Scotty 2 Hotty Recalls Rikishi’s Addition To Too Cool, Royal Rumble 2000 Dance

Scotty 2 Hotty recently looked back at Rikishi’s addition to Too Cool and how it came about. Rikishi joined Scotty and Brian “Grandmaster Sexay” Christopher in late 1999 after the two had become babyfaces, and they had a memorable moment when Rikishi and Christopher were the only people in the ring at the 2000 Royal Rumble. Rikishi made as if he was about to through Christopher out but Scotty entered the ring and convinced them to dance instead until the next competitor came out.

Scotty reflected on the moment and Rikishi’s joining the group in his appearance on Insight With Chris Van Vliet. You can see the highlights below:

On Why Rikishi Was Added To the Group:

“I don’t know. I remember Michael Hayes coming up to us, because the last thing he had done on WWE television was the Sultan, and then he had been sent down to Memphis and he was wrestling there, and I think he was kind of doing the Rikishi gimmick a little bit there. I might be wrong, but I know they said he was going to come out and save us. And he’s got this thong on, and I’m like, this doesn’t make any sense. He doesn’t fit what Brian and I have been doing. I go, I don’t see this working. But that first night, man, it’s one of those things you can’t even describe it, or feel like you can come up with and go I know this is going to work. We did the dance, I always say it was magic.”

On the Royal Rumble 2000 Moment:

“Again, that was a defining moment, and what made our career.”

On the Crowd Seeing It Coming:

“Yeah, it was the right timing. I think if it was probably two weeks earlier, it wouldn’t have got that reaction. But we just had those four or five weeks, whatever it was, to condition the audience to what was coming, and they knew when it was only the three of us, they knew what was coming. It was New York City, where either they love you or they hate you. I’ve been on both sides of that, where I was the new guy, and I’m the white meat babyface trying to get over in New York when I first started, and going out there, and they boo you out of the building as a babyface to the other side where they love you. If you can get New York to love you, you can get anybody to love you.”

On the Dance Superseding the Rumble For the Moment:

“Yeah, it was such a good Rumble. The whole Rumble itself was just so awesome. But yeah, every year the Rumble comes around, people start posting that clip of the dance, and it blows up. I’m so lucky to have that. I have a couple defining moments. I had some really good Royal Rumble moments that, again, I didn’t realize until later. Then had the moment with Taker, where he gets eliminated by Maven, and then here I come, and then just one shot from him. I always had this like kind of regret that I never had a chance to wrestle him, but then I go, I had two really cool Royal Rumble moments with him.”