10 Wrestling Careers Ruined By Awful Storylines
6. Rikishi
The “who ran over Stone Cold?” angle should have propelled the mystery assailant towards mega heeldom, but WWE picked the wrong guy. Instead of minting a believable villain, WWE painted Rikishi - best known for dancing with Too Cool and rubbing his ample posterior in opponents’ faces - as the perpetrator, and the storyline bombed.
Rikishi was one of WWE’s most popular babyfaces at the time, and nobody could buy the former Intercontinental Champion as the man who tried to murder Steve Austin. It was too left-field, and Rikishi’s giant face pops weren’t replaced by jeers, but confusion and apathy. His explanation (“I did it for The Rock”) only compounded the story’s failings, and quickly became a meme among the WWE faithful.
WWE panicked, and eventually revealed Triple H as the man who'd orchestrated the whole affair. Rikishi flirted with the main event, but had no lasting success, and was demoted to the tag division after the 2001 Royal Rumble. He turned face again later that year, but the damage was done, and his popularity never came close to what it used to be. Rikishi carved out a listless midcard career for the duration of his run, before leaving WWE in 2004.