Hogan seemed to have the match won, but a photographer, planted at ringside among a legitimate Japanese wrestling press group, shot a blast of fire into Hogan's face. Undertaker and Kamala were on opposing sides of the ring in this bout, and the Ugandan Giant was deathly afraid of Undertaker. [52][53] At the time, it was widely reported that he died of heart failure or a heart attack, but this was later found to be incorrect due to his lungs showing severe signs of fluid blockage.[53]. Their second meeting at Survivor Series had Chuck Norris as the special enforcer to ensure that a repeat of what happened at the Royal Rumble, would not materialize here. [2][46] For a second time, Yokozuna went to his home in Los Angeles to lose weight through exercise and dieting, being replaced by other wrestlers on a late November tour of the United Kingdom. Best of Womens Evolution In 1996, Yokozuna was on his final legs as a WWE performer. Again, the answer is no. The answer is no. It was presented by the independent promotion World Xtreme Wrestling, although matches included wrestlers from multiple promotions. Best of 2021, Best of Royal Rumble Until then, yokozuna was merely a licence given to certain zeki to perform the dohy-iri ceremony. Best of Mankind The promoters made a last-minute change and ordered Yokozuna to team with Roberts against Bundy and Neidhart, and Yokozuna's team lost.[1]. Standing 6'4" and weighing nearly 600 pounds, the Japanese sumo wrestler squashed legends like Bret "Hit Man" Hart, The Undertaker and Hulk Hogan on his way to becoming one of the most dominant WWE Champions . The Undertaker - Royal Rumble 1994, Goldust Vs. Ultimately, this night belonged to Hart who recaptured the WWE Championship for the first time in a year, and the locker room flooded to celebrate with him. On May 16, 1994, Earthquake beat Yokozuna in the only (worked) sumo match[27] until WrestleMania 21, between The Big Show and an actual yokozuna, Akebono. Best of Bobby Lashley He fell backward, smacked his head and was pinned by the Texas Rattlesnake. Best of WrestleMania Main Events The Best of Johnny Gargano vs. Tommaso Ciampa The Big Red Machine was no stranger to casket matches, and he dominated proceedings with power moves. Kane and Triple H's feud in 2002 was strange, but their casket match was better than many expected it to be. In the 1994 Royal Rumble match, the last two competitors, Lex Luger and Bret Hart, fought and eliminated each other simultaneously. As they celebrated afterwards, however, a mysterious figure appeared on the Titantron, looking like the Undertaker inside the casket. Best of the Elimination Chamber Match [2] Wrestling as a Samoan superstar, he was managed by Sheik Adnan El Kassey. )[11] He made his pay-per-view debut at Survivor Series, easily defeating the much smaller Virgil with his huge weight advantage. It was not always the strongest zeki but those with the most influential patrons who . However, several heels including Diesel and Jeff Jarrett assaulted Undertaker. They destroyed the casket, and the pair could not be separated. On March 31, 2012, Yokozuna was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame by his cousins, The Usos and Rikishi. The Best of Hell in a Cell Virgil attempted a roll-up but Yokozuna outsmarted Virgil by flattening him. Depending on your perspective and how you value world title reigns versus being the most popular or famous wrestler in a company, you can argue that Hulk Hogan either passed the torch to Yokozuna as the face of the WWF, or Yokozuna was the long-term transitional champ between the last gasping breath of Hulkamania before attempts at moving along to Lex Luger and ultimately going to Bret Hart (though he himself, was arguably just part of the transition to the great Diesel experiment). [2][26] Afterwards on television, Cornette would blame the fall on a concussion suffered from Luger's forearm plate. At the end of the match, Yokozuna seemed ready to hit his finishing maneuver, the Banzai Drop, when he lost his balance and took a fall from the ropes. Yokozuna's First 10 WWE PPV Matches, Ranked From Worst To Best, Yokozuna Vs. Virgil - Survivor Series 1992, The Foreign Fanatics Vs. Luger vs. Yokozuna was largely paint-by-numbers booking, with the super strong American hero going after the foreign menace, and all signs suggest the WWF intended to crown Luger at WrestleMania until the fans started cooling on him, and it became apparent Bret Hart was at least equally over (not to