Roundup pays tribute to Yokozuna

Chris Ledermuller

Fans, when Rikishi dropped names of wrestling's famous Pacific Islanders who never headlined the World Wrestling Federation as a justification for running over "the great white hope," "Stone Cold" Steve Austin, he neglected to mention Rodney Anoai.

Anoai, better known as Yokozuna, died earlier this week in Liverpool, England. According to 1wrestling.com and other wrestling news sites, the cause of death is believed to be heart failure.

Yokozuna, a wrestler of Samoan descent with the gimmick of a Japanese sumo wrestler, dominated the WWF in the early 1990s. He won the WWF World
Championship twice. The first time, he held the belt for the shortest time in history, losing it to Hulk Hogan just minutes after beating Bret "Hitman" Hart. Yokozuna's second reign as champion was far more substantial, lasting over 9 months.

Yokozuna was also a WWF tag team champion with the late Owen Hart. While the pairing seemed to make no sense, this incongruous team kept the belts for five months.

Because of his enormous size and limited microphone skills consisting of screaming "Banzai!" and breathing heavily, Yokozuna wasn't a terribly exciting man to watch. He was barely mobile and had a very limited set of moves. He sat on, splashed or used his weight in other ways to flatten a downed opponent. That was really about all he could do.

Nonetheless, his girth was also an asset. The WWF successfully pushed Yokozuna as a monster. Simply knocking him off his feet was the objective of
many matches. In 1993, the WWF promoted a contest on a battleship to see if
any wrestler could pick Yokozuna up and body slam him. Many grapplers tried and failed, but only Lex Luger was able to do the deed.

By slamming Yokozuna, Luger was groomed to be the wrestler who would
unseat him as champion and be the WWF's headliner. The plan never panned out, and the WWF ultimately went back to Bret Hart as the showcase wrestler at WrestleMania X in 1994.

However,  wrestling fans should realize Yokozuna did something greater than win the WWF world and tag team championships. He was the man who killed Hulkamania.

At the WWF inauguaral King of the Ring tournament, Yokozuna was the last person to defeat Hulk Hogan in the federation. Not only did Yokozuna score the victory, he got to pull the plug on the Hogan mystique, forcing the orange-skinned one to make several low budget movies and cash in on his fleeting glory in World Championship Wrestling.

The Wrestling Roundup gives a 10-bell salute to Rodney Anoai.

Until next week, fans, keep watching.

Chris Ledermuller is a print journalism major.