"Yokozuna"

Rodney Anoia

1966-2000

 Cage's Comments: In the late 1980's and early 1990's the WWF had a man named Earthquake. Everyone thought he was a huge man, then we all met Yokozuna. Truely a huge man, and a huge Champion.

Bio

(Courtesy Powerwrestling.com)

Yokozuna entered the World Wrestling Federation in late 1992, and his first pay per view was at the Survivor Series that year. He went against the former bodyguard of Ted Dibiase in Virgil. The match that Yokozuna had at the Survivor Series was literally a squash. The squash was in Yokozuna's favor as he dominated Virgil. Mr. Fuji is the one who brought Yokozuna into the Federation, and Fuji remained as Yokozuna's manager for a long time to come. Yokozuna uses his impressive weight against Virgil, and he gave him the banzai drop in the corner to get the win. At the time, Yokozuna was billed as 505 pounds.

In 1993, the Royal Rumble was the first Royal Rumble to have the winner of the Rumble go on to Wrestlemania to face the World Wrestling Federation Champion. Yokozuna took part in that Royal Rumble, and it was impossible for anyone to eliminate him, as they tried to do so. Yokozuna lasted until the end when he went against Randy Savage. Savage dominated Yokozuna for a bit, but he tried to pin Yokozuna, forgetting that it was a Royal Rumble match. Yokozuna kicked out of the "pin", and flung Savage right over the top rope, becoming the winner of the 1993 Royal Rumble.

Yokozuna and Mr. Fuji made some not so nice comments about America. Well actually, Mr. Fuji made the comments, because Yokozuna doesn't speak a bit of English. After that went down, "Hacksaw" Jim Duggan came to the defense of the good old U.S. of A., but he didn't do so well against Yokozuna. Yokozuna gave Jim Duggan a number of banzai drops and completely destroyed him. From there, Yokozuna was on the Road to Wrestlemania to face the Champion for the World Wresting Federation belt!

Yokozuna went to Wrestlemania IX where he went against then WWF Champion, Bret "The Hitman" Hart. The two fought back and forth in a long hard fought match, and Bret got the sharpshooter on Yokozuna. From there, the referee was asking Yokozuna if he would quit the match, and behind the back of the referee, Mr. Fuji threw salt into the eyes of Bret Hart. At that point, Bret Hart couldn't see anything, and Yokozuna pinned Bret Hart to win the WWF belt. Not too long after that took place, Hulk Hogan came to the ringside area and attended to Hart. Meanwhile, Mr. Fuji is on the mic trying to get Hulk Hogan riled up, trying to challenge him to a match.

Mr. Fuji challenged Hogan to go against Yokozuna with the WWF belt on the line, and Hogan asked Bret if he should go in the ring and do that, and Hart said yes. Hulk Hogan got in the ring, and Mr. Fuji tried to throw salt into the eyes of the Hulkster. He missed that, and from there, Hogan knocked Yokozuna down and then gave him the leg drop to win the World Wrestling Federation Championship for a 5th time! Yokozuna had the shorted WWF World Title reign of all time at that point.

With Hulk Hogan as the World Wrestling Federation Champion, Yokozuna was nipping at his heels to get a rematch for the WWF belt. That match took place at the King of the Ring in 1993. With the help of an evil photographer, Yokozuna was able to win the World Wrestling Federation Championship belt, and rid the WWF of Hulkamania, forever. After Yokozuna won the WWF belt back from Hogan, he wanted to celebrate, and he celebrated on a US Landmark in the U.S.S. Intrepid. At that point, Mr. Fuji issued out a challenge to wrestlers, football players and anyone who wanted to try to body slam Yokozuna.

Many people came out, including the likes of Scott Steiner, Bob Backlund, Crush, Randy Savage and many more. No one was able to body slam Yokozuna. At the end, Yokozuna was declared the winner over the United States, but a helicopter brought someone to the U.S.S. Intrepid, and he got in the ring and attempted to body slam Yokozuna. This man was Lex Luger. Upon arriving, he shoved right through the guy that brought him into the WWF, Bobby Heenan. Lex Luger got in the ring and nailed Yokozuna with his forearm and then body slammed him! From then on, Lex Luger was known as an American Hero in the WWF.

