WWE Hall of Famer Rikishi recently spoke to the Miami Herald to promote his appearance at Paradise City Comic Con this weekend, and during the interview he talked about who came up with the Stinkface and more.
Rikishi noted that he collaborated with Vince McMahon on both his character, and the Stinkface.
“It was a collaboration with myself and [WWE Chariman/CEO] Vince McMahon,” Rikishi said. “They wanted to do a spin-off of the late Yokozuna, but I wanted to add my own identity to it. I didn’t have a problem wearing a thong and bleaching my hair. I wanted to have some type of ideals of what would a sumo do and not do. Coming up with the dancing and stuff, I didn’t want to be exactly like my cousin [Yokozuna], which I couldn’t even fill Yoko’s shoes, respectfully.”
Rikishi was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame back in 2015, but he also revealed that when he received the call, he didn’t think it was real.
“It was somebody from the [WWE] office, and I was at home. I thought it was a rib, somebody playing a joke on me; so I hung up the phone. They called me right back, and I talked to a longtime friend of mine, who’s in charge of talent there, Mark Carrano, and he said, ‘Why’d you hang the phone up? This is for real.’”
Rikishi currently runs the KnokX Pro Wrestling Academy in Sun Valley, CA, and you can get more info on his school by clicking here.
