August 4, 2025 • 33 mins
🎤 IF YOU SMELL… what this episode is cooking! Dive into The Rock's most electrifying verbal destructions that turned trash talk into an art form. Through restored footage, behind-the-scenes stories, and expert promo analysis, witness how The Great One verbally eviscerated everyone from Stone Cold to Hurricane Helms. Experience the most brutal, hilarious, and memorable Rock insults that changed wrestling promos forever. What made these particular burns so legendary? Which superstars actually wrote their own comebacks? From "Jabroni beating" to "Poontang pie," relive the moments when The People's Champion laid the verbal smackdown on wrestling's biggest names. Warning: Contains explicit attitude era language and legendary catchphrases. Experience this electrifying compilation in premium audio quality on Spreaker, or listen via Amazon Music, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and iHeart Radio. Tell Alexa to "Play Rock's Greatest Roasts on Spreaker" and know your role,
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💥 Thanks for checking out Wrestling Shoot Interviews and Stories – where the legends speak and the stories hit harder than a steel chair.
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💬 Share your favorite wrestling moments and story ideas with us online.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
At five hundred and sixty eight pass my next guess
is easily the biggest fighter in championship wrestling.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
Yokozuna the name carries weight. His eating habits are legendary.
Speaker 3 (00:15):
Beautiful sight to see Mayo Kozuna's eating. When he's eating,
I'm happy.
Speaker 4 (00:21):
Have you ever had turkey tales?
Speaker 2 (00:23):
The monumental life of Yokozuna is full of incredible backstage stories.
Speaker 4 (00:29):
And the toilet just came off the wall.
Speaker 5 (00:33):
Yokozuna backstage was totally different than what the fans saw
on TV.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
In this documentary, we shed light on his humble personality,
his big heart, and the dark addiction that led to
his downfall.
Speaker 3 (00:49):
It's hard to tell them, man, he needs it backed off.
Speaker 1 (00:53):
This was the Yokozuna that people did it not. Rodney
annoy I started when I was seventeen.
Speaker 3 (01:02):
My whole family's in a business.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
Before he started wrestling, Rodney Anawaii played basketball as a teenager.
He started skipping classes to spend less time in school
and more time on the court.
Speaker 6 (01:18):
Rod grew up in La It was a rough neighborhood, Matt.
There's a lot of gang bangers back in the day.
Speaker 2 (01:28):
Rodney's family says he was generally a good kid, but
with bad influences around every corner, his parents feared that
he might go down the wrong path. In nineteen eighty five,
when he failed to graduate high school, his parents sent
him to Florida to live with his uncles Afa and Seeker.
Speaker 7 (01:48):
Throughout the nineteen seventies and the nineteen eighties, there was
no tag team on the face of the planet that
held as many tag team championships as Aartha and Seeka
the Wild Sam Mulwis.
Speaker 2 (02:01):
Growing up, he had watched his uncle's wrestle on TV.
Now he was supposed to start training with them in
wrestling school.
Speaker 8 (02:09):
By DNA, you got a sweat, you gotta getting air
his sweat.
Speaker 2 (02:13):
Rodney was overweight, but that didn't stop him. He fell
in love with professional wrestling and earned respect through discipline.
Speaker 6 (02:21):
You know, well, I would think he's tired because he's
the bigger one from a He wanted to keep going
and keep going.
Speaker 2 (02:27):
He never quit training with his family. Rodney and the
others formed close ties that would last a lifetime. They
threw big parties in their backyard with tons of meat
on the grill and everyone dancing. Then at twenty years old,
Rodney started his own family. He had a son and
(02:48):
a daughter, and he didn't even have a high school diploma.
If he wanted to provide for his family, Rodney knew
he had to make this wrestling thing work. He started
performing on the independent circuit under the ring name Kokina,
traveled to Mexico, Europe, and even Japan. Meanwhile, his uncles
(03:10):
had achieved legendary status as the Wild Samoans and were
nearing the later stages of their careers. Perhaps they could
help him get into the WWF.
Speaker 9 (03:21):
Vince has always had a great relationship with our family.
Speaker 2 (03:26):
The tie between the Anoi family and the McMahons formed
out of a deep loyalty and well earned respect. During
the Reagan administration, militaristic nationalism and xenophobic attitudes ran rampant.
Vince McMahon, the most powerful man in wrestling at the time,
knew he could make use of these tensions by making
(03:47):
his shows reflect the zeitgeist. American heroes like Hulk Hogan
and Lex Luga dominated their opponents.
Speaker 9 (04:00):
With America, what happened?
Speaker 10 (04:02):
America? What sucking?
Speaker 11 (04:04):
This is what you?
Speaker 2 (04:06):
Foreign or exotic looking characters like Apha and Seeker were
the perfect bad guys. The Wild Samoans were depicted as barefoot,
spear carrying savages who ate raw fish and wore grass
skirts with implied elements of cannibalism, a far fetched caricature
of Samoan culture. Atha and Seeker accepted their roles as
(04:28):
a means of gaining a foothold in the industry and
achieving upward mobility. Despite finding the stereotypes personally offensive, they
were professionals through and through, which earned them the respect
of the McMahons.
Speaker 6 (04:43):
Any character you threw on it some more dynasty, We'll
make that character come alive.
Speaker 3 (04:48):
We just want to make money. People up and go
home and be happy with my children.
Speaker 2 (04:56):
Rodney adopted the same attitude.
Speaker 12 (04:59):
We train them to be respectful, train them to pay
their dues and respect the business.
Speaker 2 (05:07):
When Rodney joined WWF in nineteen ninety two, he was
going to be in a tag team with one of
his cousins as the Headshrinkers, a gimmick modeled after that
of the Wild Samoans, but shortly before his debut, a
leg injury put him out of action and he was
replaced by Rikishi.
Speaker 12 (05:27):
Got a lot of those riggers Lejah.
Speaker 2 (05:30):
Rodney's best opportunity had passed him by. Vince McMahon had
no use for him and thought about releasing him. Luckily
for Rodney, Vince asked a friend if he had any ideas.
Speaker 8 (05:43):
And Vince comes to me and he says, see that
kid over there, Rodney, what.
Speaker 1 (05:50):
Am I going to do with him?
Speaker 4 (05:52):
So I will started spinning two more.
Speaker 2 (05:59):
Sergeant's law to one of Vince McMahon's most trusted advisors
came up with the idea for Yokozuna. When Rodney found
out he wasn't going to get fired but got a
massive push instead, he shook Slaughter's hand and said, thank
you so very much. I can't tell you how much
I appreciate what you just did for me.
Speaker 6 (06:19):
When we found out there Rod's going to be, you know,
like Japanese sumolgaric there, there wasn't nothing big to us.
Speaker 12 (06:25):
It was like the first time I really saw one
of my family members being depicted larger than life outside
of being a Polynesian savage essentially. So it was really
cool to see one of our family members step outside
of the box.
Speaker 2 (06:43):
Originally, the plan was for Yokozuna to wear nothing, but
the mawashi, the traditional sumo belt with no shots underneath,
but Rodney felt uncomfortable with the idea, and Vince respected
his concerns. He found other ways to refine in his gimmick.
Before the fight, he would throw salt to purify the ring,
(07:05):
inspired by the shiomachi ritual insuma wrestling.
Speaker 13 (07:09):
Why ain't five hundred one ounces.