One week on Monday Night Raw, Crush got a shot at the World Wrestling Federation Championship belt against Yokozuna. The match went on, and many instances during the match, Crush came very close to beating the big 568 pounder. Yokozuna came out the winner of the match, retaining the WWF belt. After the match was over, Mr. Fuji instructed Yokozuna to banzai drop Crush a number of times, and that wound up to be 5 times. Finally, Randy Savage came to the ring to make the save for the big Hawaiian.

With Lex Luger on the heels of Yokozuna, a contract was signed for the two to meet at Summer Slam. At the contract signing, Jim Cornette revealed himself to be the American Spokesman for Yokozuna. Jim Cornette made sure the contract had in it that this would be Luger's only title shot, and that Lex Luger had to wear a forearm pad, so he couldn't use it against Yokozuna. The match took place at Summer Slam, and behind the referee's back, Lex Luger nailed Yokozuna with his forearm, and his forearm was revealed to have a steel plate in it. Yokozuna was knocked to the outside of the ring, and the referee counted Yokozuna out, allowing Lex Luger to get the win, but not win the WWF Championship.

Shortly after Summer Slam, Crush made his return to the Federation, and he called out Randy Savage. It looked like Crush wanted to align himself with Mr. Fuji and Yokozuna, but Randy Savage came out and did the best to talk him out of it. Crush seemingly stayed on the side that Randy wanted him to, but not too long after that, Crush attacked Randy Savage badly and he joined Yokozuna by his side. That night on RAW was dubbed the Savage/Crush Summit.

Being that Yokozuna was still involved in a feud with Lex Luger, he went on to the Survivor Series against Luger's team, with a team of his own. Yokozuna was scheduled to team up with Ludvig Borga and the Quebecers against Lex Luger and Tatanka and the Steiner Brothers. Before the event, Ludvig Borga and Yokozuna took Tatanka out of action. The All Americans fired back by taking Pierre out of action. The match wound up being Yokozuna, Crush, Jacques and Ludvig Borga against Lex Luger, the Undertaker and the Steiner Brothers. The match went on, and Yokozuna and the Undertaker found themselves counted out as the two fought on the outside of the ring. Everything that Yokozuna did to the Undertaker didn't seem to work.

The contest ended with Lex Luger eliminating Ludvig Borga in the end. Being that the Undertaker and Yokozuna got it on at the Survivor Series, it sparked a feud between the two. A match was set for the Royal Rumble between the two at the start of 1994. Originally, everyone thought the match was just a one on one match, but Paul Bearer revealed to the world that he had a clause in the contract that stated that it was a casket match! Yokozuna, Mr. Fuji and Jim Cornette didn't like that one bit, but being that they signed the contract, there was nothing they can do about it. Well, almost nothing. The match went on, and as the match was going on, a number of WWF Superstars came out of the locker room and helped Yokozuna beat up on the Undertaker. They stuffed him into the casket, and Yokozuna was the winner of the match. From there, the Undertaker showed up on the big screen and said he would never rest in peace.

In other events that took place at the Royal Rumble was the Royal Rumble match itself. It didn't effect Yokozuna that night, but the match went on, and Lex Luger and Bret Hart were dubbed co winners of the event, since they both fell out of the ring at the same time. Jack Tunney said that they would both go to Wrestlemania to wrestle for the WWF belt, but it wouldn't be in the same match. One night on RAW, they had a coin toss, to decide who would go against Yokozuna for the Championship belt first, and Lex Luger won the coin toss. That meant that Bret Hart would have go go against his brother, Owen Hart, and Lex Luger would get the first shot at the belt. If Luger won the belt, he would later have to go on and defend the belt against Bret Hart in the same night.

Wrestlemania came about, and we found out that there would be special referees in the title matches, and we wouldn't find out who they were until that night. Mr. Perfect was introduced as the special referee for the Lex Luger/Yokozuna match and the match went on. While Luger was dominating Yokozuna, Mr. Fuji and Jim Cornette both got on the apron, and Luger attacked them. Luger even brought them into the ring and beat up on them. Luger then took Yokozuna down and was ready to pin him, but Mr. Perfect's attention was on the two in the ring in Mr. Fuji and Jim Cornette. Mr. Perfect focused on getting them out of the ring, and that didn't make Luger happy one bit. From there, Lex Luger shoved Mr. Perfect, and Mr. Perfect called for the bell, giving Yokozuna a disqualification win.

