Well, someone had to come up with the idea.
Rikishi talked about the stinkface on The World According To Wrestling Podcast. In the interview, he reveals the origins of the stinkface, saying he goe the idea for the maneuver from someone at a house show.
"I was wrestling Ray Traylor, The Big Bossman, at a house show in Oakland, Alabama that night and I gave him a clothesline in the corner and I wasn't actually looking at him," Rikishi said about that night. "I can hear an old lady shout, 'Rikishi! Turn around and stick your butt in his face!'"
As the story goes, Rikishi and Big Bossman improvised that very spot during the match. He took the old lady's advice and, in fact, stuck his posterior in The Big Boss Man's face, and you can say the rest is history.
"I'm in the middle of the ring and I see Bossman in the corner. And he said, 'Come on boy, stick your ass in my face,' and I said, 'Really? Well here it comes,'" Rikishi recalled. "I took my first step and the crowd roared. I took my second step the crowd got louder. The closer I got to him it was probably the loudest pop I have ever heard and when I turned around and his face was just the same level as my butt and I just paused there for a second. I wanted to hear and see how long I could make the fans sing and they sang and they sang and they sang and then all of a sudden, bam! I sat on him and the place just blew up. This was on a Sunday and the next night The Stinkface was introduced on Monday Night Raw."
Rikishi would wind up becoming a key player during the tail end of the Monday Night Wars, becoming a very popular babyface before he was revealed as the driver who ran over Stone Cold Steve Austin. While the heel turned flopped, he continued as a babyface for several years before departing WWE in 2004. He's one of the many playable characters in WWE 2K18.
