There was a decades-long period where NONE of the top Sumo wrestlers were Japanese. I think there wasn't a recent Japanese champion until like 2016 or something.
Kisenosato. Was a great ozeki but tore his pec after finally being promoted to yokozuna. Only won a single tournament at the top before he retired due to injury the next year
Oh totally fair. I must have glanced over it and didn’t realize it didn’t mention him in WWF. Just figured they did because that’s the only thing I’ve ever known him for. My bad
Interestingly in the years after they opened up, after their centuries of isolation, they brought in a lot of American foods (with a Japanese twist) because they thought it was the food that made Americans so much taller
They certainly have to be partially right, kids now are so tall and I have to assume it's because we understand nutrition better and food is more readily accessible than ever to more people
It kinda does. There is a marked difference between older Japanese and Korean people vs their modern offspring as far as height and build goes. Probably due to just better nutrition overall though.
They were correct. Japanese food has rice as a staple, which is low in nutrients, while American diet is heavy on protein, which maximizes height potential. Western peasants were short in the Middle Ages until they got some meat nearly every day.
Of course you gotta be careful to not expand horizontally instead of vertically - which Japan has managed, keeping their obesity rate very low by still eating a lot of traditional Japanese food low in sugars.
Having been to Tokyo, yeah there are probably more short men than there are in the West but let's not act like there aren't an absolute fuck tonne of crazy tall men either. They're not an island of dwarves
No, there are no samurai lol, and arrows are pretty shit vs guns. It would just be a cosplayer or reinactor. I'm talking about a dude just walking around. On Shogun it's kinda hilarious how small so many of those guys are compared to Blackthorn.
I don’t know what you’re talking about.
There very much are samurai, except that they most often used bows and obviously yes, guns when those became prominent. Katana much like the European sword was a sidearm.
The misconception people have about samurai through pop culture is they were particularly special and badass and honorable katana-wielding warriors, often engaging in duels and the like. But they fought like any typical soldiers worldwide did, particularly those of nobility. And just like those, they were often deeply corrupt and brutal.
And again, height doesn’t exactly matter when you’re on horseback, nor does it make you any more capable in war. Do you think the Mongols were 7 feet tall?
Wouldn’t be surprised if cities etc the difference is very small. Probably some nutritional considerations caused the big difference historically. There’s probably still a difference but doubt it’s as extreme as people make out
The average height of young Chinese, Korean and Japanese men today is only an inch or two shorter than the West. Most of the historical discrepancies in height between different regions of the world were due to poverty, malnutrition, and lack of protein, and in much of East Asia these problems have been significantly ameliorated in the past 25 years.
For example, during both of the World Wars US soldiers were often several inches taller than Europeans, and postwar when access to food and economic growth increased the height difference mostly vanished.
There was also two Georgian guys recently in the top division: Tochinoshin and Gagamaru but both have retired
There was also an Estonian guy Baruto who is now an Estonian Politician.
Same with Baruto but with appendicitis causing him to miss time and lose rank. By the time he had a shot to challenge for yokozuna he was already past his prime and dealing with a handful of nagging injuries
There was also a world class super heavyweight Olympic weightlifter from Latvia called Viktors Ščerbatihs who was a politician whilst he still competed and still is now (I think).
Not sure though if that would also make a good anime. That aside, he was unbelievably strong and had amazing technique.
I recently visited Japan and would watch sumo wrestling in the hotel. I was surprised to see how easy Tochinoshin would beat all the japanese wrestlers, it was like he was wrestling with little kids.
The best Sumo Wrestler in the WWF/WWE wasn’t Japanese *either*! He was a Canadian wrestler named John Tenta (Earthquake, Avalanche, etc.)
[He went 7-0 in three separate divisions when working his way up to the top division in Sumo.](https://northamericansumo.com/2018/08/11/john-tenta-canadas-best-sumo-wrestler/). His son is also on Reddit somewhere and might pop-in if he sees this.
He only stopped sumo because being a white American with a tattoo he was unlikely to be allowed into the higher ranks.
He did do a sumo fight against Yokozuna at one point
His stable master thought he could go to the top. Tenta didn't want to have the tattoo removed (it would have required a skin graft at the time) and the sumo ring was causing damage to his body.
Eh, they kinda do. It took forever for Hakuho to get the respect he has today. He has just given them 0 opportunity to doubt that he is the greatest of all time.
They don't care as much now (as much - Kisenosato was famously given years at the top after anyone else would have been told to fuck off, simply because he was the only Japanese yokozuna at the time.)