Later in the night, the second title match took place, and Roddy Piper was the special referee for that one. That didn't spell good news for Yokozuna, as he was out there and he wasn't going to take any crap from anyone. The match went on, and as Jim Cornette and Fuji tried to interfere, Roddy Piper stopped them, and he even knocked Jim Cornette on his ass at one point. Yokozuna later went for the banzai drop on Bret Hart, but he fell from the ropes and Bret Hart pinned him. Jim Cornette and Mr. Fuji claimed that Roddy Piper shook the ropes and knocked him down, but that wasn't the case. He simply lost his balance and fell down. None the less, Yokozuna was no longer the World Wrestling Federation Champion.

With the Headshrinkers as the newly crowned tag team champions, Yokozuna felt that he should go after another belt in the WWF, and that was the tag team belts. Being that Mr. Fuji was the manager of both Yokozuna and Crush, he put the two together, and they went against the Headshrinkers at the 1994 King of the Ring. While the match was going on, Lex Luger showed up in the aisle way and he was there to taunt Crush, and that he did. With Crush distracted, Fatu gave Crush a super kick and then pinned him to get the win. After the contest, Crush went to the outside of the ring and hammered away on Lex Luger, but not too long after that, the Headshrinkers assisted Lex Luger in getting rid of Crush.

While Yokozuna was teaming up with Crush, there were many Undertaker sightings in the WWF. Summer Slam 1994 came along, and at that event, the Undertaker was set to make his return. The Undertaker went against another Undertaker in Ted Dibiase's fake Undertaker. Being that the Undertaker was at Summer Slam in 1994, Yokozuna was deathly afraid to show up at the event, so he didn't take part in any of the matches on that night. Not only would there be one Undertaker to be afraid of, but there was two!

Once the Undertaker got the fake Undertaker out of the way, he set his goals to go after Yokozuna. That wasn't good news for Yokozuna. The two went against each other at the Survivor Series 1994 in a Casket Rematch. This time around, Chuck Norris was appointed to be a special enforcer on the outside of the ring, so many superstars couldn't come to the ring and assist Yokozuna in winning. That didn't stop I.R.S. from getting to the ring. He got to the ring, but he didn't do much damage. The Undertaker was able to take care of I.R.S. and then go on to win the match against Yokozuna.

After Yokozuna lost the casket match to the Undertaker, he wasn't seen for a while, but he did come back at Wrestlemania XI. Owen Hart claimed that he was going to bring in a mystery partner against the Smoking Gunns for the WWF Tag Team belts. We didn't find out who his partner was until Wrestlemania, and it turned out to be Yokozuna. Owen brought in Yokozuna as his partner, because Yokozuna did something that Owen has always wanted to do, and that's beat Bret Hart for the WWF Championship. Anyway, the match was on, and Yokozuna and Owen Hart were able to come out the winners and new WWF Tag Team Champions when Yokozuna gave Billy Gunn the banzai drop, followed by Owen Hart finishing him off with the sharpshooter.

In May of 1995, the WWF decided to have one pay per view a month, and at the first ever In Your House, the Smoking Gunns got a rematch for the WWF Tag Team belts against Yokozuna and Owen Hart. Yokozuna and Owen Hart were able to walk out the winners of the match and retain the WWF Tag Team belts when Yokozuna gave Bart Gunn a leg drop on the outside of the ring. From there, Yokozuna tossed Bart back into the ring, and Owen Hart pinned him to get the win and retain the belts.

The King of the Ring was coming along, and Yokozuna was put in a Qualifying Match against Lex Luger. Yokozuna got the win as a result of a count out, and he was scheduled to go against Razor Ramon in the first round of the tournament at the King of the Ring pay per view event. That didn't take place, because Razor Ramon got injured, and Savio Vega had to qualify to be in the King of the Ring on the free event prior to the pay per view. Savio Vega qualified against I.R.S. and then he went in to go against Yokozuna in the first round of the tournament. The two battled back and forth, and Savio Vega was able to lure Yokozuna to the outside of the ring and beat up on him, and keep him out there. Savio got in the ring before the count of 10, but Yokozuna didn't. Savio won the match as a result of a count out.