mention significantly better in the ring). After dropping the belt, Yokozuna's main event status began to fade away. Best of Ronda Rousey This was the first time that the WWE Title was defended in a casket match. When fans look back at the early to mid-1990s, few Superstars towered over the New Generation of WWE the way the massive Yokozuna did. Triple H lost the match which was the first casket match to take place on SmackDown. Luger took control late in the match, scoring on Yokozuna with a bodyslam and flying forearm. One week before his WWE Championship showdown with Sycho Sid at WrestleMania 13, The Undertaker and Vader collided in a casket match. The title did not change hands, but the match's result made it seem like Luger had a chance against his gigantic foe. Best of Unboxing This week, Im looking back at seven of the best of them with consideration to quality of storyline, quality of matches, heat, and longevity. The contract Luger had signed for the match, as orchestrated by Yokozuna's new spokesman and advisor James E. Cornette, stated that if he did not win the championship, he would not get another shot at the title. The storytelling was great, and whilst it wasn't an instant classic, Yokozuna and Luger had their working boots on. 8 WCW: Steiner Brothers (SuperBrawl 1991) At the first-ever SuperBrawl event, the highlight of the card was Sting and Luger teaming up to take on The Steiner Brothers. Length Business was at hand here, and the Supreme Fighting Machine had one of the best matches in his career. RELATED: The 11 Worst SummerSlams, According To Cagematch.net. [49] The last major appearance for Yokozuna was at October 1999's Heroes of Wrestling pay-per-view. Survivor Series 1992 was the sight of Yokozuna's WWE pay-per-view debut. The victory, which came about as a result of the heavyweight's insulting leg drop to the man who made the move famous, finally confirmed the company was serious about pushing Yokozuna as the centerpiece of the main event scene rather than the nondescript villain of the week. The former Cruiserweight Champion bumped around for the Deadman, who dominated the match. All seemed lost until Luger choppered in, marking a sharp turn in character as he went straight form his Narcissist gimmick to All-American hero without much explanation or any transition time. Next What should have been Yokozuna's night was instead a creative misstep designed at putting the spotlight on Hogan one last time at the event he helped create. Taker and Yokozuna would wind up responsible for each others eliminations in a double countout brawl that set up their Royal Rumble Casket Match for the titlethe aforementioned instance in which Yokozuna and company recruited much of the heel locker room to help them bury The Dead Man and put him out of action for months. [25] To obviate the risk of outside interference, both title matches were scheduled to have special guest referees. The Undertakers feud with Yokozuna seems emblematic of these statistics. It came at a time when WWEs focus was very much centered on a younger audience, and it was gimmick-heavy main events like this that reflected what the company was all about. Best of nWo Bryan upped the tempo to get things going his way. [2][20], At SummerSlam, Yokozuna, now weighing in at 568lb (258kg), and the newly reborn patriot Luger fought it out for the WWF Championship. [2][40] Although Cornette had tried to make peace between him and new acquisition Vader, many observers felt Yokozuna was being relegated. Raw's Snitsky got involved, and he gave Heidenreich a helping hand. Please help us serve you better, fill out our survey. Undertaker came close on several occasions but heels flocked out of the locker room to decimate Undertaker and help Yokozuna beat Undertaker to retain the WWE Championship. Austin attained the victory. Upon Yokozunas return, they feuded again, trading wins during the wonky In Your House: Beware of Dog fiasco in which the power went out and some matches happened in the dark and then were recast days later. Duggan, upon seeing Yokozuna, immediately charged at him and knocked him off his feet again; late in the match, after Bam Bam Bigelow distracted Duggan, Michaels attacked the challenger from behind and threw him out of the ring to where Yokozuna was standing. The Best of Goldberg All the remaining participants tried to eliminate Yokozuna but he powered through them with ease. Triple H gained the upper hand, and he hit Kane across the skull with a steel chair. The