Speaker 14 (07:14):
Boa?
Speaker 2 (07:17):
Yokozuna weighed around five hundred pounds, which puts him at
a body mass index of sixty point nine. His grim
stare pierced his opponent's eyes. His banzai drop shattered rib cages.
At a time when fans were waking up to the
(07:39):
reality that wrestling was scripted, Yokozuna's banzai drop remained one
of the few moves they couldn't explain. It looked devastating.
Speaker 13 (07:51):
Imagine lying there, looking up and seeing the mass of
humanity above you. If you're an enhancement talent, he's not
gonna take care of you. You got you know it's common.
Speaker 2 (08:03):
Yokozuna took the term squash match seriously. In his early
matches against enhancement talents. He let his entire body weight
come crashing down on his opponent. Rodney didn't do anything
to protect the wrestlers he was working with because he
needed to look as intimidating as possible in the ring.
To make it in the business, he had to become
(08:26):
a monster.
Speaker 15 (08:28):
It is an understatement to say he has made quite
an impression.
Speaker 2 (08:32):
Yoko Zuna, the word yokozuna describes the highest rank in
professional sumo wrestling. They are grand champions and their eating
habits are unparalleled. Rodney liked to eat, whether it was
after lunch or before dinner. He was at catering doing
what he could to maintain his weight. He was a
(08:53):
sumo wrestler, after all. His size was his key selling point.
WWF made segments that show him running through multiple courses
in a matter of minutes, and the reality wasn't much different.
Fried Chicken was one of his favorites.
Speaker 6 (09:09):
Can we give him a cholesterol test?
Speaker 3 (09:12):
Very very low worth him.
Speaker 2 (09:14):
Just like actual sumo wrestlers, Yokozuna had surprisingly low cholesterol levels.
This is because he spent a lot of his time
in the gym. His workout regimen not only kept him healthy,
it kept him quick.
Speaker 8 (09:27):
The way that guy can move he was incredible, definitely
one of the greatest big men.
Speaker 11 (09:31):
Ever, what.
Speaker 16 (09:35):
Fans recognized that not too many guys you gonna mess
with a guy like Yokozuna.
Speaker 4 (09:41):
That was the aura of him.
Speaker 2 (09:45):
Soon there was no denying it. Yokozuna was destined to
go far. Only three months after his debut, he won
the nineteen ninety three Royal Rumble, a gigantic push. Many
family members came to see Rodney's big match.
Speaker 12 (10:01):
To me, that was like the biggest WrestleMania of all
time outside Caesar Palace.
Speaker 4 (10:07):
Like man, it was so it was like larger.
Speaker 1 (10:10):
Than mice that day.
Speaker 6 (10:11):
It was a huge day for our family, you know,
the love of Yoko just to you know, see everybody
fly in from all over just to come support him
being the main event at WrestleMania.
Speaker 12 (10:27):
The memories of that Mania and seeing him in that ring,
there's something that just like it, like it's creating endorphins
and stuff like it, and it's making me feel really good.
Speaker 2 (10:37):
Yokozuna took the world by storm. At twenty six, He
became the youngest world champion in history. With a seven
year old Roman Reigns watching backstage.
Speaker 12 (10:47):
When Rodney won, who could feel the energy and like
just how happy and proud we were of him.
Speaker 2 (10:54):
Rodney's mother was also in the green room with her
family watching the.
Speaker 14 (10:58):
Match, and when he won, she was so proud of
her sight. I can't tell you how proud she was
to see her baby boy win the strap Las Vegas
close there by all the family members.
Speaker 4 (11:14):
And then Harry comes.
Speaker 15 (11:18):
It was my hair brain idea, and it caused quite
a controversy.
Speaker 2 (11:25):
Brett Hart had agreed to put Yokozuna over, believing it
was part of a long term plan to elevate new talent.
Speaker 16 (11:33):
And I thought things were heading in the right direction,
pushing newer, younger stars.
Speaker 4 (11:38):
But suddenly it was the Hogan show again.
Speaker 2 (11:42):
The night before the show, Vince called him and said
Hogan would leave as champion, a desperate attempt to revive
Hull Caymania long after the glory days of the eighties.
Speaker 4 (11:54):
I mean, I felt like putting my finger down my throat.
Speaker 2 (11:57):
Yokozuna was champion for two minutes and six seconds, one
of the shortest runs in history, but he didn't mind.
The belt didn't fit him anyway.
Speaker 8 (12:09):
The thing that I really liked about Yolk was he
was so easy going, laid back, cooling a gang. There's
not a gown a crew that did not like him.
There's not a down a crew that didn't respect him.
Speaker 2 (12:25):
In nineteen ninety three, Rodney made friends with the Undertaker Man.
Speaker 17 (12:31):
He was just just awesome dude. Some of the best
times in my life were running with Rodney, just one
of my nearest and dearest friends.
Speaker 2 (12:42):
They wrestled in Spain, Italy, Germany and Canada.
Speaker 4 (12:47):
We had really great chemistry together and it was magic man.
Speaker 2 (12:52):
One time they went to a bar and there was
a big line out the front door, but Yoko didn't
want to wait.
Speaker 4 (12:58):
There was a big, long line out the bar. Are
this line? He just we just walked right through it.
Speaker 1 (13:06):
He loved Ron, that was his brother from another mother.
Speaker 4 (13:15):
You know what I remember most was how much funny
was in the dressing room. You'd have the music going
and be singing in the shower.
Speaker 1 (13:23):
Picks me up in one arm and slams and ship
out of me. Literally, he slams and ship out of me.
Speaker 12 (13:28):
I shpit my pants.
Speaker 4 (13:29):
I'm lucky.
Speaker 1 (13:30):
I warn't black trunks.
Speaker 2 (13:32):
Back in America, yo Kozuna got another chance to win
the world title. This time he beat hogans Holt Comania.
Speaker 8 (13:42):
I'll Comedia is dead.
Speaker 2 (13:44):
That moment meant a lot to Rodney and to his
friends and family.
Speaker 15 (13:49):
I mean, that was it for him to beat Hogan
that way. When you beat the Golden Goose right, no
means you've arrived.
Speaker 4 (13:57):
Moment that touches my heart.
Speaker 12 (13:59):
How I am to see one of our kids was
blessed for this opportunity.
Speaker 1 (14:07):
There was an enormous ACCOMPLI shrug.
Speaker 13 (14:10):
They were like, wow, one of ours made it to
the very top, and they were so prideful.
Speaker 4 (14:18):
From there on, he became the big star that he was.
Speaker 2 (14:23):
Less than a year after his debut, Yokozuna was now
a two time world champion. Normally you would expect a
lot of jealousy backstage, but when Yoko beat Hogan for
the title, everyone felt like Rodney got what he deserved.
Speaker 4 (14:38):
Everybody kind of loved him for being, you know, a
good guy.
Speaker 1 (14:42):
He's a nice dude. He didn't care who you was,
you was.
Speaker 6 (14:46):
I mean, he talked to the janitor that in the building,
He talked to people that work in the building. This
being mega MEGAMEGA superstar in the industry.
Speaker 1 (14:57):
Never let the industry change him. He took his platform
and he shared and he helped people that he loved.
He helped people that were in need.
Speaker 6 (15:08):
Every time when I say, I'm talking about our whole plan.
