Rikishi Remembers His Near Death Experience

Professional wrestling legend and WWE Hall of Fame Rikishi who is also a former WWE Intercontinental Champion and a former three times WWE Tag Team Champion recently looked back at a near death experience from teenage life.

Rikishi started his professional wrestling career in 1985 and he came to WWE in 1992. By that time he was known as Fatu. He was a member of the stable named the Headshrinkers. He carried the gimmick of Fatu till 1996 before he was repackaged as the Sultan.

Rikishi Remembers His Near Death Experience

His face was covered in a mask when he was carrying the gimmick of the Sultan and according to the storyline he did not have a tongue so he could not speak. WWE repackaged team as Rikishi for the first time in 1998 and after this he never had to go through another gimmick change.

In year 2000 he got a main event push when he got involved in a storyline with the Rock and Stone Cold Steve Austin. His main event push continued till 2001 and after that he became a mid card once again. His main event push was really well built up. It seemed like WWE had really high hopes for him.

But for some reason the push got sacrificed. He worked in WWE till 2005 and after that he was let go by the promotion. He joined the independent circuit on the same year and worked on the Independent circuit till 2019. He worked in different promotions during the time as well. In 2015 he was inducted into WWE Hall of Fame.

Rikishi who is also a former WWE Intercontinental Champion and a former three times WWE Tag Team Champion recently spoke to GV Wire where he looked back at a near death experience from teenage life. He said;

“I was kind of getting into things that I wasn’t supposed to get into. One day I got hit by a drive-by shooting and that kind of changed my outlook on life.”

“I was given a second chance. They pronounced me dead for three minutes in the General Hospital in San Francisco. To be able to see the pain of my family … I was in hospital for two months. As I looked around, I seen a lot of hurt on my family, hurt on my mother’s face, my parents. I felt it was my responsibility to be able to make this better.”