How much is WWE Rikishi’s net worth? The one-time Intercontinental Champion has an estimated net worth of US$2 million. During his time in WWE, he has been named as a one-time WWE Tag Team Champion and two-time World Tag Team Champion. His sons Jimmy and Jay Uso inducted him to the WWE Hall of Fame in 2015. He comes from the Anoaʻi family of Samoan wrestlers and is related to wrestlers like The Rock, Roman Reigns and Umaga.
Is Rikishi The Rock’s cousin?
Rikishi and The Rock (Dwayne Johnson) are non-biological cousins. Rikishi’s grandfather Amituana’i Anoa’I and The Rock’s maternal grandfather Peter Maivia were blood brothers. Thus, The Rock and his grandfather are considered honorary members of the Anoa’i family.
Is Rikishi Roman Reigns uncle?
Rikishi isn’t the uncle of Roman reigns but they are cousin brothers. They both are the grandsons of Amituana’i Anoa’I.
How old is the WWE star?
He was born on October 11, 1965, which makes his age be 56 years old as of 2021.
What is Rikishi’s real name?
His real (birth) name is Solofa F. Fatu Jr. However, he is mostly known by his ring names ‘Rikishi’ and ‘Fatu.’ He has also appeared with various ring names like Alofa the Polynesian Prince, Headshrinker Fatu, The Sultan, Riki-Shi, Rikishi Phatu, Junior Fatu, J.R. Smooth and Kishi.
Who are his cousins?
In addition to Roman Reigns and The Rock (non-biological), his cousins in the wrestling world are Yokozuna, Headshrinker Samu, Rosey, Black Pearl, Manu and L.A. Smooth.
Who is his wife? How many kids does he have?
He is married to Talisua Fuavai-Fatu with whom he is blessed with five children. On August 22, 1985, the pair welcomed twin sons Jonathan and Joshua Samuel who are currently signed with WWE under the ring name The Usos. His third child named Jeremiah Peniata was born on August 30, 1986. His fourth child was born as a daughter named Thavana Monalisa Fatu. His youngest child is a son named Joseph who was born in 1993.
Weight and Height
The two-time World Tag Team Champion stands at a tall height of 6 feet and 1 inch or 185 cm. his billed weight is 193 kilograms or 425 pounds. He is one of the giant wrestlers in WWE.
Where did he study?
He was enrolled at San Francisco based Balboa High School.
Wrestling career
At the age of 19, he started working for Lutte Internationale promotion as Prince Alofa, a high flying babyface. With his cousin Samula Anoaʻi, he signed with the World Wrestling Council in Puerto Rico. They formed The Samoan Swat Team and started using the “Samoan savage” gimmick with their relatives. On November 7, 1987, they turned the new WWC Caribbean Tag Team Champions which they later drop to Mark and Chris Youngblood
The cousins joined the World Wrestling Federation where they continued their savage gimmick and were renamed ‘The Headshrinkers’. They feuded with The Natural Disasters formed by Earthquake (John Tenta) and Typhoon (Fred Ottman). On the March 1, 1993, episode of Monday Night RAW, he faced the WWF Championship match against Bret Hart where he lost despite the interference made by Samu.
Samu and Fatu helped Yokozuna who was facing The Undertaker in a casket match at the 1994 Royal Rumble on January 22. When Samu left WWF to get out from the injuries, Fatu was joined by Sione (formerly The Barbarian) and they formed The New Headshrinkers that made only two PPV appearances. They participated in a tournament to crown new WWF tag team champions where they lost in the semi-final against Bam Bam Bigelow and Tatanka. In 1995, Fatu turned into a singles wrestler. This time, he was seen as being very fluent in English and spoke in vignettes of his real-life. His gimmick was informally named ‘Make a Difference’.
He was repackaged as The Sultan in 1996 where he was seen as a masked wrestler. As per the storyline, The Sultan never spoke because of his cut-out tongue and was managed by Bob Backlund and The Iron Sheik. On March 23, 1997, he was defeated by Rocky Maivia in a match for the WWF Intercontinental Championship at WrestleMania 13. He moved to train at Funking Conservatory wrestling school in 1998 which vanished The Sultan.
On the November 13, 1999, episode of WWF Metal, he made his return as Rikishi Fatu and beat Julio Fantastico. He was seen having additional weight and having bleached his hair blonde alongside wearing a thong loincloth. In his character, he alongside Vince McMahon will honor the sumo tradition.