Going back to Wrestlemania XI, Lex Luger formed a tag team with the British Bulldog, Davey Boy Smith. They were later known as the Allied Powers, and they got a shot at the World Wrestling Federation Tag Team belts against Owen Hart and Yokozuna at the July 1995 In Your House event. Many thought that the Allied Powers would walk out of the event as the World Wrestling Federation Tag Team Champions, but that wasn't the case. In the match, Yokozuna landed on Owen Hart's foot, and that caused a little bit of friction between the two, but that didn't stop them from winning. After that, Yokozuna gave Lex Luger a big leg drop to get the win.

Owen Hart and Yokozuna weren't a part of the 1995 Summer Slam, but things weren't easy for them after that. At the end of Summer Slam, Gorilla Monsoon was the new President of the WWF at the time, and he set a match for the next In Your House event. It was to be a match with Owen Hart and Yokozuna against Diesel and Shawn Michaels. Not only were the WWF Tag Team Championship belts on the line, but Diesel and Shawn's belts were up for grabs as well. If Yokozuna were to pin Diesel, he would once again be the new WWF Champion, and if Owen Hart pinned Shawn Michaels, he would be the newly crowned WWF Intercontinental Champion.

The match took place at the September In Your House, and it was dubbed a Triple Header match. That night, there was some trouble. Owen Hart didn't show up to the arena in time for his match with the Two Dudes with Attitudes, so Gorilla Monsoon said that Jim Cornette could either have Yokozuna wrestle alone against Diesel and Shawn, or find a temporary partner. Throughout the night, Jim Cornette talked to the likes of Mabel, Sid and the British Bulldog. When match time came along, we found out that it would be the British Bulldog to team up with Yokozuna. The match went on, and Owen Hart came to the ring while the match was in progress. He went off the top rope to attack Diesel, but Diesel stopped him and gave him the jackknife and then pins him for the three count. The Two Dudes with Attitudes were dubbed the new WWF Tag Team Champions that night.

From there, Jim Cornette got some lawyers, because he felt that his men wrongfully lost the belts, since Owen Hart wasn't the legal man in that match. WWF officials were forced to give the Tag Team belts back to Owen Hart and Yokozuna the next night on RAW, and Gorilla Monsoon stated that there would be a rematch somewhere down the line. That rematch never took place, though. The very next night on RAW, the WWF belts were put on the line between Owen Hart and Yokozuna and the Smoking Gunns. That night, the Smoking Gunns were able to regain the WWF Tag Team Belts when Yokozuna accidentally gave Owen Hart a big splash.

After that point, Yokozuna and Owen Hart broke off as a team, and Owen Hart went on to team up with his brother in law, the British Bulldog, Davey Boy Smith, instead. Going into the October 1995 In Your House, Yokozuna was involved in a mini feud with King Mabel, and the two clashed heads at the event. It was a battle of the big men, a battle of the bad guys. Heels, if you will. The two big men fight to a double count out, and after the contest, they get back in the ring as if they are going to continue to fight, but Mo and Jim Cornette try to separate them. From there, both Yokozuna and Mabel threaten to knock the guys down who tried to stop them, and then the two hug in the middle of the ring, to show mutual respect for each other.

With Gorilla Monsoon as the President of the WWF, he continued to be a fan friendly President. Not only did he make a rematch between Shawn and Razor Ramon at Summer Slam for the Intercontinental belt in a Ladder match from Wrestlemania 10, but he has done many other things to be a fan friendly President. At the Survivor Series, Monsoon put together a Wildcard match, and it would feature good guys and bad guys on the same team. Yokozuna teamed up with his former tag team champion partner, Owen Hart, Dean Douglas and Razor Ramon. They went against Shawn Michaels, newcomer Ahmed Johnson, Sid and the British Bulldog.

The match went on, and it wasn't easy for some of them to get along, and Razor Ramon was not in good hands. Shawn Michaels, Ahmed Johnson and the British Bulldog were the survivors of that match when Shawn gave Yokozuna the super kick, followed by a big splash from Ahmed Johnson. Even though the British Bulldog was on the winning team, he surely didn't act like it. At one point during the match, he tried to help the opposing team, because it was obvious that he didn't want to be on the same team as a Shawn Michaels or an Ahmed Johnson.

