8. Rikishi Runs Over Steve Austin
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jsDhe2zJ_3k In 1999, professional wrestling was at its peak. House show numbers were through the roof, wrestling was considered mainstream, and merchandise was selling hotter than ever before. It seemed anything that had the WWF name on it was an instant success and made millions of dollars. Unfortunately, the WWF's top star, Steve Austin, needed neck surgery and he needed it badly. It was decided that Steve had to take nearly a year off to recuperate from the surgery, so a storyline was developed to get him off of television. At the Survivor Series, Austin was supposed to challenge for the world title. However, in the parking lot before the match, an unknown assailant ran over Austin with his rental car. The driver was never seen and Austin was off of TV until further notice. Now, this would have been a great chance to elevate a new star or maybe introduce a new addition to the company. Austin returned at Backlash 2000 and set his sights on finding out who ran him over and beat them into oblivion. After some convoluted detective work by Austin and Mick Foley, Rikishi finally admitted that he ran down Steve Austin because the WWF has been holding back Samoan wrestlers for years. With Austin out of the way, his cousin the Rock could finally become world champion. What? Rikishi's attack on Steve Austin was motivated by the WWF's racism against...Samoans? The whole thing made no sense at all and heel Rikishi was not what the world was waiting for. The storyline was such a flop that they changed it a little while later to Triple H being the driver of the car because anyone was better than Rikishi.