ex-WWE stars, a lot of the Indy workers that are unknown throughout there in the States, and pretty much internationally. Mexico. Japan. So we got a lot of flavor pretty much with the wrestlers that are out here. Basically, this company has been born and running for the last 4 1/2 to 5 years. I kinda want to open up a thing out here to be able to give opportunities to a lot of Independent wrestlers. To kind of give them that vibe of working in front of big crowds and kind of prime them up for the big show.”
(Note: Aspiring stars can check out more information about this by going to http://nwewrestling.homedns.org/ or emailing SlamRikishi @aol.com)
James and Keesh then talk about the European crowds and surprise over how big they were. JG then brought up Independent promoters and how they often advertise Warrior and RVD with full knowledge that they’d never be there. In the N.W.E. case, they were there. It was surprising to see Ultimate return to wrestling. How did that come about?
Rikishi says that it was a “longshot.” They had been dealing with Warrior for a few years. When the deal finally came through, Keesh was very happy for the company but also for the fans. To be able to bring back the Icon of the Warrior, it meant a lot for them. It’s great to have him on board.
-ClubWWI.com-
James asks about returning to WWE. There hasn’t even been a one-shot deal like The Godfather does.. He asks Rikishi why that is.
“No. That was my choice. I just didn’t want to. You know with me being loyal to this company for 15 years and my whole family up there now, it just didn’t. It didn’t have the, didn’t want to go back, or be affiliated with the WWE – even if they did call me. At the time, I got something good at the time with N.W.E. You know, my thing is that I want to give opportunities to all the kids out there. I want them to see wrestling in a different way. Professional wrestling is a good sport. There is good people in it. There is people that you can actually, they can actually tell you the truth and you can trust. And that’s what I’m doing out here with N.W.E. and we’re starting to achieve that. To be able to give opportunities to not just young wrestlers but give opportunities to ring announcers, referees, managers, and so forth.”
Kishi goes on to talk about other talents that stars have and how the N.W.E. helps to foster those too. Singing, acting, and other talents are all helped to reach the next level. This is just one of the many topics he discusses in his full ClubWWI.com shoot. Other topics include: His Initial Reaction To The Rikishi Gimmick, What He Was Worried About, Who Came Up With The Gimmick, His Wrestling Family, Exclusive Thoughts on His TNA Stint, The Too Cool Connection, Why Scotty 2 Hotty Was Worried, Disappointment Over The End of “The Sultan,” The Stinkface, Memories of Yokozuna, The Headshrinkers, His Wrestling Family, and More.
Aside from Rikishi, over 120 star interviews are available on ClubWWI.com for less than five dollars a month. Among the other guests you can hear from are: Jesse Ventura, Terry Funk, Jerry Lawler, Vince Russo, Eric Bischoff, Ahmed Johnson, Bobby Heenan, Kevin Nash, The Iron Sheik, Sid Vicious, Paul Bearer, Bruno Sammartino, Sean Mooney, Scott D’Amore, Tito Santana, Al Snow, Tod Gordon, Charlie Haas, Tom Prichard, Jacques Rougeau, Paul Roma, Tammy Sytch, Too Cold Scorpio, Ole Anderson, Kid Kash, Ivan Koloff, Jackie Gayda, John Heidenreich, Jimmy Hart, Jimmy Valiant, Rick Martel, Bad News Brown, Nick Bockwinkel, Dory Funk Jr, Diamond Dallas Page, Rob Conway, Sylvain Grenier, Buff Bagwell, Christian Cage, Jazz, Demolition Ax and Smash, Koko B. Ware, Ricky Morton, Dustin Rhodes, Damian Demento, Fred “Shockmaster” Ottman, Cpl. Kirchner, One Man Gang, Scott Steiner, Shawn Stasiak, Ted DiBiase, Ivory, Chris Masters, Elix Skipper, Kamala, Samoa Joe, Giant Bernard, Bill DeMott, Juvi “Juice” Guerrera, Nora “Molly Holly” Greenwald, Nick Dinsmore, Harley Race, Bull Buchanan, D-Lo Brown, Road Warrior Animal, Missing Link, Slick, Nidia, George Steele, Christy Hemme, Disco Inferno, Paul Ellering, Vito, Steve Blackman, Bushwhacker Luke, AJ Styles, Chris Daniels, Dennis Stamp, Shawn Daivari, Kevin Sullivan, B.G. James, Ron Killings, Zach Gowan, Dan Severn, Earl and Dave Hebner, Spike Dudley, Rodney Mack, Larry Zybszko, Rick Steiner, Mae Young, and many, more.
James Guttman’s second book, “Shoot First…Ask Questions Later,” is now available for pre-order on Amazon.com.
