10 Best Rookie Years In WWE History

Few wrestlers have ever made a first impression quite like Yokozuna. A Samoan athlete portraying a Japanese sumo gimmick, the 500lbs+ Yoko used his massive size to great advantage and literally crushed the opposition with his trademark Banzai Drop.

Despite this, he was a surprisingly nimble competitor for his size and regularly pulled off an impressive array of strikes and suplexes in the ring. This made him all the more intimidating: a big, powerful unit who moved around the ring with relative ease, and thought nothing of cheating to get what he wanted, or letting his devious manager, Mr. Fuji, interfere on his behalf.

Yokozuna won the 1993 Royal Rumble match just four months after debuting, and at WrestleMania IX, he defeated Bret Hart to become WWE Champion. Despite losing the belt to Hulk Hogan just seconds later, Yoko beat Hogan to retain the belt that June, and would fend off challenges from the likes of The Undertaker and Lex Luger in a near year-long title reign.

One of the top heels throughout his WWE run, Yokozuna eventually found his way into the WWE Hall of Fame, and technically ended “Hulkamania” (Hogan’s loss to Yoko was the last match of his first WWE run). Those first 12 months were vital in establishing his legacy as one of the biggest heels in WWE history.