15 WWE Gimmick Changes That IMMEDIATELY Backfired
4. Rikishi Is A “Bad Man”
Overnight, Rikishi went from playing a fun-loving, albeit still-credible once the bell rang, dancing babyface to a homicidal maniac who’d mowed down Steve Austin in a car. His, “I did it for The Rock” explanation was half-baked and veered into racism territory as Kish also explained that Rocky had been held down in favour of Austin because of his skin colour.
The most ridiculous thing about all of that? The Rock was already a multi-time WWF Champion by the time Rikishi made his claim, and he'd been on top of cards for at least a solid year before Survivor Series 1999 and the Austin 'whodunit' angle. The writing team were senselessly cramming race issues into their storylines when they didn't even fit or add up.
There were other problems. For some reason, despite switching up his gimmick, Rikishi kept his comedic thong look throughout this short-lived heel run. That did nothing to sell the seriousness of his shift, or for his supposed capabilities as an ice cold killer; Fans were shocked in the moment when Mick Foley outed Rikishi as the perpetrator on the 9 October 2000 Raw, but that wore off within weeks of the reveal.
People following WWF storylines just couldn’t get behind the idea whatsoever. It was too out of the blue, and there were real teething problems with presentation. A comedy babyface can't go from shaking his ample butt with Too Cool to playing the 'Stone Cold' killer (so to speak) just like that. More thought should've been put into all of this.
It wasn't, and it wrecked Rikishi's run as a popular upper-midcard good guy to boot.