Yokozuna

In 1992, Anoa'i was contacted by Vince McMahon of the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) and was offered a new gimmick: Yokozuna. Managed by Harry Fujiwara (Mr. ), Yokozuna debuted in October 1992, and was announced as a sumo wrestler competing under the Japanese flag. He made his pay-per-view debut at Survivor Series, easily defeating the much smaller Virgil.
Yokozuna's career soon took off, and he headed into 1993's Royal Rumble, where he was billed as a potential favorite. He eliminated Randy Savage to win the Rumble, cementing his movement towards main event status. Soon after, Yokozuna further solidified his status as a monstrous villain by crushing the American hero "Hacksaw" Jim Duggan with four Banzai Drops, the fourth being with the American flag draped over Duggan.
At WrestleMania IX, Yokozuna faced off against Bret Hart for the WWF Championship. Hart had the match won with Yokozuna about to submit to the Sharpshooter, when Mr. Fuji threw salt into the champion's face. Blinded, Hart was then pinned by Yokozuna, who won the WWF Championship, causing a major upset, and officially making Yokozuna the seventeenth WWF Champion.[2][11][12] As he and Mr. Fuji celebrated, Hulk Hogan came to the ring and challenged the new champion. Hogan came through with the win and captured his fifth WWF title.At King of the Ring 1993, Yokozuna, whose billed weight increased from 500 lb (230 kg) to 550 lb (250 kg), challenged Hogan for the title. Once again, Hogan seemed to be in control, but the champion underestimated the deceitful tactics of Mr. Fuji. A "Japanese photographer" posing as a member of the legitimate Japanese wrestling press and planted at ringside by the group, aimed his lens at Hogan and pressed a button, shooting a blast of fire into his face. This allowed Yokozuna to take Hogan out with a leg drop and reclaim the WWF Championship, after which Yokozuna proceeded to hit Hogan with the Banzai Drop in the corner.[2][13][14] Soon after, Hogan left the WWF to pursue other interests, which left Yokozuna and Fuji to claim that they had ended "Hulkamania" (to wit, that would be Hogan's last appearance in the WWF for nine years). To celebrate, he held a "Bodyslam Competition" aboard the USS Intrepid on Independence Day. Many wrestlers and athletes alike tried to slam Yokozuna, with no success. As Yokozuna thought that there would be no one left to challenge him, Lex Luger flew in by helicopter, stepped forward, and slammed him on the deck. It was claimed by announcer Bobby Heenan that the move pulled by Luger was a hip toss rather than a bodyslam as Yokozuna was running at Luger when he slammed him, but the slam was ruled legitimate. This made Luger the next major challenger to Yokozuna's title reign.[2][15]At SummerSlam, Yokozuna and the newly-reborn patriot Luger fought it out for the WWF Championship. Luger took control late in the match, scoring on Yokozuna with a bodyslam and flying forearm. Luger had metal plates put into his arm following an injury from a motorcycle accident, making it a formidable weapon (it was stipulated that Luger had to wear a protective pad over it, but it was torn off in the course of the match) and Yokozuna was knocked out of the ring, unconscious, and lost via countout. The title did not change hands, but the match's result made it seem like Luger had a chance against his gigantic foe. The contract Luger had signed for the match, as orchestrated by Yokozuna's new spokesman and advisor Jim Cornette, stated that if he did not win the championship, he would not get another shot at the title.[2][16] Yokozuna and Luger continued to feud until Survivor Series, where each chose a team of allies for an elimination match. The match was billed as an All-Americans (Lex Luger, The Undertaker and Steiner Brothers) vs. Foreign Fanatics (Yokozuna, Quebecer Jacques, Ludvig Borga and Crush) contest.[2][17]Yokozuna's next challenger was The Undertaker.[4] The two first squared off against each other as parts of their respective teams at Survivor Series. Prior to the match starting, the two stood nose-to-nose as a tease to the crowd as to the possibility of those two facing each other. The Undertaker, however, was not tagged into the match until after it was just him and Luger on the American Team. When the Undertaker entered, he beat down on Ludvig Borga but was knocked down by Yokozuna. Yokozuna then gave the Undertaker a Banzai Drop, but the Undertaker sat up when Yokozuna went for a second Banzai Drop. The two then brawled outside, where Yokozuna seemed to be completely over-matched. They were both eliminated by double countout.[1][2][17]Eventually, Yokozuna was forced to accept a Casket match with the Undertaker. The match occurred at Royal Rumble, where all the odds looked to be in the Undertaker's favor. However, after a lengthy match, Mr. Fuji called out the troops, bringing a dozen heel wrestlers out to aid Yokozuna in attacking the Undertaker. After a lot of struggle (as well as damaging the Undertaker's "magic" urn), the group managed to shove the Undertaker into the casket, giving the win to Yokozuna. As they celebrated afterwards, however, a mysterious figure appeared on the Titantron, looking like the Undertaker inside the casket. He opened his eyes and said the Undertaker would not rest in peace; he then disappeared in a smoke and light show, rising to the top of the Titantron and seemingly levitating all the way to the arena ceiling. He then vanished. This storyline was used to allow the Undertaker to rest for several months to recover from lingering real-life injuries.[2][18]In the 1994 Royal Rumble match, the last two competitors, Lex Luger and Bret Hart, fought and eliminated each other simultaneously. Since the winner of the Royal Rumble was to become the number one contender to Yokozuna's title, it was decided that both wrestlers would get a shot at the title at WrestleMania X.[19] By virtue of winning a coin toss, Luger got to wrestle Yokozuna first at the event. The winner of that match would go on to face Bret Hart later in the evening with the title on the line.[20] To obviate the risk of outside interference, both title matches were scheduled to have special guest referees. Mr. Perfect was the special guest referee for the Luger/Yokozuna bout. Luger seemed to have the match well in hand and had knocked out Yokozuna with a running forearm smash in the middle of the ring. He also knocked out Mr. Fuji and Jim Cornette, who tried to enter the ring. However when Luger went for the pin, Perfect occupied himself with the unconscious Fuji and Cornette who were still lying on the ring apron. When Luger got angry and pushed Mr. Perfect, he was disqualified, thus making Yokozuna the first villainous champion to successfully defend the WWF Championship at a WrestleMania.[1][2]Later in the night, Yokozuna defended the championship again, this time against the former champion Bret "Hitman" Hart, who had lost earlier in the night to his brother Owen Hart. For this match, Roddy Piper was the special referee. When Cornette tried to interfere to break a pinfall, Piper decked him. At the end of the match, Yokozuna seemed ready to hit his finishing maneuver, the Banzai Drop, when he lost his balance and took a fall from the ropes. Hart got the pinfall victory, finally taking the title away from the long-running champion who reigned for 280 days.[2][21] Afterwards on television, Cornette would blame the fall on a concussion suffered from Luger's forearm plate.