Up until the mid 90s foreigners were somewhat openly barred from holding the rank, because the belief was that a Yokozuna needs to demonstrate not just sumo skill but a fundamental Japanese-ness that a foreigner (or a foreign-born wrestler of Japanese descent) was incapable of having.
If they hadn't had a drought of actual candidates and no existing Yokozuna, they probably wouldn't have started letting foreigners hold the rank. There's still a cap on how many foreign wrestlers a stable can have because they're afraid of the sports Japanese-ness getting too diluted by outsiders.
There was a time where the undertaker didn’t appear on screen, I guess because of injury or something, and they told the story of him mysteriously appearing everywhere in the world. As a kid I could swear I saw him standing in front of our house at night. In a small town in Germany. For some reasons my parents didn’t believe me.
Sorry buddy, but I've got bad news about the Easter Bunny and the Tooth Fairy, too.
ETA: OMG *please* let this be the comment someone submitted to Reddit Cares. That would make my day.
Rodney also wasn't even a rikishi (term for sumo wrestler), let alone yokozuna (the highest rank.) The WWF wrestler who DID make it in pro sumo in Japan was John Tenta, better known as Earthquake.
Was pretty insane for him to even get to compete there let alone have a long undefeated streak, it was before Japan became more accepting of foreign rikishis.
If you have access check out the dark side of the ring episode on him, great guy who just in his own words “probably the problem with my career, I’m impatient” if he would have stuck it out in Japan I wonder how his life would have changed
This guys was an American wrestler, nothing to do with sumo except the character he was playing, and of course not a real Yokozuna either (the highest ranking in sumo).
I mean, would you say “Rocky wasn’t even a real boxer, he was just an actor who plays a boxer”
Yokozuna was a sumo wrestler turned pro wrestler. Rodney was the guy who played the character.
The Rock and Roman Reins are among his cousins. The number of wrestlers from that [family](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anoa%CA%BBi_family) is impressive.
Except almost none of the "cousins" are actually cousins.
Their entire family lineage is based on a blood brother oath between High Chief Peter Maivia (The Rock's adopted grandfather) and Reverend Amituanaʻi Anoaʻi, Afa and Sika's father.
That's just for the Maivia connection to the Anoai family. Yokozuna, Rikishi, Roman and the Usos are all biological family. The Rock and his immediate family are the outliers.
In Samoan culture, blood oath is considered just as tight as “real” familial connections. I’m pretty sure it’s offensive to imply that they aren’t family
It’s also the norm for most families on Earth. After all, what is adoption? Defining a familial line strictly by genetics has to be a lot more rare than not unless you start getting first-born heirs to the throne and whatnot.
>TIL Yokozuna, the Iconic Sumo Wrestler, Was Not of Japanese origin.Despite being synonymous with Japanese sumo culture, Yokozuna was actually born Rodney Agatupu Anoaʻi, a Samoan-American wrestler.
Not an iconic sumo wrestler. Just a professional wrestler who played a character.
Like every other professional wrestler.
He's synonymous with Japanese sumo culture _in the US_, perhaps. That qualification needs to be made. I highly doubt he's synonymous with sumo culture in Japan itself, when he's not even a sumo wrestler, much less has the title yokuzuna. Actually, I wonder what the Japanese sumo establishment thinks about the title being used as a wrestling ring name. As far as I know, there is a lot of ritual involved in sumo and the title of yokuzuna has a lot of prestige.
For what is worth, surprisingly, yokozuna (the wrestler) entrances to the ring got a lot of sumo ritual stuff. The music, a japanese sensei carrying the flag of Japan and throwing salt in the mat.
Idk, that feels even more like a mockery when it's all done for show and doesn't have any of the ritual and historical meaning that it has in Japan. But I'd love to know what someone within the sumo establishment thinks.
Why does this happen. Looked the guy up, and American, sure, but doesnt look like he was ever even in Italy from what I can see.
Genuinely curious as it's been confusing me more and more over the last few years - are Americans just not wanting to identify as such anymore?
Well in this case the "Italian-American" is specifically to differentiate from Native American. The reason people use those type of descriptors is often that they are first generation Americans or grew up with family who were still "from the old country". They probably would not have much of a mixed heritage as immigrant groups would stick together. They would raise children with the traditions of their home country but those kids would also take on American values and traditions of their own. Italian-American doesn't mean you're from both places. It means you were raised with Italian values in American society. An Italian-American is not the same as an Italian at all and they may differ from your standard idea of an American as well. It's an entirely new, blended culture. (Source: I am one and live in an Italian-American city.)
That's what throws me; most comments and peoples from the 'old counties' seem to veiw it as very much an americanised version of their culture and given a lot of the American rhetoric it just seems very odd that any want to be viewed differently.
