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Rikishi Talks About Not Wanting To Turn Heel During the Steve Austin Hit-and-Run Angle And How Triple H Ended Up Stealing His Heat

Posted: Jun 12th 2008 By: CMBurnham

He's been a Samoan Swat Teamer, a Headshrinker, a Sultan, a Stone Cold Hit-n-Runner, TNA's Junior, and is currently one of the forced behind New Wrestling Evolution's huge Ultimate Warrior return. Now, the man who made the Stinkface famous, Rikishi Fatu joins ClubWWI.com for a rare 27 minute shoot interview direct from the Canary Islands that you don't want to miss.

With such a rich history in the business, Keesh had no shortage of things to discuss with James Guttman on ClubWWI.com. Topics included: Bringing Ultimate Warrior Into Nu Wrestling Evolution, His Initial Reaction To The Rikishi Gimmick, What He Was Worried About, Who Came Up With The Gimmick, His Wrestling Family, Exclusive Thoughts on His TNA Stint, Why He Hasn't Returned To WWE, The Too Cool Connection, Why Scotty 2 Hotty Was Worried, Disappointment Over The End of "The Sultan," The Stinkface, Memories of Yokozuna, The Headshrinkers, His Wrestling Family, and More.

One topic that many fans have wondered about is his heel turn in 2000, where he was revealed to be the man who ran down Steve Austin. James asked Keesh about this since it seemed like a strange time to turn him heel. Rikishi responded:
"I obviously went against Creative Services on that. The writing team. I didn't feel it was the right time for me to be turning heel at the time. I thought the Rikishi character could have went on for a bit, you know, as far as being one of the top babyfaces in there. So that's how it is. The team just decided that they wanted to go ahead and switch this Rikishi character, which I thought was a mistake at the time."

Keesh goes on to speak about the plans that he thought were in the works for his heel character and how they never seemed to pan out. After long, he realized that the future for the character was different than what he thought it would be.

JG then brings up how Triple H ended up being the "brains" behind the hit-and-run. It seemed as though Hunter, as the bad guy of it all, stole a lot of Rikishi's heat. Keesh agrees:
"Yeah. Well, that's exactly what happened. I mean anyone who knows wrestling and all the fans who really, really, understand wrestling, they see it and what had happened and I disagreed that the way they did it and it is what it is."

Rikishi spoke about so much more in his uncut interview. From The Headshrinkers to TNA to Yokozuna to Brusier Brody, it's all up on ClubWWI.com!

You can check out all the information about Nu Wrestling Evuolution on their website: http://nwewrestling.homedns.org/home.php Or, check out Keesh at: http://www.kishifatu.com

Remember, aside from Rikishi, over 120 star interviews are available on ClubWWI.com for less than five dollars a month. Among the other guests you can hear from are: Jesse Ventura, Terry Funk, Jerry Lawler, Vince Russo, Eric Bischoff, Ahmed Johnson, Bobby Heenan, Kevin Nash, The Iron Sheik, Sid Vicious, Paul Bearer, Bruno Sammartino, Sean Mooney, Scott D'Amore, Tito Santana, Paul Roma Al Snow, Tod Gordon, Charlie Haas, Tom Prichard, Jacques Rougeau, Tammy Sytch, Too Cold Scorpio, Ole Anderson, Kid Kash, Ivan Koloff, Jackie Gayda, John Heidenreich, Jimmy Hart, Jimmy Valiant, Rick Martel, Bad News Brown, Nick Bockwinkel, Dory Funk Jr, Diamond Dallas Page, Rob Conway, Sylvain Grenier, Buff Bagwell, Christian Cage, Jazz, Demolition Ax and Smash, Koko B. Ware, Ricky Morton, Dustin Rhodes, Damian Demento, Fred "Shockmaster" Ottman, Cpl. Kirchner, One Man Gang, Scott Steiner, Shawn Stasiak, Ted DiBiase, Ivory, Chris Masters, Elix Skipper, Kamala, Samoa Joe, Giant Bernard, Bill DeMott, Juvi "Juice" Guerrera, Nora "Molly Holly" Greenwald, Nick Dinsmore, Harley Race, Bull Buchanan, D-Lo Brown, Road Warrior Animal, Missing Link, Slick, Nidia, George Steele, Christy Hemme, Disco Inferno, Paul Ellering, Vito, Steve Blackman, Bushwhacker Luke, AJ Styles, Chris Daniels, Dennis Stamp, Shawn Daivari, Kevin Sullivan, B.G. James, Ron Killings, Zach Gowan, Dan Severn, Earl and Dave Hebner, Spike Dudley, Rodney Mack, Larry Zybszko, Rick Steiner, Mae Young, and many, more.

James Guttman's second book, "Shoot First...Ask Questions Later," is now available for pre-order on Amazon.com.

Tags: Rikishi, Headshrinkers, Sultan, TNA, Ulimate Warrior, WWE