Rikishi (wrestler)

Rikishi
Rikishi in 2015.
Birth name	Solofa Fatu, Jr.
Born	(1965-10-11) October 11, 1965 (age 51) San Francisco, California, U.S.
Residence	Poinciana, Florida, U.S.
Children	Four, including Joshua and Jonathan
Family	Anoaʻi
Professional wrestling career
Ring name(s)	Alofa the Polynesian Prince Fatu Headshrinker Fatu J.R Smooth Junior Fatu Kishi Rikishi Riki-Shi Rikishi Phatu The Sultan The Kish Sumo Rikishi
Billed height	6 ft 1 in (1.85 m)
Billed weight	425 lb (193 kg)
Billed from	The Isle of Samoa
Trained by	Afa Anoaʻi Sika Anoaʻi
Debut	1985

Solofa Fatu, Jr. (born October 11, 1965) is a Samoan American professional wrestler, best known under the ring names Rikishi (a shorter version of an older ring name Rikishi Phatu; Rikishi means sumo wrestler in Japanese) and Fatu with World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), where he was a one-time Intercontinental Champion, two-time World Tag Team Champion, and one-time WWE Tag Team Champion. He was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame as part of the Class of 2015.

Fatu was born on October 11, 1965. He is a member of the famous Anoaʻi family. He attended Balboa High School in San Francisco.

Solofa Fatu Jr. started out in 1985 for Gino Brito and Dino Bravo’s Lutte Internationale promotion in Montreal. There, he worked as Prince Alofa, a high flying babyface. He often teamed with the territory’s top faces. His cousin, Samula Anoaʻi, also worked , the two cousins signed with the World Wrestling Council in Puerto Rico and became The Samoan Swat Team (Samu & Fatu). They used the "Samoan savage" gimmick their relatives, The Wild Samoans successfully used, working barefoot, never publicly speaking English and no-selling attacks to the head. They became the new WWC Caribbean Tag Team Champions (after a long vacancy) on November 7, 1987, in Guaynabo, Puerto Rico when they beat Invader I and Invader III. They held the title for just over a month before dropping it to Mark and Chris Youngblood before leaving the promotion.