10 Major Stars Who Escaped WWE Creative Jail

5. Rikishi

Y2Jail WWE
WWE.com

Much like Kane, the man who would become Rikishi endured a torrid time of it in the mid 1990s.

He fared well enough as a Headshrinker, at least in comparison to his early singles ventures. Repackaged as 'Make A Difference' Fatu in 1995, the former savage learned English, and used it to teach the kidz a lesson to the tune of maudlin synthesisers. "Just say to no drugs," he would tell us, "and one day you too might get lumbered with a terrible gimmick that lasts for about a month."

This motivational patter was so lame that Vince McMahon literally cut his tongue off and rebranded him as The Sultan in 1996. It was, quite fittingly, unspeakably bad stuff. Still, he wrestled more WrestleMania singles matches than Dolph Ziggler.

To underscore just how poor those gimmicks were, Rikishi Fatu/Phatu (lol) got more over by displaying his massive, crater-sized a*se on television. We can't in good conscience reduce the man to a body part, because he achieved something particularly admirable in the year 2000, given the daunting level of megastar competition; by drawing deafening reactions as an act as fun as he was dangerous in presentation, Rikishi danced his way to stardom - and it helped that his piledriver was truly disgusting-looking in its impact.

Contributor
Contributor

Michael Sidgwick is an editor, writer and podcaster for WhatCulture Wrestling. With over seven years of experience in wrestling analysis, Michael was published in the influential institution that was Power Slam magazine, and specialises in providing insights into All Elite Wrestling - so much so that he wrote a book about the subject. You can order Becoming All Elite: The Rise Of AEW on Amazon. Possessing a deep knowledge also of WWE, WCW, ECW and New Japan Pro Wrestling, Michael’s work has been publicly praised by former AEW World Champions Kenny Omega and MJF, and current Undisputed WWE Champion Cody Rhodes. When he isn’t putting your finger on why things are the way they are in the endlessly fascinating world of professional wrestling, Michael wraps his own around a hand grinder to explore the world of specialty coffee. Follow Michael on X (formerly known as Twitter) @MSidgwick for more!