Former WWE writer Brian Gewirtz recently spoke on The Ariel Helwani Show for an in-depth conversation about various topics. During the discussion, Gewirtz was asked if it was always the plan for Rikishi to be the one that ran Austin over.
At Survivor Series 1999, Steve Austin was struck by a car and would not compete again until Backlash 2000. It wouldn’t be known that Rikishi was the one who struck Austin until soon after he came back.
When asked if it was always intended for Rikishi to run Austin over, Gewirtz said:
“Let’s see. How do I put this? The amount of people who were gonna freakin run over Stone Cold Steve Austin at some point, you know, you could fill a jury with them and have alternates. There were a lot of people and it kept switching. It was kind of like a hot potato.”
He continued, “I remember at one point Vince looked at me and was like, ‘Taz.’ At one point, it was gonna be Taz. Okay, great. Let’s make it Taz. Then, you know, for whatever reason, the next week, it’s someone different. I wouldn’t call that necessarily a success. Rikishi is a Hall of Fame performer, but he’s likable and a natural babyface, and people want to like him. Sometimes you just don’t know until you try. Then ultimately, it was Rikishi, but Triple H was behind it all along, and you know, it went back to the natural order of things.”
You can watch the complete interview below:
(h/t to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription)
