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Rikishi discusses bringing Ultimate Warrior out of retirement, his WWE Status, and more

Posted: Jun 18th 2008 By: mikeiles

The 120th edition of JG?s Radio Free Insanity is on the air and available right now at WorldWrestlingInsanity.com (Flash and MP3 download) This week's show features the man who made the Stinkface famous?Rikishi.

James Guttman fills everyone in on this week's guest right off the bat. Rikishi is famous for his wrestling career, but it's his promoting career that's getting people talking today. As one of the forces behind Nu Evolution Wrestling, Kishi had a big hand in resigning Ultimate Warrior to a wrestling promotion. Now, the Warrior is set to take on ClubWWI.com Audio Host and N.W.E. Champion Orlando Jordan on June 25th. It doesn't end there, though. Alongside Rob Van Dam, Ultimo Dragon, Chris Masters, and others, Warrior is helping to put the company on the map and Rikishi has made a lot of that happen. This week's interview actually took place from the Canary Islands, where the latest Nu-Evolution tour is going on.

Rikishi's full ClubWWI.com interview featured talk of a number of subjects including: 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, 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.

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, Al Snow, Tod Gordon, Charlie Haas, Tom Prichard, Jacques Rougeau, Paul Roma, 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.

From there, JG talks about the next uncut shoot interview coming at you on Wednesday. It's a brand new ClubWWI shoot and will be one that you will fall in love with. Also, while you're on the Club, check out the new 3:10 Countdown. Three columnists. Each takes a promotion. Then, they do a countdown with 30 in all. The first edition features James, Mike Rickard, and Canadian Bulldog running down the Top Ten Worst Gimmicks in the History of WWE, WCW, and TNA.

With that, JG cues up clips from Kishi's ClubWWI.com interview.

James Guttman says that this week's guest has done enough for 5 careers and says that you can call him Big Keesh when you back dat ass up. Rikishi laughs and thanks for him the interview. Guttman says that Keesh is on location from Spain. Kishi confirms that and replies that he's getting ready to back dat ass up on the Canary Islands.

Before anything else, JG asks Rikishi to tell fans about his life nowadays.

"Well Rikishi right now is part of a new company that's been going on out here called Nu Wrestling Evolution and basically we've got kind of a lot of the ex-WWE stars, a lot of the Indy workers that are unknown throughout there in the States, and pretty much internationally. Mexico. Japan. So we got a lot of flavor pretty much with the wrestlers that are out here. Basically, this company has been born and running for the last 4 1/2 to 5 years. I kinda want to open up a thing out here to be able to give opportunities to a lot of Independent wrestlers. To kind of give them that vibe of working in front of big crowds and kind of prime them up for the big show."

(Note: Aspiring stars can check out more information about this by going to http://nwewrestling.homedns.org/ or emailing SlamRikishi @aol.com)

James and Keesh then talk about the European crowds and surprise over how big they were. JG then brought up Independent promoters and how they often advertise Warrior and RVD with full knowledge that they'd never be there. In the N.W.E. case, they were there. It was surprising to see Ultimate return to wrestling. How did that come about?

Rikishi says that it was a "longshot." They had been dealing with Warrior for a few years. When the deal finally came through, Keesh was very happy for the company but also for the fans. To be able to bring back the Icon of the Warrior, it meant a lot for them. It's great to have him on board.

James asks about returning to WWE. There hasn't even been a one-shot deal like The Godfather does.. He asks Rikishi why that is.

"No. That was my choice. I just didn't want to. You know with me being loyal to this company for 15 years and my whole family up there now, it just didn't. It didn't have the, didn't want to go back, or be affiliated with the WWE ? even if they did call me. At the time, I got something good at the time with N.W.E. You know, my thing is that I want to give opportunities to all the kids out there. I want them to see wrestling in a different way. Professional wrestling is a good sport. There is good people in it. There is people that you can actually, they can actually tell you the truth and you can trust. And that's what I'm doing out here with N.W.E. and we're starting to achieve that. To be able to give opportunities to not just young wrestlers but give opportunities to ring announcers, referees, managers, and so forth."

Kishi goes on to talk about other talents that stars have and how the N.W.E. helps to foster those too. Singing, acting, and other talents are all helped to reach the next level. This is just one of the many topics he discusses in his full ClubWWI.com shoot. Other topics include: 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, 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.

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, Al Snow, Tod Gordon, Charlie Haas, Tom Prichard, Jacques Rougeau, Paul Roma, 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, Ultimate Warrior, TNA, Sultan, Headshrinkers, WWE