Speaker 2 (15:11):
Rodney was extremely generous. He wrote Christmas cards with money
in them and sent them to everyone in the Anoai family.
Instead of living in luxury, he used his money to
take care of his family. One time, his cousin Rikishi
was struggling financially. He and his family had just moved
into a new home, but they didn't have enough money
(15:33):
to install a heating system.
Speaker 6 (15:36):
I had no money and rot He gave me a
bike check and he signed it and I came home
and put a new system in home, my family and
my kids. We had heat and ours and he was
around you know when times are hard for me. He
(16:01):
was a brother da I can truly called a brother
USO go to hard times, bad times. He was a
great dad as father, he was one of the best,
but the pressure was on.
Speaker 2 (16:22):
Like most wrestlers, Rodney couldn't be home as much as
he wanted to, but when he did come home, he
made that time count. Jimmy and Jay Usso recall big
barbecue parties with the whole family. The first thing Rodney
would do when he dropped his bags was wake up
all the kids, fire up the grill, and start dancing.
(16:43):
When he didn't have time to pick his children up
from school, he would send a limousine, even though Yoko
himself never traveled in limousines. He was too big and
needed to drive in a van instead.
Speaker 15 (16:57):
As his size increased, it came increasingly difficult to travel.
We had first business class seed first class, but he
was so big that he still didn't He couldn't fit
the seeds.
Speaker 3 (17:10):
He had that demon. It's hard to talk about.
Speaker 15 (17:15):
I think just our excessive lifestyle kind of caught up
a little bit.
Speaker 2 (17:21):
Other wrestlers had vices like drinking too much or sleeping around.
Yokozuna's excesses were all related to food. He was known
to eat massive quantities of food, up to twenty times
as much as a normal person would eat in one sitting.
Speaker 4 (17:38):
Have you ever had turkey tails?
Speaker 1 (17:40):
It's the ass of a turkey.
Speaker 4 (17:42):
So there's a minuscule amount of like meat.
Speaker 1 (17:47):
The rest of it's just fat.
Speaker 2 (17:49):
Rodney loved fried turkey tales dipped in a large jar
of mayonnaise. Jimmy Usso recalls how he ate about fifty
of them at a backyard barbecue once. Another time, some
wrestlers were having a party at the Undertaker's house in Nashville.
Speaker 4 (18:06):
He shipped a cooler full of turkey tales.
Speaker 2 (18:13):
When Rodney lost the world title at WrestleMania ten, he
was twenty seven years old. Most sumo wrestlers retire in
their late twenties, but Yokozuna's career was only just taking off.
Speaker 6 (18:25):
I think that there would have been many more other WrestleMania's,
but the question.
Speaker 1 (18:32):
Was could he keep up? What are you like the
best about wrestling?
Speaker 9 (18:41):
Ah, the traveling you have to see all over the world.
Speaker 4 (18:45):
Name it.
Speaker 9 (18:46):
I've been there, every little town, every state, every country
you could think of, I've been there.
Speaker 2 (18:53):
Following his two hundred and eighty day reign as world champion,
Yokozuna flew to Japan to take part in the ww
F Mania Tour. Despite the uncomfortable plane ride, he looked
forward to his stay. Other wrestlers might have worried that
the Japanese crowd would see through the absurdity of a
Samoan American playing the role of a Japanese sumo wrestler,
(19:17):
that his gimmick could be seen as disrespectful, but not Rodney.
He knew his monstrous size and grim stare were enough
to intimidate any opponent and fascinate any crowd. Instead of
his usual mark Japanese, he simply yelled in Samoan.
Speaker 4 (19:35):
Now.
Speaker 2 (19:37):
On the flight home from Japan, Yoko sat crammed in
his seat when fellow wrestler Kurt Hennig appeared and offered
him a chunk of his chocolate bar. Yoko, who always
had a sweet tooth, accepted and asked him if he
had any more. Little did he know the chocolate bar
was laced with a laxative. A few hours later, he
(19:58):
jumped up out of his seat and asked the f
light attendants for help. Kurt and the others started laughing
while Yoko was being escorted to the back of the
plane in a panic. He was too big to use
the airplane toilet, so the flight attendants covered the floor
with newspaper and held up a blanket as he did
his business. Surprisingly, Yoko didn't take the rib personally. These
(20:23):
pranks were common among wrestlers at the time. One year later,
in nineteen ninety five, Yokozuna's friend Saviovaga played an ill
advised joke on an overseas flight, cutting strands of hair
from Sean Michael's and Scott Hall while they were sleeping.
When they woke up and noticed, they were furious. Michaels
(20:45):
and Hall were part of the Click, a powerful group
of wrestlers backstage who were looking for opportunities to push
out wrestlers who were not part of their inner circle.
After the pranks, Salviovaga became their target, and the Click
orchestra a plan to get him fired, but Yokozuna stood
up for his friend. He was in a group with
(21:07):
the Undertaker, the Bone Street Crew or BSk, who also
wielded significant power backstage, enough to help his friend and
keep him from getting fired.
Speaker 5 (21:19):
And he get up, went straight to them and tell
him why you won Savio Vega fire when the only
thing he's doing is bringing food to his house. And
he went off on those guys. So, men, thank you.
You appreciate that there's as people there that you love.
Speaker 2 (21:40):
It's for reasons like this that Yokozuna held the respect
of the entire locker room. Alongside the Undertaker, he occasionally
acted as judge in so called wrestler's court. The BSk
stood for order and Justice. In the locker room, mistakes, disrespect,
and fistfights were punishable by apologizing, carrying someone's bags for
(22:01):
a week, or paying a bar tab for the entire roster.
Speaker 6 (22:05):
Still to this day, Yokozuna is like one of the
most respected wrestlers that ever walked down at OWL.
Speaker 2 (22:13):
Another notable backstage incident occurred when Yokozuna went to the
bathroom at a show in Pittsburgh.
Speaker 13 (22:20):
He sat on the toilet and the toilet just came
off the wall.
Speaker 16 (22:28):
It came around the corner and we heard this big explosion.
I thought someone flushed a hand grenade down the toilet.
He actually cut his buttcheek on some of the broken porcelain.
I remember, it wasn't any fun.
Speaker 2 (22:41):
There was a period when Yokozuna's growing size was seen
as a positive for his character. Now it was a
growing concern. In the ring, Rotney was still as agile
as ever. He didn't want to give in to his
bodily limitations and kept wrestling at a high pace, but
his heart couldn't keep up.
Speaker 1 (23:03):
You could almost feel it.
Speaker 4 (23:04):
You could feel that it was starting to become a struggle.
Speaker 2 (23:07):
By the end of the match, Rodney was breathing heavy
and could barely get up. He had to stop on
his way backstage just to catch his breath.
Speaker 8 (23:18):
Got a lot, hey look at Yokozuna Hanah big By.
Speaker 2 (23:23):
The heavier Rodney got, the more pain he was in.
His knees and his back were making it harder and
harder to exercise, which further affected his health. Exercises the
one thing that keeps sumo wrestlers healthy, but there's only
so much the human body can handle. Yoko thought everything
was all right as long as he could still perform
(23:46):
safely without injuring his opponents. But one day he couldn't.
Jim Cornette suffered a neck injury taking the bound side
drop from Yokozuna. To this day, he can't turn his
head all the way because of this injury. Yokozuna, the
big attraction, was now a liability. Backstage officials tried to
(24:08):
get him to lose weight, not just for his opponent's sake,
but for Rodney himself and his family. They were worried
he was going to die.
