Yokozuna Was The Best Monster Heel of the 90's...

[LiamMcDuggle]

and his first two pinfall losses were caused by getting salt to the eyes in a 5 second match and falling off 'bret's rope' because i guess he was getting cocky. I feel like they could have got his first lose to really mean something...they more or less had two chances at it and botched them both.

What were they thinking??

[Mozenrath]

I would put Vader and Kane over him, but Yoko was fun. I do think they made some odd choices in how he lost, but I think the slip off the rope wouldn't have been seen as such an odd finish if they had Bret do a quick second rope elbow drop to pin him with, at least.

[tirtefaa]

I guess he is by default as far as the New Generation is concerned, since most of the heels were absolute dorks, or any monster such as Giant Gonzalez or Underfaker were short-lived.

Yoko was fine until his title win, but it was always going to be a challenge to keep him dominant at a time when WWF was attempting to replace Hulk Hogan. By WrestleMania X, the wheels had definitely fallen off the Yoko train at that point, and he desperately needed to drop the belt.

I wouldn't even say he was that dominant in his most dominant year, losing 3 of the 5 big events from that year, and only winning the title twice through cheating. 1994 the wheels definitely fell off, and it's clear that Yoko was a supporting character from that point forward given that he never had a large main event push after that, mostly sticking to tag team programs, losing most of them. Once he turned face in 1996, it was too late since most people were sick of him and his health had deteriorated way too much.

For me personally, Yokozuna was always just someone who was 'there'. I think the best way to salvage him after his 'dominant' run would have been to turn him face after losing the casket match to Undertaker in 1994.

Unfortunately, once he started tagging he was just a utility player at that point, and I know some of that was due to his health, but at the end of the day he was a perfect example of Vince's bad booking by going back to the well too many times when you knew what the result was going to be. There wasn't enough dimension to his character either, which just fell under the 'evil foreigner' nonsense without ever exploring it more in subsequent years.

[H-Virus]

I honestly don’t think Yoko would even make my top 5 in terms of monster heels in the 90s. Both Undertaker and Kane debuted as heels that decade, WCW had Vader and The Giant, and even though he wasn’t as successful I still enjoyed Earthquake a lot more than I did Yoko.

[4real]

Growing up for me he absolutely was the unbeatable monster heel. Vader 2nd when I briefly saw WCW in 91/92 on ITV.

[Ronny Rayguns Is All Elite]

As a little kid I HATED Yokozuna and thought once he won the title nobody would ever be able to beat him.

I can see wanting to keep Yoko protected and having him lose in ways that didn't kill his mystique too much.

Also Mr. Fuji might officially be the world's dumbest manager for accepting a title shot for Yoko/Hogan RIGHT after he just got done wrestling Bret

[Denny Zen]

With two caveats, first that I am a little too young to have really appreciated Andre the Giant, and second that Yokozuna is my all-time favorite wrestler just for childhood nostalgia reasons, I agree that, at his apex, he was the best monster heel in wrestling. 1993-94 Yoko is among the best big man heels in the history of wrestling, in my opinion. He just let his health get away from him, so it was kind of a flash in the pan in the grand scheme of things. Overall, Undertaker, Kane, Vader, Big Show/The Giant, and even Diesel/Kevin Nash were probably better monster heels. But, for his brief prime, there was no one who seemed scarier or more unbeatable than Yoko.

[Jaws the Shark]

To be honest, I never really "got" Yokozuna. I will say that he was far better than he perhaps should've been given his size and the gimmick - which I always found a bit stereotypical - but his dodgy conditioning took away some of that monster mystique for me, there wasn't that much about seeing him look absolutely knackered halfway through his matches, puffing and blowing, that made him seem monstrous.

[XIII]

WWF never really did monster heels very well for whatever reason.

Vader was the undisputed top monster of the 90s. Early Vader was ridiculous.