Going into 1996, a new Superstar was entering the World Wrestling Federation. His name was Vader, and at his debut in the WWF at the Royal Rumble, it was revealed that Jim Cornette would be by his side. Vader and Yokozuna were both in the Royal Rumble, and they didn't get along very well. The two battled, and while they were battling, Shawn Michaels dumped them both over the top rope and to the arena floor. Jim Cornette did his best to break up his two men from fighting, but he was unable to stop them. Eventually, Vader got back in the ring and attacked anyone who crossed his path.

Not too long after that, Yokozuna was booted out of Camp Cornette, and he went to the February In Your House that year against the British Bulldog. That night, Yokozuna revealed to the world that he could speak perfect English, and that he was shadowed over by Jim Cornette for too long. And on that night, Yokozuna was billed at 650 pounds. He just continued to get bigger and bigger. None the less, Yokozuna clashed heads with the British Bulldog, and Yokozuna grabbed a disqualification win when Jim Cornette got in the ring and hit him with his tennis racket. The blow had no effect on Yokozuna and Yokozuna went after Jim Cornette, but he was cut off by Vader. The British Bulldog and Vader double teamed Yokozuna until WWF officials came to the ring to break it up.

Wrestlemania XII came along, and with Yokozuna not on the best of terms with the British Bulldog and Vader, a match was set for Wrestlemania. Yokozuna found himself two tag team partners as Vader found two as well. Vader's team was the British Bulldog and Owen Hart, and Yokozuna's team was Ahmed Johnson and Jake "The Snake" Roberts. Things didn't go the way that Yokozuna would have liked as Vader's team grabbed the win. Jim Cornette got in the ring, and as Jake was about to give him a DDT, Vader attack from behind and knocked him silly. From there, Vader went off the second rope with a Vader Bomb and then pinned him for the win.

Yokozuna went to In Your House: Beware of Dog against Vader. The first time the match went to take place, the lights were out in the arena, so the match wasn't televised. From there, the WWF held a pay per view on the following Tuesday, and they called it Beware of Dog 2. Vader and Yokozuna went against each other at the event, and Vader came out the winner when Yokozuna missed the banzai drop. From there, Vader continued to work on the leg of Yokozuna, which was hurt prior to the event. Vader pinned Yokozuna to grab the win after attacking the injured leg. As Yokozuna continued to get bigger, it worked against him as he was slower and unable to move around as much as he was able to when he first joined the Federation.

Being that Yokozuna was getting bigger and bigger, it was dangerous for him to compete on a regular basis, so he was phased out of the storylines, and he worked occasional matches. Yokozuna was a part of the Free For All prior to Summer Slam 1996, and he went against an up an coming Superstar in Stone Cold Steve Austin. The two battled, and Yokozuna went for the banzai drop on Austin, but the ropes broke and Yokozuna fell down in the ring. From there, Austin pinned Yokozuna to get a huge win over the former WWF Champion.

In one of Yokozuna's last WWF matches, he teamed up with Savio Vega, Flash Funk and Jimmy Snuka at the Survivor Series later in the year. They went against Faarooq, Razor Ramon, Diesel and Vader. On a side note, the Diesel and Razor that they went against were the fake ones, not the real ones. All hell broke losing during the contest, and the referee had no choice what so ever but to end the match in a double disqualification. Yokozuna's first PPV was in Survivor Series 1992, and his last WWF PPV was Survivor Series 1996 as he left the WWF quietly. To this day, Yokozuna doesn't do much wrestling, because of his size. When he left the WWF, they said he weighed in at around 741 pounds. Before Yokozuna returns to full time wrestling, if ever, he needs to lose a lot of weight.

Monday, October 23, 2000: In some shocking, and sad news, the wrestling world has lost another hero. Yokozuna, former Two Time WWF Champion passed away last night, and the news was broken today about it. Many fans around the world are very shocked by this, and it's apparent that the big man had a heart attack. Our condolences go out to those who are close to Yokozuna and his family. We will miss you, Yoko!