Speaker 6 (24:17):
At that point, was about God's health and they wanted
to do something so he can take care of him so,
you know, physically.
Speaker 2 (24:27):
In nineteen ninety six, the WWF sent him to Duke
University to participate in a state of the art weight
loss program. They even paid for his treatment. At first,
things were looking good. Rodney lost one hundred pounds. His
wrestling friends were hopeful that maybe he could return to
the ring sooner rather than later, but it was all
(24:49):
water weight. The doctors had given him heavy diuretics. Weeks later,
he was back where he started, and after that actually
started gaining weight because he didn't stick to the rules
of the program.
Speaker 4 (25:03):
Bence tried to send him to Duke.
Speaker 15 (25:08):
It's been a while, but I want to say that
somebody helped him, or he found somebody that would sneak chicken.
Speaker 4 (25:16):
Into the center for him to eat.
Speaker 9 (25:19):
The first time that I got to meet him, I
ended up being the Yoko go get it guy. Hey, Mark,
go give me a bucket of chicken. What am I
going to say, Yoko, man, you're six hundred pounds. You
should be around four hundred.
Speaker 2 (25:36):
Andre the Giant, another famous wrestler who died young due
to his immense size, refused treatment because of a deep
fear that if he lost weight he would lose what
made him special. Yokozuna, on the other hand, refused treatment
because food was an addiction.
Speaker 6 (25:54):
Maybe he wasn't denied, maybe he didn't want to talk
about it.
Speaker 3 (26:01):
Beautiful sight to see mayokozunas eating. When he is eating,
I'm happy.
Speaker 4 (26:07):
And when it is your current way right now six
forty one.
Speaker 15 (26:13):
Yeah, it was sad to see his way. He kept
increasing in this is he liked, you know, he liked
to eat and has a gene that he just kept growing.
Speaker 16 (26:22):
Man, it's hard to tell somebody like, hey, you know,
because Yolk's always been big like that, It's hard to
tell them, hey, you need it backed off.
Speaker 2 (26:31):
When Yokozuna left the clinic and returned to wrestling, he
came back bigger than ever, reaching as high as seven
hundred pounds a body mass index of eighty five point two,
well beyond the threshold for morbid obesity, warranting urgent medical attention.
He was released in May nineteen ninety eight. In his
(26:52):
final years, Yokozuna was reportedly so overweight that he needed
help maintaining his personal hygiene. He was so big that
he couldn't raise his hands over his head to wash
his hair.
Speaker 6 (27:05):
I started to notice there I could be having a
conversation with him and he nods off fall asleep. He's
just you know, in a deep sleep, and he started
like choking looking for it.
Speaker 2 (27:21):
Jimmy and jay Uso remember that Rodney couldn't sleep lying down.
He had to sit on the floor and lean against
the sofa. Jimmy and j would bring him pillows and
blankets and make his bed as soon as they heard
he was coming over.
Speaker 1 (27:36):
Yakoranni's coming through, you know, make sure you make his bed.
Speaker 3 (27:40):
That's one hundred dollars, hey, he would give us a hundred.
Speaker 2 (27:44):
His family tried to get him on a diet and
encouraged him to exercise, but Yoko didn't do it.
Speaker 6 (27:51):
He would never tell you that he's hurt. He would
do everything with a smile and continue on.
Speaker 13 (27:57):
That STRUCTURER has never got a support. I'll wait your.
Speaker 4 (28:02):
Rodney was just a great man. He just had great values.
Speaker 3 (28:08):
He just couldn't keep it up.
Speaker 12 (28:15):
Everybody tried to help you, but you have to ort
to help yourself situations like that.
Speaker 2 (28:30):
In August nineteen ninety eight, Rodney helped open a wrestling
school in Las Vegas.
Speaker 18 (28:35):
To fulfill everybody's treat, and that is to become a
professional wrestler.
Speaker 4 (28:39):
Anybody under that, that's the heart and the desire.
Speaker 2 (28:42):
He started taking in people that had no place to go,
just like his uncles had done for him in the past.
He just couldn't see them on the street. Then, in
October of two thousand, he took one last flight overseas
and wrestled twenty six out of twenty eight days on
a UK tour. Everyone knew he shouldn't be in the ring,
(29:06):
but the people still loved him.
Speaker 9 (29:08):
He was doing what he loved and whether it was
in WWE or not.
Speaker 2 (29:13):
Six days before his passing, Rodney appeared on the UK
game show The Big Breakfast. He was still his same
old funny.
Speaker 6 (29:22):
Self, favorite professional maneuver.
Speaker 3 (29:26):
I have to show you later.
Speaker 2 (29:28):
So what do you normally wear.
Speaker 6 (29:30):
When you're in the rings?
Speaker 18 (29:31):
You don't normally wear the stdeo.
Speaker 4 (29:32):
No, a big phone, a diaper.
Speaker 2 (29:40):
On October twenty second, two thousand, Rodney made one last
phone call to his family.
Speaker 3 (29:47):
He was not well or whatever, but no, he just
said he was really, really tired. I said, goddessli he
died in his sleep.
Speaker 11 (30:05):
I just just devastated. It was it was tough. It was,
it was tough for all of us.
Speaker 9 (30:18):
I remember when he passed away talking Evince about it,
he was real upset, not in a like crying way, but.
Speaker 3 (30:25):
He was like, you know, I tried, I tried, I tried,
I tried.
Speaker 9 (30:30):
I showed up Tony Arena and I saw a bunch
of the boys crying and I was like, what's going on,
like you know, and it's like, hey, man, yoke past today,
and I was just like, just broke down.
Speaker 10 (30:43):
Just I mean, my son after him, This is Rodney,
named after his grandfather, Rodney. I don't.
Speaker 18 (31:02):
Yokozuna well, ain't fine hundred out your boat.
Speaker 2 (31:15):
Rodney was many things to many people, a husband, a father,
a mentor, a friend, and above all, an inspiration.
Speaker 12 (31:29):
He's our first top guy, first title bearer that held
the responsibility in.
Speaker 3 (31:36):
A global product.
Speaker 6 (31:39):
He stood for those kids around the world that are
big kids, that you're told that you're too slow, that
you never make it.
Speaker 4 (31:48):
To prove people wrong.
Speaker 2 (31:51):
Rodney's life was short, but he made his time count.
Speaker 8 (31:55):
I wish Your Brazonna was still around because I think
that he was one of the best big men to
ever get in a ring, and as big as he
was and aspirits as it could be on TV wanted
to have some of the nicest guys.
Speaker 4 (32:05):
He was truly amazing.
Speaker 2 (32:11):
One year after his passing, Rodney's family organized a tribute
show in his honor. Some ww E stars made time
despite their busy schedules to be there for him.
Speaker 15 (32:21):
It wasn't no Brianzone. Oh yeah, I definitely got to
be on that show and go out and do that
for rod Everybody was just happy to be there. You know,
some of us already start drinking Jack Daniels because.
Speaker 6 (32:37):
I know that's what Robert want. You know, it's like
the celebration. All right, We're gonna celebrate.
Speaker 2 (32:43):
The story of your Kazuna is often labeled a tragedy,
but when members of the Anawaii family talk about him,
they emphasize pride and continuity over grief and loss. They
remember his selfless nature and talk proudly about his achievements.
