Yokozuna (wrestler)

Yokozuna
Anoa'i in 1995
Birth name	Agatupu Rodney Anoa'i
Born	(1966-10-02)October 2, 1966 San Francisco, California, U.S.
Died	October 23, 2000(2000-10-23) (aged 34) Liverpool, England
Cause of death	Pulmonary edema
Children	2
Family	Anoaʻi
Professional wrestling career
Ring name(s)	Giant Kokina[1] Great Kokina[1] Kokina[1] Kokina Anoai[1] Kokina Maximus[1] Kokina the Samoan[1] Wild Samoan Kokina[1] Yokozuna[1]
Billed height	6 ft 4 in (193 cm)[2]
Billed weight	589 lb (267 kg)[2]
Billed from	Japan "The Land of the Rising Sun"[2] Polynesia[3]
Trained by	Afa Anoaʻi[2]
Debut	1985[1]

Agatupu Rodney Anoaʻi (October 2, 1966 – October 23, 2000) was an American professional wrestler. He was best known for his time with the World Wrestling Federation (WWF), where he wrestled under the ring name Yokozuna. He was also known for his appearances with New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) as Great Kokina.

Anoa'i's character was portrayed as a champion sumo wrestler, with his ring name being a reference to the highest rank in professional sumo wrestling in Japan. While Anoaʻi wrestled as a representative of Japan, he was a Samoan American and was billed as hailing from Polynesia. However, he was managed by the Japanese character Mr. Fuji (in reality a Japanese American) who would follow Anoaʻi to the ring with a wooden bucket of salt while waving a Japanese flag.^[3]

In the WWF, Anoaʻi was a two-time WWF World Heavyweight Champion and two-time WWF Tag Team Champion (with Owen Hart), as well as the winner of the 1993 Royal Rumble. He was the first wrestler of Samoan descent to hold the WWF World Heavyweight Championship, as well as the first Royal Rumble winner who (as a result of a direct stipulation) received a WWF world championship title shot at WrestleMania. He defeated WWE Hall of Famers Bret Hart and Hulk Hogan in consecutive pay-per-view victories in the main event of WrestleMania IX, and the 1993 King of the Ring, to win his two WWF Championships, also headlining WrestleMania X against Hart. He was the third-fastest newcomer (after Brock Lesnar and Sheamus) to win the WWF Championship after his debut. He was posthumously inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2012.