10 Strangest WWE Re-packagings Ever
8. Samoan Fatu Becomes The Arabian Sultan
Long before he was doing things for da Rock and sticking his pimply buttocks into the poor faces of his opponents, Rikishi was one half of a fairly successful team called the Headshrinkers, where he was billed as Fatu and teamed with his cousin Samu.
When the partnership ended Fatu was given a singles run, with the aim of 'making a difference'. The gimmick made little difference (ha!) to Fatu's career prospects and was soon dropped.
Fatu would return the next year, with all mention of his Samoan heritage dropped. He became The Sultan, a masked villain presumably hailing from the middle east. He spoke not a word, the reason for this being that his tongue had been cut out.
Obviously.
As one is fair to assume The Sultan didn't set the world alight, but did somehow work his way into an Intercontinental Championship match at WrestleMania 13 against Rocky Maivia.
One thing to note is that The Sultan was managed by the Iron Sheik and Bob Backlund, which doesn't bode well for Darren Young...