RIPPA Posted October 3, 2014 Share Posted October 3, 2014 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaedmc Posted October 3, 2014 Share Posted October 3, 2014 THE MAN WHO KILLED HULKAMANIA. I'm a huge fan of Yokozuna. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scraylo187 Posted October 3, 2014 Share Posted October 3, 2014 KOKINAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA holy shit where do we even start Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaedmc Posted October 3, 2014 Share Posted October 3, 2014 CAGE MATCHES WITH BRET! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kaptain Kayfabe Posted October 3, 2014 Share Posted October 3, 2014 My exposure to pre-WWF Yokozuna was pretty limited when he showed up in 1992, and even then I doubt I would have connected him to the previous personas. I remember thinking he was going to be an Earthquake level guy - feud with the top guys for a bit, but ultimately lose to Warrior or Savage when it came down to it. And who knows, maybe if Warrior stuck around or Savage wasn't being pushed towards retirement that may have happened. But for 1993 standards (and even today) he worked a hell of a big man style and was easily one of the most believable champions of all time. Just the way he would sit on a guy after the drop... I mean there is no way anyone could kick out of that. It's a shame his weight issues got so out of hand because he definitely had more to offer either WWF or WCW in the late 90s. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Man Known as Dan Posted October 3, 2014 Share Posted October 3, 2014 Probably on my "top 10 wrestlers I wish Ive seen more of" list. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TimLivingston Posted October 3, 2014 Share Posted October 3, 2014 Being 9 years old and seeing him killing people and Vader killing people gave me nightmares about being Banzai Dropped and Vader Bombed. What a force of nature he was. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BobbyWhioux Posted October 3, 2014 Share Posted October 3, 2014 Enough to make you wish the WWF/E did Dominant Heel Champions more often. What a nice run his 1993 was. Shame his run -- and life -- were so short. Lot of non-verbal charisma, which is fun to think about and keep in mind when "Charisma" is so often translated to "promo skills". And an elegantly simple and believable finisher still among my all time faves. A Fat Man Sitting On You. I still don't think most of those jobbers were actually selling. I can still buy them all legitimately being hurt. Surely there's a youtube montage of him killing scores of jobbers with Banzai Drops, spliced together, somewhere 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RIPPA Posted October 3, 2014 Author Share Posted October 3, 2014 Surely there's a youtube montage of him killing scores of jobbers with Banzai Drops, spliced together, somewhere 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BobbyWhioux Posted October 3, 2014 Share Posted October 3, 2014 Surely there's a youtube montage of him killing scores of jobbers with Banzai Drops, spliced together, somewhere You, sir, are a gentleman and a scholar 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spontaneous Posted October 3, 2014 Share Posted October 3, 2014 Yokozuna and Brock, are these the two Hulk never got a win back from? Some big dude needs to bring back the banzai drop. Also, this why we need more jobber matches, dudes getting killed by heels. I want Rusev running through guys in seconds. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaedmc Posted October 3, 2014 Share Posted October 3, 2014 Sometimes it didn't look that bad. You could kind of see him protecting them a little. Other guys....you knew they shit their pants. When people talk about guys not being great because they only have a couple of moves, Yokozuna is one that I say disproves this claim. He had a savate kick, a leg drop, a corner splash and a banzai drop. Goddamn watching him gear up and take off running to splash a guy has to be one of the most fantastical sights in wrestling. To me, Yokozuna was just one of those wonders of the world that you could only find in wrestling. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RIPPA Posted October 3, 2014 Author Share Posted October 3, 2014 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SirSmUgly Posted October 3, 2014 Share Posted October 3, 2014 Yokozuna is one of my favorite squash match wrestlers ever. I could watch early 1993 Yoko kill jobbers all day. I couldn't find my favorite jobber squash where he uranages a guy practically through the mat, but this one was really fun with the suplexes in particular. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Curt McGirt Posted October 3, 2014 Share Posted October 3, 2014 For some reason this sticks out more in my mind than anything else involving Yoko (aside from him crushing dudes). It was so weird for me to see a dude that also always squashed jobbers as a heel on TV to go face against Yoko, and Yoko to be afraid of him, stalling like a motherfucker with the salt. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Web Conn Posted October 3, 2014 Share Posted October 3, 2014 Yokozuna on Conan O'Brien 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaedmc Posted October 3, 2014 Share Posted October 3, 2014 So this isn't a great Yoko performance. He's basically the kraken that Owen periodically unleashes when things aren't going Owen's way, which is what makes the team work so well really. But this match kicks ass and it's all about how the pairing works out. Watch when Yokozuna first comes in and drops Bob Holly and eyeballs Waltman like a drumstick. They don't get in the ring with each other until the end and it's fucking perfect. Beautiful finish to this one. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RZ3nyhPjgcA TAKE A SHOT EVERY TIME VINCE USES THE VERB "MANEUVERING". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Web Conn Posted October 3, 2014 Share Posted October 3, 2014 vs Lex Luger Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dewar Posted October 3, 2014 Share Posted October 3, 2014 Yokozuna and Brock, are these the two Hulk never got a win back from? Some big dude needs to bring back the banzai drop. Also, this why we need more jobber matches, dudes getting killed by heels. I want Rusev running through guys in seconds. Hogan never got a win out of Piper either, I believe. The week where Rusev beat Sin Cara DURING THE COMMERCIAL ON THE WWE APP was fucking awesome. Not quite as awesome as Yoko sitting on dudes, or dropping that massive leg on somebody. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cool arrow Posted October 3, 2014 Share Posted October 3, 2014 if you want to go waaaaaaaay back, Hogan never got his win back from Tony Atlas. Anyway, here's Kokina in Mexico. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BEN! Posted October 3, 2014 Share Posted October 3, 2014 Read that as Ron Simmons vs. Samoan Cocaine and thought not even Ron Simmons can handle that. This might be his last WWF match and it isn't particularly good or anything but posted more for the weirdness of babyface Fuji waving the American flag. Least he could've done was put on some jeans and a cowboy hat like when Tojo joined with the Texas bunch in Memphis. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HumanChessgame Posted October 3, 2014 Share Posted October 3, 2014 Yokozuna was really coming into his own as a dominant force when I was first getting into wrestling. After he won the rumble I kept thinking no one could stop him. Even so, it really bugged me that Hogan beat him so quickly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cool arrow Posted October 3, 2014 Share Posted October 3, 2014 Regarding the above video, I'm pretty sure he went up for Choshu in a tv match too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BobbyWhioux Posted October 4, 2014 Share Posted October 4, 2014 Sometimes it didn't look that bad. You could kind of see him protecting them a little. Other guys....you knew they shit their pants. When people talk about guys not being great because they only have a couple of moves, Yokozuna is one that I say disproves this claim. He had a savate kick, a leg drop, a corner splash and a banzai drop. Goddamn watching him gear up and take off running to splash a guy has to be one of the most fantastical sights in wrestling. To me, Yokozuna was just one of those wonders of the world that you could only find in wrestling. It's like Andre. When you're that big you only need three moves, because your hiptoss looks and sounds like most guys' powerbombs. I could buy Yoko's belly to belly as a finisher, far more than I ever could with, say, Shane Douglas who actually used one as such. Yoko's legdrop could have been a finisher -- it even was, occasionally -- and again it really looked something that could destroy someone, unlike Hogan's, which only worked as a finisher because it was Hogan and everyone got so used to Hogan always winning with it. Yokozuna's legdrop made the guy's head disappear. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaedmc Posted October 4, 2014 Share Posted October 4, 2014 Three things I like about this match 1. Yoko's hair 2. Instead of doing the nerve hold, Yoko applies the pressure to Carlos' bleeding forehead. 3. Carlos stopping Yoko from escaping the cage by slamming his head into the frame, and then having to grab him to keep him from falling out. Twice. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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