Yokozuna's main-event status soon began to fade away, as he never again fully challenged for the WWF Championship. He began tagging briefly with Crush, another Mr. Fuji charge. In May 1994, on a Monday Night Raw episode, Yokozuna was challenged by Earthquake to an actual sumo match. On May 16, 1994, Earthquake beat Yokozuna in the only (worked) sumo match until WrestleMania 21, between The Big Show and an actual yokozuna, Akebono. At King of the Ring 1994, Yokozuna and Crush failed to win the WWF Tag Team Championship from The Headshrinkers (Samu and Fatu).
Yokozuna then had to deal with the "rebirth" of the Undertaker, who immediately came after the foe who had taken him out of action. The two met in another casket match at the Survivor Series, this time with actor/karate expert Chuck Norris as the special enforcer to keep the other heel wrestlers away from ringside. Without their help (although Irwin R. Schyster did successfully interfere on Yokozuna's behalf), Yokozuna could not win and eventually ended up locked inside the casket. This was Yokozuna's last main event run in the WWF for a time, as he wrestled only briefly on the mid-card before taking some time off.
In April 1995, Owen Hart began promising that he would have a great tag-team partner to face off against The Smoking Gunns (Billy and Bart) at WrestleMania XI for the WWF Tag Team Championship. At the event, Yokozuna was revealed as his partner, and the team managed to defeat the Gunns and win the WWF Tag Team Championship.[2][26][27] Following the match, Jim Cornette stated, "Michael Jordan's back and so is Yokozuna" (a reference to Jordan's first NBA return).[28] The two would remain a tough tag team for a few months, defending against teams like the Allied Powers (Lex Luger and Davey Boy Smith),[29] the Smoking Gunns,[30] and others. Still, by this point it was obvious that Yokozuna was no longer in great shape, having gained too much weight (he was estimated to be at around 700 lb (320 kg) at this point, although he was billed at 641 lb (291 kg)).[2]At In Your House 3 on September 24, 1995, Yokozuna teamed up with Davey Boy Smith to take on Shawn Michaels and Diesel (the back story being that Hart was with his wife as she gave birth to one of their children) with Diesel's WWF Championship, Shawn Michaels' Intercontinental Championship and Hart and Yokozuna's Tag Team Championship on the line. During the match, Hart came to the ring, only to be pinned by Diesel.[2][31] The next day, due to protests from the team and the legal help of Clarence Mason, President Gorilla Monsoon reluctantly returned the belts to Yokozuna and Hart, since Hart was not an official part of the match.[2][32] Their second reign was shorter, as the Smoking Gunns defeated them that night for the belts.[1][33]
Yokozuna had little continued success in 1996. He competed in the 1996 Royal Rumble match, managing to eliminate Bob Backlund, King Mabel, and Swat Team member #2 before being tossed out by Shawn Michaels, the eventual winner. Although Cornette had tried to make peace between him and new acquisition Vader, many observers felt Yokozuna was being relegated. After several run-ins, Yokozuna left Cornette and began a short stint as a fan favorite. He spoke English to the fans, had Mr. Fuji wave an American flag during his matches, and challenged Vader to numerous matches. It was during this feud that Yokozuna teamed up with Ahmed Johnson and Jake Roberts in a six-man tag-team match at WrestleMania XII, facing off with Vader, Owen Hart and British Bulldog. The feud took a painful turn a few months later, when Vader jumped on Yokozuna's leg, supposedly breaking it. A forklift had to come down to ringside to lift Yokozuna out, showing how his weight had gotten out of control. He took some time off to slim down.
He reappeared at the Free for All just before SummerSlam, facing off against Stone Cold Steve Austin. Yokozuna took the advantage near the end of the match, but when he went for the Banzai Drop, the rope broke, sending him crashing back down. Austin attained the victory.
The next night on Raw, Yokozuna faced Shawn Michaels for the WWF Championship. Despite using his big size, Yokozuna lost the match to Michaels. He would appear at one more WWF pay-per-view, still going after Vader at the 1996 Survivor Series, but that match ended with all remaining wrestlers being disqualified.
Yokozuna stayed on the WWF roster for a while afterwards, as he worked to lose the weight that he had put on. Despite dropping a reported 100 lb (45 kg), he still could not lose enough to satisfy the WWF officials. He was unable to pass a physical required for professional wrestlers by the New York State Athletic Commission and was eventually released from the WWF in 1998, although rumors persisted that he would be brought back if he lost enough weight.