Undertaker was originally scheduled to face Chris Jericho in a blockbuster casket match, but Rusev replaced Y2J. Yokozuna was bidding to become the first heel to walk out of WrestleMania as WWE Champion. And though the feud figured into the main event picture and started with the WWF Championship at stake, The Undertaker never actually put his hands on the gold during this time. [2][31][32] Following the match, Jim Cornette stated, "Michael Jordan's back and so is Yokozuna", in reference to Jordan's first return to the NBA. FULL MATCH - Undertaker vs. Yokozuna - Casket Match: Survivor Series 1994 WWE 93.1M subscribers Subscribe 3.4M views 2 years ago Undertaker is out for retribution in his second Casket Match. Their battle was brilliant, and both had excellent chemistry together against each other. Former WWE Tag Team Champions Daniel Bryan and Kane headlined SmackDown in a casket match. In the best . I didnt pull the trigger, however, for what I imagine are similar reasons to why the WWF never pulled the trigger on Luger taking the world titlehe just wasnt quite over or good enough in the ring to justify it. 2012 WWE Hall of Fame Inductee: Yokozuna The best of WWE Hall of Famer Yokozuna | WWE This video is either unavailable or not supported in this browser Error Code: MEDIA_ERR_SRC_NOT_SUPPORTED Technical details : The media could not be loaded, either because the server or network failed or because the format is not supported. Yoko and Savage were the final two participants, and the Macho Man nailed Yokozuna with his patented elbow drop from the top rope. Heidenreich wasn't a good in-ring competitor, and Undertaker was unfortunate to face Heidenreich for the second time in three months. The two-time WWE champion dominated the main event scene, combatting the likes of Bret Hart, Hulk Hogan, Lex Luger and The Undertaker to considerable success while establishing himself as the lead villain of the era. Soon after, Yokozuna was challenged by American patriot "Hacksaw" Jim Duggan, who aimed to be the first man who could knock Yokozuna off his feet (this was taped before Randy Savage knocked down Yokozuna at the Royal Rumble). Before the match began, Undertaker snuck up behind Goldust to gain the upper hand. [45] He made his final WWF appearance at the 1996 Survivor Series, still going after Vader, however he only briefly entered the match illegally and it ended with all remaining wrestlers being disqualified. Shortly after he was offered a new gimmick: Yokozuna. Though he wrestled as a representative of Japan, in real life he was a Samoan American and was accordingly billed as hailing from Polynesia. Watch every Premium Live Event and get unlimited access to WWE's premium content - available to you anywhere, anytime, on any device. Undertaker and The Rock's chemistry together has never been there which is quite surprising considering the quality of the pair. Yokozuna continued to wrestle briefly before taking some time off to increase his already huge weight advantage.[2][30]. It became something of a dream match to speculate on what would happen if these two collided in the ring, and I specifically remember debating who was more deadlythat a childhood friend at the time was sold on Yokozuna at a hundred-plus-pounds heavier, while I backed Vader for his more aggressive style and agility (he may have used it sooner, but 1993 was when I first saw him pull off a moonsault). Perfect had a closer look at proceedings as the special guest referee. He clashed with Mark Henry in a casket match, and Undertaker was 13-0 on the Grandest Stage of Them All. In the process, Yokozuna and his finisher were established as killers, and Yokozuna was geared up for higher tier patriotic threats over the year to follow. Money Matches and Moments It was a humbling defeat and a loud, clear message from management about his health and weight. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. He was a top heel in the New Generation Era, and he was under the tutelage of Mr. Fuji. [39], Yokozuna returned at In Your House 8: Beware of Dog to wrestle Vader. Big Show was standing on the ramp and he was selling a throat injury. During the match, Hart came to the ring, only to be pinned by Diesel. A Tombstone was enough for Undertaker to put Henry into the casket and to go 14-0 at WrestleMania. The Best of The Undertaker This is an underrated casket match, and Goldust held his own here. He was a two-time world champion. 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