He was seen having a feud with Viscera and later formed an alliance with Grand Master Sexay and Scotty 2 Hotty (Too Cool). On January 23, 2000, he eliminated 7 opponents in the Royal Rumble match. Six wrestlers (Edge, Gangrel, Big Boss Man, Bob Backlund, Test & The British Bulldog) worked together to eliminate Rikishi and the match was later won by The Rock.
Rikishi appeared into the limelight from his infamous signature maneuver where he rubbed his buttocks into the faces of opposing wrestlers and it was named ‘the Stink Face.’ He used to attack with this unique move when his opponents are incapacitated in the corner of the ring. Before making the action, he used to slap his buttocks which hint that the movie is about to start. This was a humiliating maneuver where he smothers his buttocks into his victim’s face.
Having his alliance with Too Cool, he feuded with Edge, Kurt Angle and Christian and they faced at Judgement Day. On the June 22 episode of SmackDown!, he earned the Intercontinental Championship by defeating Chris Benoit. He got victorious against Benoit and Val Venis in the quarterfinals and semifinals respectively of the 2000 King of the Ring tournament. In the final, he lost to Kurt Angle as he was attacked by Benoit and Val Venis with a steel chair that weakened his shoulder.
Following the event, he was set to face Val Venis for his title which he lost following the interference from Tazz. He again lost the rematch against Val Venis as Tazz hit him with a television camera. In early 2001, he participated the Fatal Four Way match on SmackDown involving The Undertaker, Kane and The Rock where he turned victorious.
He gave the Stink Face to Stephanie McMahon as she made him a cost non-title match with Stone Cold Steve Austin. On May 20, 2001, he injured his shoulder at Judgment Day, and made his return on December 6, 2001, by attacking a Stink Face to Vince McMahon.
He faced Hulk Hogan in Hogan’s first match back since leaving the WWE where he was defeated. However, he delivered a Stink Face to Higan after the match. Later, he was also seen having feud with John Cena, The Full Blooded Italians and also with Bill DeMott. He teamed with Scotty 2 Hotty to earn the WWE Tag Team Championship defeating the Basham Brothers on the February 5, 2004 episode of SmackDown!. They lost the title to Rico and Charlie Haas on the April 22 episode of SmackDown!.
WWE frequently requested him to lose weight and released him on July 16, 2004, after which he continued to wrestle on the independent circuit. He was later notified that WWE owned a trademark on the name ‘Rikishi’ which made him use ‘Kishi’ as his new ring name in October 2005. He joined Italy based wrestling promotion, Nu-Wrestling Evolution.
He entered Total Nonstop Action Wrestling under the ring name Junior Fatu where he made his debut on the September 13, 2007, episode of Impact!. He was defeated by Christian Cage following the distraction from A.J. Styles. He teamed with The Latin American Xchange and Samoa Joe to face Christian, Styles, Christopher Daniels and Senshi.
He joined LAX to face a six-man tag team match against Team 3D and Kurt Angle. He participated in the Fight for the Right Reverse Battle Royal Bound for Glory 2007. With Samoa Joe’s interference, he defeated Robert Roode in a Fight for the Right Tournament match on the October 25 episode of Impact!. Fatu and the TNA management failed to reach a pay-rise agreement after which he was released from TNA.
Did Rikishi appear again in WWE?
He has been making Sporadic WWE appearances. He was seen at the 2012 WWE Hall of Fame ceremony alongside his family. On July 16, 2012, he made his in-ring debut defeating Heath Slater on Raw. He was seen delivering the Samoan Spike and the Banzai Drop, a tribute to his deceased brother Umaga and cousin Yokozuna, respectively. After the match’s conclusion, he entertained audiences by dancing along with his sons. He also appeared on the 1,000th episode alongside other legends.
On the January 6, 2014 episode of Raw, he was seen teaming with Too Cool for defeating 3MB (Jinder Mahal, Drew McIntyre and Heath Slater) in a six-man tag team match January 6, 2014 episode of Raw. He was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame Class of 2015 on the February 9, 2015 episode of Raw. His latest appearance was on July 22, 2019, for the RAW Reunion show.
Other media
He was starred in the Italian comedy film Natale a Miami and was also seen on the Nickelodeon show Victorious where he played the role of a sumo wrestler in the episode “Brain Squeezers.” His other appearances include the Netflix original comedy film Sandy Wexler and on the CBS show The World’s Best. He is also featured in multiple video games like WWF No Mercy, WWE WrestleMania X8, WWF SmackDown! 2 and so on.
Instagram and Twitter account
He is active on Instagram @rikishi with more than 175k followers. One can find his verified Twitter profile @therealrikishi where he has managed over 310k followers.