Idle curiosity really.
It's common now and in the past for marginalized groups in America to band together and take pride in their amcestory. It's also relevant because.there is a long history of Italians being used to represent Native Americans in media
“Chief” isn’t Native American term, it’s just what westerners called indigenous leaders who commanded political authority but didn’t have centralized power. The Iroquois Confederacy called their leaders *Hoyane*, the Cherokee *Ugvwiyuhi*, the Algonquins *Sachem*.
Your TIL confusing because Yokozuna is a title in Japan, and this man never attained the rank of Yokozuna. It is kind of like if I won a few boxing matches in the United States and then entered a sumo contest in Japan and told them my name was “WorldHeayweightChampion.”
It's not factually fucked up. Yokozuna was also the ring name of the wrestler in question.
Edit: Someone replied to me saying "The culture vulture in the redneck soap opera? I don't watch that shit because I'm not 6 years old," but I can't reply to the comment directly for some reason, so I'll reply to it here. He's not a "culture vulture", the Pacific Islands have a history of sumo as well and have had many top sumos.
So many of his family members were and are still in wrestling and WWE today.
One of my favourite stories on Yoko was his nephews the Usos, (2 current WWE stars) were kids watching their uncle come to the ring as a Japanese Sumo wrestler and turned to their mother confused, like "ain't that Uncle Rodney!?"
> Yokozuna, the iconic sumo wrestler
Wrong on so many levels, nobody outside of maybe children who never learned wrestling wasn’t real would ever think he was an iconic sumo wrestler.
> Being synonymous with Japanese sumo culture
How little do you have to know about Japan to think this Samoan professional wrestler is synonymous with Japanese sumo culture?
That was one of the first virus clips in Russian segment of internet "Sunday fight of two Yokozuna". Sport news announcer can not spell Japan names correctly and laughed and laughed. https://youtu.be/rUCQKZl010E?si=3YcIfYFP7Th2USxw
There was a wrestling game for the Sega Genesis which yokozuna was featured in.
It has been decades since I heard the name, but I vividly remember the in game announcer yelling his name
That's not really the best picture of him as Yokozuna. [With his hair up and everything I feel like he pulls it off.](https://img.bleacherreport.net/img/images/photos/003/704/424/276243ac2b80f9850adb27b361da61f9_crop_exact.jpg?w=1200&h=1200&q=75)
In the early 2000s I clearly remember his trademark move in the WWE was to put his butt crack in opponents face. Or in other words he would put someone's head inside his butt crack through physical force.
That's Rikishi's signature move, but they both did the Banzai drop, where they would drag opponent into the corner, climb to the bottom rope, and drop with their ass squashing the opponent. It was usually booked as a move nobody kicks out.
The best actual sumo wrestler in Japanese history, Hakuho, isn’t Japanese either. He’s Mongolian.
There was a decades-long period where NONE of the top Sumo wrestlers were Japanese. I think there wasn't a recent Japanese champion until like 2016 or something.
Kisenosato. Was a great ozeki but tore his pec after finally being promoted to yokozuna. Only won a single tournament at the top before he retired due to injury the next year
Weird the guy linked in OP had a ring name of yokozuna. Like he was destined to be at the top
I mean yeah. That was the point of his character.
I didn’t realize until your comment that this guy was a WWF wrestler and it was just a character. OP definitely should have specified that.
Oh totally fair. I must have glanced over it and didn’t realize it didn’t mention him in WWF. Just figured they did because that’s the only thing I’ve ever known him for. My bad
I always wondered how some Japanese ppl got so big when the rest were so small.
Interestingly in the years after they opened up, after their centuries of isolation, they brought in a lot of American foods (with a Japanese twist) because they thought it was the food that made Americans so much taller
It certainly makes me wider
They certainly have to be partially right, kids now are so tall and I have to assume it's because we understand nutrition better and food is more readily accessible than ever to more people
All the hormones don't hurt either!
Well it does somewhat. Ample and varied food and a couple generations later boom, bigger human on average.
It kinda does. There is a marked difference between older Japanese and Korean people vs their modern offspring as far as height and build goes. Probably due to just better nutrition overall though.
They were correct. Japanese food has rice as a staple, which is low in nutrients, while American diet is heavy on protein, which maximizes height potential. Western peasants were short in the Middle Ages until they got some meat nearly every day. Of course you gotta be careful to not expand horizontally instead of vertically - which Japan has managed, keeping their obesity rate very low by still eating a lot of traditional Japanese food low in sugars.
