WWE Greatest Royal Rumble Wrestlers - Where Are They Now?

44. Hiroki Sumi

WWE Greatest Royal Rumble Hiroki Sumi Mark Henry
WWE.com

Entry: #7

Time: 00:46

Then: 46 seconds. That's all it took for Hiroki Sumi to bash his way into the record books as one of the most random Royal Rumble entrants in history; "Greatest", standard or anything in between. Fans in Saudi didn't really know what to think when Sumi came strutting down the aisle as entrant #7, but the sumo wrestler was there for one reason and one reason only.

He'd be having a brief stand off with Mark Henry.

'Sexual Chocolate', meet 2-time sumo champion. 2-time sumo champion, Mae Young's main squeeze. Obviously, Hiroki wasn't a regular on Raw, SmackDown or NXT. He wasn't even a pro wrestler to speak of. This was Sumi's pro debut, and it clearly didn't impress the right people. Either that or he wasn't enamoured with the industry and wanted to part of it afterwards.

Now: So, where it this bizarre Rumble one off now? Hiroki laughed merrily at the thought of doing more of that wrasslin stuff and embarked on a career in film. He appeared in the Netflix-produced Sanctuary series, played a guard who did battle with Keanu Reeves in John Wick 4, and he's also doing some other silver screen gigs.

Pfft, and people say that John Cena is the hardest working man in showbiz.

Sumi retired from sumo in early-2017, so it's really quite puzzling that he was even on WWE's radar for this spot in the first place. One can only guess that this was a favour to somebody Hiroki knew. It's either that or the rumours about him being a would-be replacement for fallen legend Yokozuna are true - did Saudi royalty really think Yoko was realistic?!

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Lifelong wrestling, video game, music and sports obsessive who has been writing about his passions since childhood. Jamie started writing for WhatCulture in 2013, and has contributed thousands of articles and YouTube videos since then. He cut his teeth penning published pieces for top UK and European wrestling read Fighting Spirit Magazine (FSM), and also has extensive experience working within the wrestling biz as a manager and commentator for promotions like ICW on WWE Network and WCPW/Defiant since 2010. Further, Jamie also hosted the old Ministry Of Slam podcast, and has interviewed everyone from Steve Austin and Shawn Michaels to Bret Hart and Trish Stratus.