Rikishi Comments On WrestleMania Incidents Involving Fans: ‘Use Common Sense’

On the latest episode of Off The Top, Rikishi talked about the fan incidents from WrestleMania weekend involving CM Punk, Big Vito, and others.

Vito got into a physical altercation with a fan who had confronted him at WrestleCon. Meanwhile, Punk slapped the phone out of the hand of a fan who was filming Bayley and AJ Lee after being asked not to after night two of WrestleMania. You can check out some highlights below:

On WrestleMania Incidents:

“Well, you know what? Okay, let me kind of tap on that. So we’re talking about what happened to Vito and what happened to CM Punk. And a lot of times, you know, the wrestlers — their scheduling is just so filled up. You know, that’s the time for what they call meet and greet. But when it’s time for them that they are trying to escape, they’re trying to get back to their family. They’re trying to get back to their room, just to get that little downtime. You know, who knows? Maybe it’s their bedtime, but they’re waiting for Papa to come through. They’re waiting for Dad to come through.

“And you know, during those times it’s just very simple. You just either ask first. And we’ll answer either yay or no, or just be respectful. Just respect their time, you know? Respect our time. Because at the end of the day, it’s like wrestlers, we have lives too. We understand what our position is, and that’s why they advertise from one to four. It’s a meet and greet. But when it’s come time for us like, we are trying to bail for that elevator, bail for the hotel or the car, whatever the case, just to get to our families. I think it’s just common sense that respectfully, to be able to just respect their time, respect our time. We just want to get home, just like you.”

On Dealing With Fans:

“It’s really just common sense. At the end of the day, superstars out there [are] celebrities in the fans’ eyes. But we’re human man, you know? I mean, we need downtime too. Because you definitely don’t want to come up to a wrestler, and we’re at that point where we’re about ready to snap. And I believe that’s probably what happened at WrestleCon with Vito and stuff. But yeah, you know, lessons learned. To all you wrestlers that are out there, it’s best for your own safety and for your own pocketbook not to even try to put your hands on any of the fans. If you can walk away from it, you’re more safe to walk away from it, versus now they got clips of you putting your hands on a fan. And it’s both sides. I’m not saying our side is right and their side is right or wrong. But you know, common sense. Let’s just use common sense.

On Fans Approaching Wrestlers:

“If you had come and I’m coming with my family. And you come ask me, ‘Kishi–‘ Politely, ‘do you have time to we can take a quick photo?’ Okay I already know, because I’m going to look around to see because there might be people behind him. And then if I take a picture with this one person, and then I take off and there’s another person there — well for me, it doesn’t feel right. So I’d rather just go in, ‘Listen, I’m with my family; I’ll catch you on the way down.’ And then that’ll save that time, because now I feel like at the elevator, I’m trying to get to my room, but I’m doing another meet and greet. I’m taking pictures when you clearly knew where I was at that day. If you really wanted a picture with me, you can come to the meet and greet.

“But then there’s certain fans, they don’t want to pay for the meet and greet. So they try to catch you during these times here where they can get a free selfie from you. So my question is this: why is it that you know you get that, that treatment, or you expect to get that treatment. When every other fan, hard working fan, comes and pays their money. Because this is our livelihood. All the meet and greet, this ain’t just because we’re doing it just for whatever. This is what paid the bills for me. So don’t put me in that type of predicament to where I got to heal up on you when you clearly know your timing was off and you were wrong.”

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit Off The Top with an h/t to 411mania.com for the transcription.