Speaker 6 (33:00):
Everything changed for everybody because of Yoko. I knew how
much it meant to him, you know, took at the
opportunity and the trust from the company that the big
man could carry the ball.
Speaker 12 (33:12):
It was like the first time I really saw one
of my family members be depicted larger than life. Outside
of being a Polynesian savage essentially, so it was really
cool to see one of our family members step outside
of the box.
Speaker 2 (33:31):
Rodney was a trailblazer. His flame burned brightly, his spark
inspired many, and his light will shine on
At five hundred and sixty eight pass my next guess
is easily the biggest fighter in championship wrestling.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
Yokozuna the name carries weight. His eating habits are legendary.
Speaker 3 (00:15):
Beautiful sight to see Mayo Kozuna's eating. When he's eating,
I'm happy.
Speaker 4 (00:21):
Have you ever had turkey tales?
Speaker 2 (00:23):
The monumental life of Yokozuna is full of incredible backstage stories.
Speaker 4 (00:29):
And the toilet just came off the wall.
Speaker 5 (00:33):
Yokozuna backstage was totally different than what the fans saw
on TV.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
In this documentary, we shed light on his humble personality,
his big heart, and the dark addiction that led to
his downfall.
Speaker 3 (00:49):
It's hard to tell them, man, he needs it backed off.
Speaker 1 (00:53):
This was the Yokozuna that people did it not. Rodney
annoy I started when I was seventeen.
Speaker 3 (01:02):
My whole family's in a business.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
Before he started wrestling, Rodney Anawaii played basketball as a teenager.
He started skipping classes to spend less time in school
and more time on the court.
Speaker 6 (01:18):
Rod grew up in La It was a rough neighborhood, Matt.
There's a lot of gang bangers back in the day.
Speaker 2 (01:28):
Rodney's family says he was generally a good kid, but
with bad influences around every corner, his parents feared that
he might go down the wrong path. In nineteen eighty five,
when he failed to graduate high school, his parents sent
him to Florida to live with his uncles Afa and Seeker.
Speaker 7 (01:48):
Throughout the nineteen seventies and the nineteen eighties, there was
no tag team on the face of the planet that
held as many tag team championships as Aartha and Seeka
the Wild Sam Mulwis.
Speaker 2 (02:01):
Growing up, he had watched his uncle's wrestle on TV.
Now he was supposed to start training with them in
wrestling school.
Speaker 8 (02:09):
By DNA, you got a sweat, you gotta getting air
his sweat.
Speaker 2 (02:13):
Rodney was overweight, but that didn't stop him. He fell
in love with professional wrestling and earned respect through discipline.
Speaker 6 (02:21):
You know, well, I would think he's tired because he's
the bigger one from a He wanted to keep going
and keep going.
Speaker 2 (02:27):
He never quit training with his family. Rodney and the
others formed close ties that would last a lifetime. They
threw big parties in their backyard with tons of meat
on the grill and everyone dancing. Then at twenty years old,
Rodney started his own family. He had a son and
(02:48):
a daughter, and he didn't even have a high school diploma.
If he wanted to provide for his family, Rodney knew
he had to make this wrestling thing work. He started
performing on the independent circuit under the ring name Kokina,
traveled to Mexico, Europe, and even Japan. Meanwhile, his uncles
(03:10):
had achieved legendary status as the Wild Samoans and were
nearing the later stages of their careers. Perhaps they could
help him get into the WWF.
Speaker 9 (03:21):
Vince has always had a great relationship with our family.
Speaker 2 (03:26):
The tie between the Anoi family and the McMahons formed
out of a deep loyalty and well earned respect. During
the Reagan administration, militaristic nationalism and xenophobic attitudes ran rampant.
Vince McMahon, the most powerful man in wrestling at the time,
knew he could make use of these tensions by making
(03:47):
his shows reflect the zeitgeist. American heroes like Hulk Hogan
and Lex Luga dominated their opponents.
Speaker 9 (04:00):
With America, what happened?
Speaker 10 (04:02):
America? What sucking?
Speaker 11 (04:04):
This is what you?
Speaker 2 (04:06):
Foreign or exotic looking characters like Apha and Seeker were
the perfect bad guys. The Wild Samoans were depicted as barefoot,
spear carrying savages who ate raw fish and wore grass
skirts with implied elements of cannibalism, a far fetched caricature
of Samoan culture. Atha and Seeker accepted their roles as
(04:28):
a means of gaining a foothold in the industry and
achieving upward mobility. Despite finding the stereotypes personally offensive, they
were professionals through and through, which earned them the respect
of the McMahons.
Speaker 6 (04:43):
Any character you threw on it some more dynasty, We'll
make that character come alive.
Speaker 3 (04:48):
We just want to make money. People up and go
home and be happy with my children.
Speaker 2 (04:56):
Rodney adopted the same attitude.
Speaker 12 (04:59):
We train them to be respectful, train them to pay
their dues and respect the business.
Speaker 2 (05:07):
When Rodney joined WWF in nineteen ninety two, he was
going to be in a tag team with one of
his cousins as the Headshrinkers, a gimmick modeled after that
of the Wild Samoans, but shortly before his debut, a
leg injury put him out of action and he was
replaced by Rikishi.
Speaker 12 (05:27):
Got a lot of those riggers Lejah.
Speaker 2 (05:30):
Rodney's best opportunity had passed him by. Vince McMahon had
no use for him and thought about releasing him. Luckily
for Rodney, Vince asked a friend if he had any ideas.
Speaker 8 (05:43):
And Vince comes to me and he says, see that
kid over there, Rodney, what.
Speaker 1 (05:50):
Am I going to do with him?
Speaker 4 (05:52):
So I will started spinning two more.
Speaker 2 (05:59):
Sergeant's law to one of Vince McMahon's most trusted advisors
came up with the idea for Yokozuna. When Rodney found
out he wasn't going to get fired but got a
massive push instead, he shook Slaughter's hand and said, thank
you so very much. I can't tell you how much
I appreciate what you just did for me.
Speaker 6 (06:19):
When we found out there Rod's going to be, you know,
like Japanese sumolgaric there, there wasn't nothing big to us.
Speaker 12 (06:25):
It was like the first time I really saw one
of my family members being depicted larger than life outside
of being a Polynesian savage essentially. So it was really
cool to see one of our family members step outside
of the box.
Speaker 2 (06:43):
Originally, the plan was for Yokozuna to wear nothing, but
the mawashi, the traditional sumo belt with no shots underneath,
but Rodney felt uncomfortable with the idea, and Vince respected
his concerns. He found other ways to refine in his gimmick.
Before the fight, he would throw salt to purify the ring,
(07:05):
inspired by the shiomachi ritual insuma wrestling.
Speaker 13 (07:09):
Why ain't five hundred one ounces.
Speaker 14 (07:14):
Boa?
Speaker 2 (07:17):
Yokozuna weighed around five hundred pounds, which puts him at
a body mass index of sixty point nine. His grim
stare pierced his opponent's eyes. His banzai drop shattered rib cages.
At a time when fans were waking up to the
(07:39):
reality that wrestling was scripted, Yokozuna's banzai drop remained one
of the few moves they couldn't explain. It looked devastating.
Speaker 13 (07:51):
Imagine lying there, looking up and seeing the mass of
humanity above you. If you're an enhancement talent, he's not
gonna take care of you. You got you know it's common.
