Yokozuna

Yokozuna loomed over WWF in the early 1990s as one of its most frightening villains. He was a silent “sumo grand champion” who seemed to crush anyone in his path. Billed from The Land of the Rising Sun and announced at close to 600 pounds, he ran through stars like Bret Hart, Hulk Hogan and The Undertaker, becoming a two-time WWF Champion, a two-time tag champion and the 1993 Royal Rumble winner.

Behind the character was Rodney Agatupu Anoaʻi, a Samoan American from the famous Anoaʻi wrestling family, who turned an invented Japanese persona into one of the defining images of that era.

Anoaʻi was born in October 1966 in San Francisco and raised inside the wrestling business. His uncles Afa and Sika, The Wild Samoans, trained him from a young age, teaching basic holds, heavy strikes and how to perform as a monster heel.

He debuted in 1985 and spent his early years in smaller U.S. territories under names like Giant Kokina and Kokina the Samoan, usually presented as a massive island powerhouse whose size alone drew attention.

By the late 1980s he had already challenged Otto Wanz for the CWA World Heavyweight Championship in Germany, which showed how quickly promoters saw main-event potential in him.

International touring shaped him further. From 1988 he wrestled in New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) as Great Kokina, joining the line of foreign “gaijin” monsters and often teaming with Big Van Vader in multi-man tags.

He also worked in the American Wrestling Association (AWA) as Kokina Maximus, where an angle breaking Greg Gagne’s leg helped build his aura as a dangerous heavyweight, and spent time in Mexico’s UWA, learning to work long, two-out-of-three falls matches despite his size. Those years gave him better timing and, surprisingly, added some agility to his already massive frame.

In 1992, Vince McMahon’s WWF signed him and decided to change his identity. Instead of presenting him as Samoan, the company billed him as a Japanese sumo grand champion, taking the term “yokozuna” from the highest rank in real sumo.

Managed by Mr. Fuji, who waved a Japanese flag and carried a bucket of ceremonial salt, the new Yokozuna debuted on TV in late 1992 and immediately destroyed enhancement wrestlers with a corner avalanche and a new finisher, the Banzai Drop, a seated splash from the second rope that looked almost unbearably painful.

His rise to the top came fast. In January 1993, he outlasted the field to win the Royal Rumble, earning a WWF Championship match at WrestleMania IX, the first year the Rumble winner got that guarantee.

At WrestleMania, he beat Bret Hart for the title after Mr. Fuji threw salt in Hart’s eyes, only to lose the belt seconds later to Hulk Hogan in an impromptu match (one of the shortest reigns in company history). Two months later at King of the Ring 1993, a rigged camera fireball and a Banzai Drop gave him a decisive win over Hogan, letting commentary claim he had “ended Hulkamania” and starting a long second reign.

That run featured several famous stories. On July 4, 1993, WWF held a bodyslam contest on the USS Intrepid, a WWII-era aircraft carrier, where competitors attempted to lift him until Lex Luger succeeded and became his primary challenger.

At Royal Rumble 1994 he defended the title against The Undertaker in a casket match, surviving only through heavy interference from other heels before Undertaker was written off TV in a dramatic post-match scene.

Later that year, the Royal Rumble had a double winner in Bret Hart and Luger, so both got title shots at WrestleMania X. Yokozuna kept the belt against Luger by disqualification, then lost it to Hart in the show’s final match after slipping while setting up a Banzai Drop and being pinned.

After losing the championship, his role shifted. He continued as a main-event level heel for a time, even taking part in a sumo rules match on Raw with Earthquake, but his weight kept increasing, and his mobility slowly declined.

In 1995, he returned from a break as the surprise partner of Owen Hart at WrestleMania XI, helping him win the WWF Tag Team Championship from The Smoking Gunns. The two held the belts for several months and were later tied in closely with Jim Cornette’s heel stable alongside The British Bulldog and Vader.

By 1996, Yokozuna had become a fan favorite in a feud with Vader, but he was no longer the company’s focus. Athletic commissions grew wary of licensing him at his listed weight, and WWF sent him home more than once in hopes he would slim down.

In 1998 the company finally released him, citing concern over whether he could safely be cleared to wrestle. He wrestled occasionally on the independent scene, including the infamous Heroes of Wrestling pay-per-view, but his schedule was far lighter than in his peak years.

During his prime, Yokozuna wrestled in a slow, punishing style that made his size feel like a constant threat. Early WWF matches showed flashes of speed, with sudden thrust kicks and quick legdrops, but the heart of his work was always the grind of corner splashes, nerve holds and short bursts that led to the Banzai Drop.

The move was usually set up by knocking an opponent into the corner, dropping them to the mat, then climbing to the second rope and sitting down across their chest while holding the ropes for balance, creating the image of a giant crushing a helpless rival.

Rodney Anoaʻi died on 23 October 2000 in Liverpool, England, from pulmonary edema while on a British tour, at only 34 years old. WWE later honored his career by inducting him into the Hall of Fame in 2012, with members of his family speaking on his behalf.

Today, he’s remembered as one of wrestling’s most memorable “monster heels,” a central figure of the early-90s WWF whose image still comes to mind whenever a giant steps onto the second rope and the crowd braces for a ring-shaking splash.