Could Yoko, Rock or Rikishi Have Worked as Tribal Chief?

[CMWaters]

Now obviously timelines, eras and ages wouldn't make this work in reality, but the pondering might be fun anyway.

If career timelines and ages and such had aligned, could any of the three I mentioned in the topic have worked in the "Tribal Chief" role like Roman Reigns is doing now? There would have to be some concession to it all (Yokozuna dropping the Sumo gimmick and seeing if he could promo, The Rock having to drop some of the comedy of his routine, Rikishi having to be adjusted to be more serious even moreso than "Bad Man"). But in the long run, do you think any of them could have worked with the presence in the role like Roman has had?

[government mule]

Yoko promo'ing would definitely be a curious issue. Rock could have developed this as a gimmick post Nation Of Domination (New Nation anyone?) as he would have had a lot of momentum, but Rikishi wouldn't have worked in my mind, unless you immediately unmasked him post-Sultan and never follow up with Too Cool. No way could you have 'Kish running over Stone Cold and saying you 'did it for The Rock', then have him being the 'Head Of The Table', when in truth he'd more likely be the Tribal Bitch.

[Stone Coke Miami Watson 🥃]

Yoko as a “godfather”-like mafia figure would work if he could cut promos….

If he was in good shape, he’d be a great “final boss” character

[Citizen Snips]

Yoko would’ve had the Headshrinkers as backup but Rock and Rikishi wouldn’t really have a tribe to be chief of.

[sdoyle7798]

How dare you leave off Sivi Afi!

[ThankGodForSidJustice]

Oct 2, 2022 14:12:04 GMT -5 Stone Coke Miami Watson 🥃 said:

Yoko as a “godfather”-like mafia figure would work if he could cut promos….

If he was in good shape, he’d be a great “final boss” character

Funny you say that as I was just going to post how I thought that character would be cool for Rikishi around 2002 or 2003 when he was starting to get stale where he would be The Godfather type guy with Jamal and Rosey as his henchmen.

[Deleted]

They couldn't be Roman because Rikishi and Yoko were fat. To be the face of the company, you have to have "the look". I loved Yoko and to be honest, in 1992-1994, he WAS the top guy cause most people believed wrestling was real back then and he had the title for ages. He WAS the guy to beat.

The Rock doing Roman's current shtick would be a massive waste of his charisma and talent.

In short - none of them could do Roman's current thing but they could've been dominant World Champions (which Yoko and Rock already were)

60 year old Yokozuna in the Bloodline as a Godfather type would've been amazing. I also feel Rikishi could do that now aswell, considering 3 of his son's AND his nephew are in it.

[Mozenrath]

Oct 2, 2022 14:07:42 GMT -5 government mule said:

Yoko promo'ing would definitely be a curious issue. Rock could have developed this as a gimmick post Nation Of Domination (New Nation anyone?) as he would have had a lot of momentum, but Rikishi wouldn't have worked in my mind, unless you immediately unmasked him post-Sultan and never follow up with Too Cool. No way could you have 'Kish running over Stone Cold and saying you 'did it for The Rock', then have him being the 'Head Of The Table', when in truth he'd more likely be the Tribal Bitch.

It would honestly not be that hard to get around that. Rikishi claimed he did it for the Rock, yeah, but then Rock dismissed it as unnecessary (which, yeah, it was, Rock had won the world title plenty fine even with Austin around). Still, you could have Rikishi seek control and say Rock was obviously too soft, or have him admit he stood to benefit more than Rock ever did and that Rock should have just accepted the "gift". It still would have had the problems "Bad Man" Rikishi had, though, in that WWE and Rikishi didn't do enough to distance himself from the "Rumpshaker" stuff, things that were fine for his credibility as a face, but made him too comical to be taken seriously as a heel.

[celtics543]

My overarching thought is that there is nothing in wrestling that Roman can do better than Rock, so I'd say Rock could pull this off.

I love the idea of Yoko as a godfather of sorts. It's always been sad he couldn't keep his weight under control but this angle with him in 2022 would have been awesome. Rikishi could be the guy but he's more of a comedy guy without the gravitas of Yoko.

[bob]

Yoko could've easily worked as a Tribal Chief, just give him a great mouthpiece like Heenan or Cornette

The Rock made almost everything he was given work, post his blue chipper phase

Rikishi... maybe? I'm having a very hard time seeing him work as a super serious heel
probably because he bombed hard after being the man who ran down Austin

[Alice Syndrome]

Rikishi has been doing "Samoan Dynasty mob boss" gimmick on the indies for longer than the Tribal Chief.

Of course generally he's doing it more like a non action mob boss who usually gets a super kick or two in and leaves the limelight on his nephews.

Hell, it's even been implied a few times that the rest of the elders of the family are pulling the strings on Roman

[BayleyTiffyCodyCenaJudyHopps]

Oct 2, 2022 14:12:04 GMT -5 Stone Coke Miami Watson 🥃 said:

Yoko as a “godfather”-like mafia figure would work if he could cut promos….

If he was in good shape, he’d be a great “final boss” character

He wasn’t bad on the stick when he split from Cornette and started speaking full English.

[4real]

In a world where Rock hadn’t gone to make movies and become a huge star I can absolutely see him pulling off the Tribal Chief gimmick. Trying to tone down The Rock’s mic catchphrases would have been a challenge though.

[Jedi-El of Tomorrow]

Oct 3, 2022 1:20:49 GMT -5 4real said:

In a world where Rock hadn’t gone to make movies and become a huge star I can absolutely see him pulling off the Tribal Chief gimmick. Trying to tone down The Rock’s mic catchphrases would have been a challenge though.

And The Rock is so effortlessly cool, he'd get the crowd chanting anything he said.

The crowd turned on him in 2002, but after going Hollywood Rock crowds loved him again.

["Gizzark" Mike Wronglevenay]

The Tribal Chief gimmick seems like the antithesis of the Rock character face or heel. Roman is surprisingly softly spoken.

[The Heartbreak TWERK]

More like the Tribal Cheeks!

…

More like the Tribal Cheeks!

[CMWaters]

Oct 3, 2022 6:09:57 GMT -5 The Heartbreak TWERK said:

More like the Tribal Cheeks!

…

More like the Tribal Cheeks!

[Allie Kitsune]

Yokozuna? Yeah, I could see it.

Rock? It'd be a little weird since he's technically not blood related to any of them (except Nia), but he was good enough on the stick that he _could_.

[Celexa Bliss]

Yokozuna absolutely could've pulled it off. I don't know how well it would've gone over in 1993, though. Samoans didn't cut eloquent promos back then, they just stood there and snarled while a manager spoke for them. It's hard to say if the audience at the time would've accepted Yoko going against the stereotype of the savage or the evil foreigner.

I actually have booked an Attitude Era version of the Bloodline in EWR before. The Rock in Roman's position, with Yoko and Rikishi in the Usos role. This was actually years before the actual Bloodline happened, though. And I don't remember if it actually got to where The Rock was World Champion or not.

[Sephiroth]

She broke up the Beatles. She has Palpaltine level powers, forget being a tribal chief.

Oh wait you meant…