Speaker 2 (08:03):
Yokozuna took the term squash match seriously. In his early
matches against enhancement talents. He let his entire body weight
come crashing down on his opponent. Rodney didn't do anything
to protect the wrestlers he was working with because he
needed to look as intimidating as possible in the ring.
To make it in the business, he had to become
(08:26):
a monster.
Speaker 15 (08:28):
It is an understatement to say he has made quite
an impression.
Speaker 2 (08:32):
Yoko Zuna, the word yokozuna describes the highest rank in
professional sumo wrestling. They are grand champions and their eating
habits are unparalleled. Rodney liked to eat, whether it was
after lunch or before dinner. He was at catering doing
what he could to maintain his weight. He was a
(08:53):
sumo wrestler, after all. His size was his key selling point.
WWF made segments that show him running through multiple courses
in a matter of minutes, and the reality wasn't much different.
Fried Chicken was one of his favorites.
Speaker 6 (09:09):
Can we give him a cholesterol test?
Speaker 3 (09:12):
Very very low worth him.
Speaker 2 (09:14):
Just like actual sumo wrestlers, Yokozuna had surprisingly low cholesterol levels.
This is because he spent a lot of his time
in the gym. His workout regimen not only kept him healthy,
it kept him quick.
Speaker 8 (09:27):
The way that guy can move he was incredible, definitely
one of the greatest big men.
Speaker 11 (09:31):
Ever, what.
Speaker 16 (09:35):
Fans recognized that not too many guys you gonna mess
with a guy like Yokozuna.
Speaker 4 (09:41):
That was the aura of him.
Speaker 2 (09:45):
Soon there was no denying it. Yokozuna was destined to
go far. Only three months after his debut, he won
the nineteen ninety three Royal Rumble, a gigantic push. Many
family members came to see Rodney's big match.
Speaker 12 (10:01):
To me, that was like the biggest WrestleMania of all
time outside Caesar Palace.
Speaker 4 (10:07):
Like man, it was so it was like larger.
Speaker 1 (10:10):
Than mice that day.
Speaker 6 (10:11):
It was a huge day for our family, you know,
the love of Yoko just to you know, see everybody
fly in from all over just to come support him
being the main event at WrestleMania.
Speaker 12 (10:27):
The memories of that Mania and seeing him in that ring,
there's something that just like it, like it's creating endorphins
and stuff like it, and it's making me feel really good.
Speaker 2 (10:37):
Yokozuna took the world by storm. At twenty six, He
became the youngest world champion in history. With a seven
year old Roman Reigns watching backstage.
Speaker 12 (10:47):
When Rodney won, who could feel the energy and like
just how happy and proud we were of him.
Speaker 2 (10:54):
Rodney's mother was also in the green room with her
family watching the.
Speaker 14 (10:58):
Match, and when he won, she was so proud of
her sight. I can't tell you how proud she was
to see her baby boy win the strap Las Vegas
close there by all the family members.
Speaker 4 (11:14):
And then Harry comes.
Speaker 15 (11:18):
It was my hair brain idea, and it caused quite
a controversy.
Speaker 2 (11:25):
Brett Hart had agreed to put Yokozuna over, believing it
was part of a long term plan to elevate new talent.
Speaker 16 (11:33):
And I thought things were heading in the right direction,
pushing newer, younger stars.
Speaker 4 (11:38):
But suddenly it was the Hogan show again.
Speaker 2 (11:42):
The night before the show, Vince called him and said
Hogan would leave as champion, a desperate attempt to revive
Hull Caymania long after the glory days of the eighties.
Speaker 4 (11:54):
I mean, I felt like putting my finger down my throat.
Speaker 2 (11:57):
Yokozuna was champion for two minutes and six seconds, one
of the shortest runs in history, but he didn't mind.
The belt didn't fit him anyway.
Speaker 8 (12:09):
The thing that I really liked about Yolk was he
was so easy going, laid back, cooling a gang. There's
not a gown a crew that did not like him.
There's not a down a crew that didn't respect him.
Speaker 2 (12:25):
In nineteen ninety three, Rodney made friends with the Undertaker Man.
Speaker 17 (12:31):
He was just just awesome dude. Some of the best
times in my life were running with Rodney, just one
of my nearest and dearest friends.
Speaker 2 (12:42):
They wrestled in Spain, Italy, Germany and Canada.
Speaker 4 (12:47):
We had really great chemistry together and it was magic man.
Speaker 2 (12:52):
One time they went to a bar and there was
a big line out the front door, but Yoko didn't
want to wait.
Speaker 4 (12:58):
There was a big, long line out the bar. Are
this line? He just we just walked right through it.
Speaker 1 (13:06):
He loved Ron, that was his brother from another mother.
Speaker 4 (13:15):
You know what I remember most was how much funny
was in the dressing room. You'd have the music going
and be singing in the shower.
Speaker 1 (13:23):
Picks me up in one arm and slams and ship
out of me. Literally, he slams and ship out of me.
Speaker 12 (13:28):
I shpit my pants.
Speaker 4 (13:29):
I'm lucky.
Speaker 1 (13:30):
I warn't black trunks.
Speaker 2 (13:32):
Back in America, yo Kozuna got another chance to win
the world title. This time he beat hogans Holt Comania.
Speaker 8 (13:42):
I'll Comedia is dead.
Speaker 2 (13:44):
That moment meant a lot to Rodney and to his
friends and family.
Speaker 15 (13:49):
I mean, that was it for him to beat Hogan
that way. When you beat the Golden Goose right, no
means you've arrived.
Speaker 4 (13:57):
Moment that touches my heart.
Speaker 12 (13:59):
How I am to see one of our kids was
blessed for this opportunity.
Speaker 1 (14:07):
There was an enormous ACCOMPLI shrug.
Speaker 13 (14:10):
They were like, wow, one of ours made it to
the very top, and they were so prideful.
Speaker 4 (14:18):
From there on, he became the big star that he was.
Speaker 2 (14:23):
Less than a year after his debut, Yokozuna was now
a two time world champion. Normally you would expect a
lot of jealousy backstage, but when Yoko beat Hogan for
the title, everyone felt like Rodney got what he deserved.
Speaker 4 (14:38):
Everybody kind of loved him for being, you know, a
good guy.
Speaker 1 (14:42):
He's a nice dude. He didn't care who you was,
you was.
Speaker 6 (14:46):
I mean, he talked to the janitor that in the building,
He talked to people that work in the building. This
being mega MEGAMEGA superstar in the industry.
Speaker 1 (14:57):
Never let the industry change him. He took his platform
and he shared and he helped people that he loved.
He helped people that were in need.
Speaker 6 (15:08):
Every time when I say, I'm talking about our whole plan.
Speaker 2 (15:11):
Rodney was extremely generous. He wrote Christmas cards with money
in them and sent them to everyone in the Anoai family.
Instead of living in luxury, he used his money to
take care of his family. One time, his cousin Rikishi
was struggling financially. He and his family had just moved
into a new home, but they didn't have enough money
(15:33):
to install a heating system.
Speaker 6 (15:36):
I had no money and rot He gave me a
bike check and he signed it and I came home
and put a new system in home, my family and
my kids. We had heat and ours and he was
around you know when times are hard for me. He
(16:01):
was a brother da I can truly called a brother
USO go to hard times, bad times. He was a
great dad as father, he was one of the best,
but the pressure was on.
