10 Moments Wrestlers NEVER Recovered From
6. Rikishi “Did It For The Rock”
This was a bad idea for a seemingly 'Bad Man'.
On 9 October 2000, Raw was rocked with the bombshell that thong-wearing comedy act Rikishi had mowed down Steve Austin back at Survivor Series 1999. Why? Well, as the man himself explained, he "did it for The Rock". Going further, albeit briefly, the WWF tried to make the attack racially motivated.
That fell flat, so the company pivoted to out Triple H as the true mastermind behind everything. He'd orchestrated the attack on Austin, then Rikishi carried it out. Erm...what? Overnight, Rikishi went from beloved mid/upper carder to a heel who lacked any direction to speak of.
WWE later tried to revitalise the old Too Cool vibes of before, but it was far too late for that. The fanbase had moved on, and no amount of soft apologies from the writers could change things back to the way they were.
Oops. What a mess.