Kayfabe! Timeline: The History of the WWE 2000 As Told By Rikishi

KAYFABE!
TIMELINE: THE HISTORY OF 2000 WWE AS TOLD BY RIKISHI

Before I begin, I’d like to give big thanks to Kayfabe Commentaries for graciously providing me with this DVD for reviewing.

The Timeline series is a chronicle of one calender year of a prominent wrestling promotion and the subject of the interview give their thoughts on various events that took place within that year. This time around Rikishi is giving his take on the WWF during the year 2000. I’m well aware that official title of the DVD refers to the promotion as the WWE, but in 2000 the F was still present and it’s always going to be the WWF to me (unless the pandas find me, that is).

Much like Youshoot, this is very interesting concept, but it’s one that always doesn’t play out in execution very well. The format of the interview is that we start out with a graphic showing each month and then a little pop up gives us dates and happenings, then we cut to the interview so that Rikishi can talk about whatever the pertinent subject is. Then the DVD cuts back to the calender and the next set of happenings, cut back to Rikishi and Sean talking again, etc.

The big failing in this concept, to me, is that Rikishi can’t really give a lot of insight on things, because he wasn’t involved in them. He doesn’t have much to say about Essa Rios winning the WWF Light Heavyweight Title from Gillberg aside from noting that Gillberg was probably the best thing that happened to Duane Gill’s career, and that he’s a big fan of Rey Mysterio. He’s not as soft spoken as Sabu was, he comes right out and says that he thought the 24/7 Hardcore Title gimmick was stupid, and that he thought it sucked when Pete Gas won it from Crash at the airport, but none of that is especially riveting. He mentions that he loves Chyna, but didn’t like the choice to give her the IC title, if they wanted to give a woman a title, they should give her the women’s title (what a crazy idea!). He goes on a bit of a tangent about Johnny Ace, and how he thinks that the excuse of creative not having anything for the wrestlers when they fire someone is bullshit, and wonders if Ace knows what it feels like to have someone taking food off of his table. He feels that they’re both adults and they’re both men, so they should both act like men and Ace should just be straight up with them.

Rikishi’s lack of insight on a lot of things is the big failing here, but he gives some very good insight when he does get something concerning him to talk about. The Stinkface originated in Mobile, AL and it was Ray Traylor’s idea, and it quickly made Rikishi a lot of friends in the locker room. He wasn’t very happy with the decision to put the IC title on him, because he was such a big guy and he knew it probably wouldn’t lead to anything great. He also wasn’t happy about the 2000 King of the Ring Tournament. Not because he didn’t go over, but because Kurt got a big payoff, and Rikishi felt he’d earned one too, by working three times that night. Rikishi very much enjoyed the Fully Loaded cage match with Val Venis, and but didn’t tell anyone except for Val about the splash off the cage. He did it in honor of Jimmy Snuka. Val didn’t have a problem with it either, and Rikishi promised to take care of him and he did.

Rikishi wasn’t happy about being the guy who ran over Austin, because he hated having to play the race card. He only went along because it was supposed to give him long programs with Austin, Rock, and HHH later on, but it was over after two months and Rikishi went nowhere. Rikishi tells the story of how Victoria got into the business. She was one of the Godfather’s ex ho’s after Godfather became Goodfather, and she told Rikishi how she didn’t just want to be a pretty face, but wanted to wrestle. He pointed toward Jim Ross’s office, and told her to go tell him that. Victoria did, JR got her set up in developmental and the rest is history.

My favorite part of the whole DVD was toward the end, when Rikishi and Sean try to make a family tree of Samoan wrestlers, and they both quickly get confused (and they neglect to mention Gary Albright, who was married into the family) and just drop the idea.

In closing, I see this as another case of something working theory but no so much in execution. It’s nothing against Rikishi, he comes across as a generally nice guy who knows what he’s talking about, and he’s obviously not afraid to say what he feels. But, unless the subject is someone in a prominent position for the entire year that the timeline is featuring, then you can’t really expect them to offer a whole of insight on things that they weren’t apart of and probably don’t know much about.

The 411: I think this is better than the Youshoot with Sabu, even though I think Youshoot is a better concept. Rikishi wasn't given a whole lot to really work with, but he told some great stories and offered unique insight on some things.
Final Score:  7.5   [ Good ]