Speaker 2 (16:22):
Like most wrestlers, Rodney couldn't be home as much as
he wanted to, but when he did come home, he
made that time count. Jimmy and Jay Usso recall big
barbecue parties with the whole family. The first thing Rodney
would do when he dropped his bags was wake up
all the kids, fire up the grill, and start dancing.
(16:43):
When he didn't have time to pick his children up
from school, he would send a limousine, even though Yoko
himself never traveled in limousines. He was too big and
needed to drive in a van instead.
Speaker 15 (16:57):
As his size increased, it came increasingly difficult to travel.
We had first business class seed first class, but he
was so big that he still didn't He couldn't fit
the seeds.
Speaker 3 (17:10):
He had that demon. It's hard to talk about.
Speaker 15 (17:15):
I think just our excessive lifestyle kind of caught up
a little bit.
Speaker 2 (17:21):
Other wrestlers had vices like drinking too much or sleeping around.
Yokozuna's excesses were all related to food. He was known
to eat massive quantities of food, up to twenty times
as much as a normal person would eat in one sitting.
Speaker 4 (17:38):
Have you ever had turkey tails?
Speaker 1 (17:40):
It's the ass of a turkey.
Speaker 4 (17:42):
So there's a minuscule amount of like meat.
Speaker 1 (17:47):
The rest of it's just fat.
Speaker 2 (17:49):
Rodney loved fried turkey tales dipped in a large jar
of mayonnaise. Jimmy Usso recalls how he ate about fifty
of them at a backyard barbecue once. Another time, some
wrestlers were having a party at the Undertaker's house in Nashville.
Speaker 4 (18:06):
He shipped a cooler full of turkey tales.
Speaker 2 (18:13):
When Rodney lost the world title at WrestleMania ten, he
was twenty seven years old. Most sumo wrestlers retire in
their late twenties, but Yokozuna's career was only just taking off.
Speaker 6 (18:25):
I think that there would have been many more other WrestleMania's,
but the question.
Speaker 1 (18:32):
Was could he keep up? What are you like the
best about wrestling?
Speaker 9 (18:41):
Ah, the traveling you have to see all over the world.
Speaker 4 (18:45):
Name it.
Speaker 9 (18:46):
I've been there, every little town, every state, every country
you could think of, I've been there.
Speaker 2 (18:53):
Following his two hundred and eighty day reign as world champion,
Yokozuna flew to Japan to take part in the ww
F Mania Tour. Despite the uncomfortable plane ride, he looked
forward to his stay. Other wrestlers might have worried that
the Japanese crowd would see through the absurdity of a
Samoan American playing the role of a Japanese sumo wrestler,
(19:17):
that his gimmick could be seen as disrespectful, but not Rodney.
He knew his monstrous size and grim stare were enough
to intimidate any opponent and fascinate any crowd. Instead of
his usual mark Japanese, he simply yelled in Samoan.
Speaker 4 (19:35):
Now.
Speaker 2 (19:37):
On the flight home from Japan, Yoko sat crammed in
his seat when fellow wrestler Kurt Hennig appeared and offered
him a chunk of his chocolate bar. Yoko, who always
had a sweet tooth, accepted and asked him if he
had any more. Little did he know the chocolate bar
was laced with a laxative. A few hours later, he
(19:58):
jumped up out of his seat and asked the f
light attendants for help. Kurt and the others started laughing
while Yoko was being escorted to the back of the
plane in a panic. He was too big to use
the airplane toilet, so the flight attendants covered the floor
with newspaper and held up a blanket as he did
his business. Surprisingly, Yoko didn't take the rib personally. These
(20:23):
pranks were common among wrestlers at the time. One year later,
in nineteen ninety five, Yokozuna's friend Saviovaga played an ill
advised joke on an overseas flight, cutting strands of hair
from Sean Michael's and Scott Hall while they were sleeping.
When they woke up and noticed, they were furious. Michaels
(20:45):
and Hall were part of the Click, a powerful group
of wrestlers backstage who were looking for opportunities to push
out wrestlers who were not part of their inner circle.
After the pranks, Salviovaga became their target, and the Click
orchestra a plan to get him fired, but Yokozuna stood
up for his friend. He was in a group with
(21:07):
the Undertaker, the Bone Street Crew or BSk, who also
wielded significant power backstage, enough to help his friend and
keep him from getting fired.
Speaker 5 (21:19):
And he get up, went straight to them and tell
him why you won Savio Vega fire when the only
thing he's doing is bringing food to his house. And
he went off on those guys. So, men, thank you.
You appreciate that there's as people there that you love.
Speaker 2 (21:40):
It's for reasons like this that Yokozuna held the respect
of the entire locker room. Alongside the Undertaker, he occasionally
acted as judge in so called wrestler's court. The BSk
stood for order and Justice. In the locker room, mistakes, disrespect,
and fistfights were punishable by apologizing, carrying someone's bags for
(22:01):
a week, or paying a bar tab for the entire roster.
Speaker 6 (22:05):
Still to this day, Yokozuna is like one of the
most respected wrestlers that ever walked down at OWL.
Speaker 2 (22:13):
Another notable backstage incident occurred when Yokozuna went to the
bathroom at a show in Pittsburgh.
Speaker 13 (22:20):
He sat on the toilet and the toilet just came
off the wall.
Speaker 16 (22:28):
It came around the corner and we heard this big explosion.
I thought someone flushed a hand grenade down the toilet.
He actually cut his buttcheek on some of the broken porcelain.
I remember, it wasn't any fun.
Speaker 2 (22:41):
There was a period when Yokozuna's growing size was seen
as a positive for his character. Now it was a
growing concern. In the ring, Rotney was still as agile
as ever. He didn't want to give in to his
bodily limitations and kept wrestling at a high pace, but
his heart couldn't keep up.
Speaker 1 (23:03):
You could almost feel it.
Speaker 4 (23:04):
You could feel that it was starting to become a struggle.
Speaker 2 (23:07):
By the end of the match, Rodney was breathing heavy
and could barely get up. He had to stop on
his way backstage just to catch his breath.
Speaker 8 (23:18):
Got a lot, hey look at Yokozuna Hanah big By.
Speaker 2 (23:23):
The heavier Rodney got, the more pain he was in.
His knees and his back were making it harder and
harder to exercise, which further affected his health. Exercises the
one thing that keeps sumo wrestlers healthy, but there's only
so much the human body can handle. Yoko thought everything
was all right as long as he could still perform
(23:46):
safely without injuring his opponents. But one day he couldn't.
Jim Cornette suffered a neck injury taking the bound side
drop from Yokozuna. To this day, he can't turn his
head all the way because of this injury. Yokozuna, the
big attraction, was now a liability. Backstage officials tried to
(24:08):
get him to lose weight, not just for his opponent's sake,
but for Rodney himself and his family. They were worried
he was going to die.
Speaker 6 (24:17):
At that point, was about God's health and they wanted
to do something so he can take care of him so,
you know, physically.
Speaker 2 (24:27):
In nineteen ninety six, the WWF sent him to Duke
University to participate in a state of the art weight
loss program. They even paid for his treatment. At first,
things were looking good. Rodney lost one hundred pounds. His
wrestling friends were hopeful that maybe he could return to
the ring sooner rather than later, but it was all
(24:49):
water weight. The doctors had given him heavy diuretics. Weeks later,
he was back where he started, and after that actually
started gaining weight because he didn't stick to the rules
of the program.
