11 Surprising WWE Heel Turns You Never Saw Coming
8. Rikishi On Stone Cold Steve Austin (2000)
Like Bart Simpson narrowing down the breaking of Ralph Wiggum's heart to the exact second just to needle Lisa for her cold dismissal of the school fool, WWE's second golden era getting flattened by Steve Austin following his return from a Survivor Series hit-and-run the prior year caused similar strain and pain.
'The Rattlesnake' had been intent on capturing the wrong'un that ploughed him down, and as more and more superstars were chalked off the suspects list, intrigue grew larger than his eventual assailant's ar*e-cheeks.
After Mick Foley correctly identified the otherwise affable Rikishi, the big Samoan claimed to have done the dirty deed for the good of The Rock and their suppressed Samoan family members. Triple H being installed as a firefighter trying to put out that flaming pile of sh*t the angle had already become (more on that later) didn't salvage a product that had begun to go off the rails.
Austin himself seemed to treat the Samoan with the contempt the audience had for the entire storyline. He smashed Rikishi all over in their contests, ironically doing more damage to that career than the former Headshrinker had done to his. WWE butchered a comical-but-beloved act for the shock factor, then forced fans to watch a man they had idolised batter the remains.