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RIKISHI TALKS ABOUT NOT WANTING TO TURN HEEL DURING THE STEVE AUSTIN HIT-AND-RUN ANGLE AND HOW TRIPLE H ENDED UP STEALING HIS HEAT
By WorldWrestlingInsanity.com
He’s been a Samoan Swat Teamer, a Headshrinker, a Sultan, a Stone Cold Hit-n-Runner, TNA’s Junior, and is currently one of the forced behind New Wrestling Evolution’s huge Ultimate Warrior return. Now, the man who made the Stinkface famous, Rikishi Fatu joins ClubWWI.com for a rare 27 minute shoot interview direct from the Canary Islands that you don’t want to miss.
With such a rich history in the business, Keesh had no shortage of things to discuss with James Guttman on ClubWWI.com. Topics included: Bringing Ultimate Warrior Into Nu Wrestling Evolution, His Initial Reaction To The Rikishi Gimmick, What He Was Worried About, Who Came Up With The Gimmick, His Wrestling Family, Exclusive Thoughts on His TNA Stint, Why He Hasn’t Returned To WWE, The Too Cool Connection, Why Scotty 2 Hotty Was Worried, Disappointment Over The End of “The Sultan,” The Stinkface, Memories of Yokozuna, The Headshrinkers, His Wrestling Family, and More.
One topic that many fans have wondered about is his heel turn in 2000, where he was revealed to be the man who ran down Steve Austin. James asked Keesh about this since it seemed like a strange time to turn him heel. Rikishi responded:
“I obviously went against Creative Services on that. The writing team. I didn’t feel it was the right time for me to be turning heel at the time. I thought the Rikishi character could have went on for a bit, you know, as far as being one of the top babyfaces in there. So that’s how it is. The team just decided that they wanted to go ahead and switch this Rikishi character, which I thought was a mistake at the time.”
Keesh goes on to speak about the plans that he thought were in the works for his heel character and how they never seemed to pan out. After long, he realized that the future for the character was different than what he thought it would be.
JG then brings up how Triple H ended up being the “brains” behind the hit-and-run. It seemed as though Hunter, as the bad guy of it all, stole a lot of Rikishi’s heat. Keesh agrees:
“Yeah. Well, that’s exactly what happened. I mean anyone who knows wrestling and all the fans who really, really, understand wrestling, they see it and what had happened and I disagreed that the way they did it and it is what it is.”
Rikishi spoke about so much more in his uncut interview. From The Headshrinkers to TNA to Yokozuna to Brusier Brody, it’s all up on ClubWWI.com!
You can check out all the information about Nu Wrestling Evuolution on their website: http://nwewrestling.homedns.org/home.php
Or, check out Keesh at: http://www.kishifatu.com
Remember, aside from Rikishi, over 120 star interviews are available on ClubWWI.com for less than five dollars a month. Among the other guests you can hear from are: Jesse Ventura, Terry Funk, Jerry Lawler, Vince Russo, Eric Bischoff, Ahmed Johnson, Bobby Heenan, Kevin Nash, The Iron Sheik, Sid Vicious, Paul Bearer, Bruno Sammartino, Sean Mooney, Scott D’Amore, Tito Santana, Paul Roma Al Snow, Tod Gordon, Charlie Haas, Tom Prichard, Jacques Rougeau, Tammy Sytch, Too Cold Scorpio, Ole Anderson, Kid Kash, Ivan Koloff, Jackie Gayda, John Heidenreich, Jimmy Hart, Jimmy Valiant, Rick Martel, Bad News Brown, Nick Bockwinkel, Dory Funk Jr, Diamond Dallas Page, Rob Conway, Sylvain Grenier, Buff Bagwell, Christian Cage, Jazz, Demolition Ax and Smash, Koko B. Ware, Ricky Morton, Dustin Rhodes, Damian Demento, Fred “Shockmaster” Ottman, Cpl. Kirchner, One Man Gang, Scott Steiner, Shawn Stasiak, Ted DiBiase, Ivory, Chris Masters, Elix Skipper, Kamala, Samoa Joe, Giant Bernard, Bill DeMott, Juvi “Juice” Guerrera, Nora “Molly Holly” Greenwald, Nick Dinsmore, Harley Race, Bull Buchanan, D-Lo Brown, Road Warrior Animal, Missing Link, Slick, Nidia, George Steele, Christy Hemme, Disco Inferno, Paul Ellering, Vito, Steve Blackman, Bushwhacker Luke, AJ Styles, Chris Daniels, Dennis Stamp, Shawn Daivari, Kevin Sullivan, B.G. James, Ron Killings, Zach Gowan, Dan Severn, Earl and Dave Hebner, Spike Dudley, Rodney Mack, Larry Zybszko, Rick Steiner, Mae Young, and many, more.
James Guttman’s second book, “Shoot First…Ask Questions Later,” is now available for pre-order on Amazon.com.