This is a series of articles where we shall look back into the history of World Wrestling Entertainment and talk about some of the great forgotten superstars about the company. WWE always produced lots of talents, some succeeded with WWE, and some succeeded elsewhere. The company has a long history of evolution since 1952, the year Capitol Wrestling Corporation was founded by Roderick James McMahon and Joseph Raymond Mondt. We can say that it was first form of WWE. In 1963, McMahon and Mondt formed World Wide Wrestling Federation and Buddy Rogers was awarded the World Wide Wrestling Federation championship. In 1979, the word ‘Wide’ has been removed from WWWF and it became WWF, World Wrestling Federation. The Golden Era of WWF begins in 1980 which continued till 1992 and in 1993 announced the beginning of the new generation era which was followed by the best era of WWE the attitude era in 1997, after the end of the attitude era in 2002, Brand Extension era started and continued till 2007, and finally the PG era started in 2008. In this series of articles we shall look back look back some of the forgotten names from the seventy year history of World Wrestling Entertainment. In this part of this article, we will discuss about former two times World Wrestling Federation champion Yokozuna.
Rodney Agatupu Anoa’i started his professional wrestling career in 1984. He grew up in a complete wrestling family i.e. Anoa’i family, his uncles were the great Afa and Sika. Superstars like Rikishi, Samu, Rosey, Manu, The Rock, Umaga and Roman Reigns of the Shield are also belong from the Anoa’i wrestling family. In American Wrestling Association, he worked under the ring name of Kokina Maximus and played the gimmick of a Samoan wrestler. He made his WWF in 1992 where he played a completely different gimmick. He played the gimmick of a Japanese Sumo Wrestler. He used Banzai Drop as his finishing maneuver. His first major achievement in the WWF was his victory in the Royal Rumble match 1993. He challenged the WWF champion Bret Hart at WrestleMania 9 and defeated him to earn his first WWF championship gold. He won his second WWF championship at King of the Ring 1993 as he defeated the champions Hulk Hogan and had a reign the championship for 280 days after he was finally defeated by Bret Hart at WrestleMania 10. He also had two reigns of the WWF tag team championship with Owen Hart. He departed from the WWF in 1998 and joined the Independent circuit. In 2000, he passed away in Liverpool, England.
Anoa’i aka Yokozuna was one of the largest athletes in the history of professional wrestling. Still, he did his job tremendously well. We all know how difficult it is for anyone of a size like him to in professional wrestling. But what he did was undoubtedly superb. Yokozuna is missed a lot by his fans and the world of professional wrestling.