[Viking Hall]

I've fantasy booked that era so many times in my head and on each occasion it's gone with Yokozuna being undefeated from the moment he debuts to losing the title at WrestleMania X. Not only that, but his wins didn't need nearly as many shenanigans either, he was a 500 lbs monster and arguably the best Super Heavyweight of all time at that point, just have him demolish people. It would have made Bret Hart's (or whoever) win mean so much more too.

[OGBoardPoster2005]

There mistake was pushing him to the Main Event too soon.

Yoko should have had more build before winning the WWF Title. It should have been, if anything, Randy winning the Rumble and going for one last win against Bret Hart.

Throw Yoko in a match with say...Jim Duggan and let him get another big win en route to winning King of the Ring leading to him beating Bret for the belt at Summerslam 1993.

Have Yoko then team with Crush and the Quebecers and face Bret, Owen, Taker and Tatanka and have the Bret/Owen and Taker/Yoko angles play out in the match resulting in Bret being the solve survivor by pinning Crush after a Randy Savage distraction.

Everything else plays out the same with Bret saying he will work two matches to settle his difference with Owen and beat Yoko for the belt and thats where he does it.

[tafkaga]

For 90's monster heels, I'd put Yoko 3rd behind Vader (WCW) and the Giant. I feel like the latter two had a more impressive streak of dominance than Yoko. Undertaker would be up there if his heel run wasn't so short, and if he'd beaten more top stars before turning face. Kane was more bark than bite. He wasn't even around for a year before Taker humbled him.

[Rumble McSkirmish]

Looking back it was interestingly enough Yokozuna's main event push that was partially to blame for his massive weight gain and deteriorating physical conditions (And thus his tumble down the card after losing the belt), by most accounts the dude would go out almost every night and eat and drink as much as he could to maintain his imposing figure.

[The Dark Order Inferno]

Yoko had a couple of good years before his mobility and health declined, while Vader and Kane were more consistent for longer and didn't have to use racism as a crutch for heelishness. Yoko always looked like a threat because of his size, but his time as a serious contender was pretty short and he spent a sizeable chunk of his run working tag matches with Crush or Owen.

[tafkaga]

Feb 22, 2024 19:42:34 GMT -5 The Dark Order Inferno said:

Yoko had a couple of good years before his mobility and health declined, while Vader and Kane were more consistent for longer and didn't have to use racism as a crutch for heelishness. Yoko always looked like a threat because of his size, but his time as a serious contender was pretty short and he spent a sizeable chunk of his run working tag matches with Crush or Owen.

In terms of using racism as a crutch for heelishness, I'd say definitely in the case of the Headshrinkers, but I think Yoko's gimmick was less integral to his success than his other attributes.  Based just on size and his impressive mobility, he could have been just as much of a monster as Bundy or Vader without needing to play into American jingoism.  

[The Thread Barbi]

wrestlenomics.com/wwe-historical-attendance/

Interesting how Yokozuna and Bret Hart held similar average attendance numbers in 93 and 94 at 4,900 and 4,300 respectively, but 93 is inflated by Q1 and Q2 when Hogan was champion. Post Hogan, both have similar numbers.

Also, year on year buyrates for Summerslam (since data begins at Summerslam 1993) is exactly the same - domestic buyrate of 1.3 even though I think 94 had better marches and production value.

wrestlenomics.com/resources/wwe-pay-per-view-buys-wwf-ppv-buyrate/

This isn't factoring in merchandise sales as I think Bret would have sold more than Yokozuna?

[King Devitt]

Feb 22, 2024 15:31:19 GMT -5 XIII said:

WWF never really did monster heels very well for whatever reason.

Vader was the undisputed top monster of the 90s. Early Vader was ridiculous.

Early Vader was the f***in' man. No one could touch him. Like, that is how you introduce and then book a monster heel.

[Toilet Paper Roll]

Yoko got so bad so quick, he had the agility of a 250 pounder and within a year he did nerve holds and walked around sweating. I’d have him well behind guys like Vader, Kane, Taker and even Sid