Speaker 4 (25:03):
Bence tried to send him to Duke.
Speaker 15 (25:08):
It's been a while, but I want to say that
somebody helped him, or he found somebody that would sneak chicken.
Speaker 4 (25:16):
Into the center for him to eat.
Speaker 9 (25:19):
The first time that I got to meet him, I
ended up being the Yoko go get it guy. Hey, Mark,
go give me a bucket of chicken. What am I
going to say, Yoko, man, you're six hundred pounds. You
should be around four hundred.
Speaker 2 (25:36):
Andre the Giant, another famous wrestler who died young due
to his immense size, refused treatment because of a deep
fear that if he lost weight he would lose what
made him special. Yokozuna, on the other hand, refused treatment
because food was an addiction.
Speaker 6 (25:54):
Maybe he wasn't denied, maybe he didn't want to talk
about it.
Speaker 3 (26:01):
Beautiful sight to see mayokozunas eating. When he is eating,
I'm happy.
Speaker 4 (26:07):
And when it is your current way right now six
forty one.
Speaker 15 (26:13):
Yeah, it was sad to see his way. He kept
increasing in this is he liked, you know, he liked
to eat and has a gene that he just kept growing.
Speaker 16 (26:22):
Man, it's hard to tell somebody like, hey, you know,
because Yolk's always been big like that, It's hard to
tell them, hey, you need it backed off.
Speaker 2 (26:31):
When Yokozuna left the clinic and returned to wrestling, he
came back bigger than ever, reaching as high as seven
hundred pounds a body mass index of eighty five point two,
well beyond the threshold for morbid obesity, warranting urgent medical attention.
He was released in May nineteen ninety eight. In his
(26:52):
final years, Yokozuna was reportedly so overweight that he needed
help maintaining his personal hygiene. He was so big that
he couldn't raise his hands over his head to wash
his hair.
Speaker 6 (27:05):
I started to notice there I could be having a
conversation with him and he nods off fall asleep. He's
just you know, in a deep sleep, and he started
like choking looking for it.
Speaker 2 (27:21):
Jimmy and jay Uso remember that Rodney couldn't sleep lying down.
He had to sit on the floor and lean against
the sofa. Jimmy and j would bring him pillows and
blankets and make his bed as soon as they heard
he was coming over.
Speaker 1 (27:36):
Yakoranni's coming through, you know, make sure you make his bed.
Speaker 3 (27:40):
That's one hundred dollars, hey, he would give us a hundred.
Speaker 2 (27:44):
His family tried to get him on a diet and
encouraged him to exercise, but Yoko didn't do it.
Speaker 6 (27:51):
He would never tell you that he's hurt. He would
do everything with a smile and continue on.
Speaker 13 (27:57):
That STRUCTURER has never got a support. I'll wait your.
Speaker 4 (28:02):
Rodney was just a great man. He just had great values.
Speaker 3 (28:08):
He just couldn't keep it up.
Speaker 12 (28:15):
Everybody tried to help you, but you have to ort
to help yourself situations like that.
Speaker 2 (28:30):
In August nineteen ninety eight, Rodney helped open a wrestling
school in Las Vegas.
Speaker 18 (28:35):
To fulfill everybody's treat, and that is to become a
professional wrestler.
Speaker 4 (28:39):
Anybody under that, that's the heart and the desire.
Speaker 2 (28:42):
He started taking in people that had no place to go,
just like his uncles had done for him in the past.
He just couldn't see them on the street. Then, in
October of two thousand, he took one last flight overseas
and wrestled twenty six out of twenty eight days on
a UK tour. Everyone knew he shouldn't be in the ring,
(29:06):
but the people still loved him.
Speaker 9 (29:08):
He was doing what he loved and whether it was
in WWE or not.
Speaker 2 (29:13):
Six days before his passing, Rodney appeared on the UK
game show The Big Breakfast. He was still his same
old funny.
Speaker 6 (29:22):
Self, favorite professional maneuver.
Speaker 3 (29:26):
I have to show you later.
Speaker 2 (29:28):
So what do you normally wear.
Speaker 6 (29:30):
When you're in the rings?
Speaker 18 (29:31):
You don't normally wear the stdeo.
Speaker 4 (29:32):
No, a big phone, a diaper.
Speaker 2 (29:40):
On October twenty second, two thousand, Rodney made one last
phone call to his family.
Speaker 3 (29:47):
He was not well or whatever, but no, he just
said he was really, really tired. I said, goddessli he
died in his sleep.
Speaker 11 (30:05):
I just just devastated. It was it was tough. It was,
it was tough for all of us.
Speaker 9 (30:18):
I remember when he passed away talking Evince about it,
he was real upset, not in a like crying way, but.
Speaker 3 (30:25):
He was like, you know, I tried, I tried, I tried,
I tried.
Speaker 9 (30:30):
I showed up Tony Arena and I saw a bunch
of the boys crying and I was like, what's going on,
like you know, and it's like, hey, man, yoke past today,
and I was just like, just broke down.
Speaker 10 (30:43):
Just I mean, my son after him, This is Rodney,
named after his grandfather, Rodney. I don't.
Speaker 18 (31:02):
Yokozuna well, ain't fine hundred out your boat.
Speaker 2 (31:15):
Rodney was many things to many people, a husband, a father,
a mentor, a friend, and above all, an inspiration.
Speaker 12 (31:29):
He's our first top guy, first title bearer that held
the responsibility in.
Speaker 3 (31:36):
A global product.
Speaker 6 (31:39):
He stood for those kids around the world that are
big kids, that you're told that you're too slow, that
you never make it.
Speaker 4 (31:48):
To prove people wrong.
Speaker 2 (31:51):
Rodney's life was short, but he made his time count.
Speaker 8 (31:55):
I wish Your Brazonna was still around because I think
that he was one of the best big men to
ever get in a ring, and as big as he
was and aspirits as it could be on TV wanted
to have some of the nicest guys.
Speaker 4 (32:05):
He was truly amazing.
Speaker 2 (32:11):
One year after his passing, Rodney's family organized a tribute
show in his honor. Some ww E stars made time
despite their busy schedules to be there for him.
Speaker 15 (32:21):
It wasn't no Brianzone. Oh yeah, I definitely got to
be on that show and go out and do that
for rod Everybody was just happy to be there. You know,
some of us already start drinking Jack Daniels because.
Speaker 6 (32:37):
I know that's what Robert want. You know, it's like
the celebration. All right, We're gonna celebrate.
Speaker 2 (32:43):
The story of your Kazuna is often labeled a tragedy,
but when members of the Anawaii family talk about him,
they emphasize pride and continuity over grief and loss. They
remember his selfless nature and talk proudly about his achievements.
Speaker 6 (33:00):
Everything changed for everybody because of Yoko. I knew how
much it meant to him, you know, took at the
opportunity and the trust from the company that the big
man could carry the ball.
Speaker 12 (33:12):
It was like the first time I really saw one
of my family members be depicted larger than life. Outside
of being a Polynesian savage essentially, so it was really
cool to see one of our family members step outside
of the box.
Speaker 2 (33:31):
Rodney was a trailblazer. His flame burned brightly, his spark
inspired many, and his light will shine on
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