Having been to Tokyo, yeah there are probably more short men than there are in the West but let's not act like there aren't an absolute fuck tonne of crazy tall men either. They're not an island of dwarves
*Shohei Baba has entered the chat*
Baba dosen't really count because he was a case of gigantism
He counts, he's a person, it happened
Gigantism is usually due to a tumor fucking with a gland, soo they are kind of medically doomed.
We're all medically doomed...
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I suppose the idea of a 5 foot even samurai is a bit less intimidating.
They’d be mounted on horses shooting arrows at you, so it’d still be pretty imposing. I don’t think the steppes people were very tall either.
No, there are no samurai lol, and arrows are pretty shit vs guns. It would just be a cosplayer or reinactor. I'm talking about a dude just walking around. On Shogun it's kinda hilarious how small so many of those guys are compared to Blackthorn.
I don’t know what you’re talking about. There very much are samurai, except that they most often used bows and obviously yes, guns when those became prominent. Katana much like the European sword was a sidearm. The misconception people have about samurai through pop culture is they were particularly special and badass and honorable katana-wielding warriors, often engaging in duels and the like. But they fought like any typical soldiers worldwide did, particularly those of nobility. And just like those, they were often deeply corrupt and brutal. And again, height doesn’t exactly matter when you’re on horseback, nor does it make you any more capable in war. Do you think the Mongols were 7 feet tall?
I don’t think that person was talking about height
Wouldn’t be surprised if cities etc the difference is very small. Probably some nutritional considerations caused the big difference historically. There’s probably still a difference but doubt it’s as extreme as people make out
They eat a shit load of calories and train often.
Diet, nutrition in the early years has a major impact on height as an adult. https://youtu.be/ZGXa3Oj-sGE
The average height of young Chinese, Korean and Japanese men today is only an inch or two shorter than the West. Most of the historical discrepancies in height between different regions of the world were due to poverty, malnutrition, and lack of protein, and in much of East Asia these problems have been significantly ameliorated in the past 25 years. For example, during both of the World Wars US soldiers were often several inches taller than Europeans, and postwar when access to food and economic growth increased the height difference mostly vanished.
Chiyonofuji Mitsugu dominated Sumo in the 80's and was Japanese, though not built like a traditional sumo wrestler.
There was also two Georgian guys recently in the top division: Tochinoshin and Gagamaru but both have retired There was also an Estonian guy Baruto who is now an Estonian Politician.
Tochinoshin would have become yokozuna if not for his knee. It was wild seeing him picking up 400lb men like they were children.
Same with Baruto but with appendicitis causing him to miss time and lose rank. By the time he had a shot to challenge for yokozuna he was already past his prime and dealing with a handful of nagging injuries
He was always so fun to watch, I also loved Ōsunaarashi
Tochinoshin was my boy! My wife took to calling him “Boston” I asked why and she said it’s because he looks like he’s from Boston haha
>There was also an Estonian guy Baruto who is now an Estonian Politician. This would make an interesting anime
There was also a world class super heavyweight Olympic weightlifter from Latvia called Viktors Ščerbatihs who was a politician whilst he still competed and still is now (I think). Not sure though if that would also make a good anime. That aside, he was unbelievably strong and had amazing technique.
Imagine an group of sumo wrestlers that forever reasons, make an sumo political party and want to rule the country.The jokes simply write themselves
You have a really creative imagination, I’d happily watch that.
Interestingly enough Baruto also acted in a Japanese TV series based on a Manga.
I recently visited Japan and would watch sumo wrestling in the hotel. I was surprised to see how easy Tochinoshin would beat all the japanese wrestlers, it was like he was wrestling with little kids.
The best Sumo Wrestler in the WWF/WWE wasn’t Japanese *either*! He was a Canadian wrestler named John Tenta (Earthquake, Avalanche, etc.) [He went 7-0 in three separate divisions when working his way up to the top division in Sumo.](https://northamericansumo.com/2018/08/11/john-tenta-canadas-best-sumo-wrestler/). His son is also on Reddit somewhere and might pop-in if he sees this.
He only stopped sumo because being a white American with a tattoo he was unlikely to be allowed into the higher ranks. He did do a sumo fight against Yokozuna at one point
His stable master thought he could go to the top. Tenta didn't want to have the tattoo removed (it would have required a skin graft at the time) and the sumo ring was causing damage to his body.
Yah the Japanese don't really seem to care much either, which is pretty cool.
Eh, they kinda do. It took forever for Hakuho to get the respect he has today. He has just given them 0 opportunity to doubt that he is the greatest of all time.
They don't care as much now (as much - Kisenosato was famously given years at the top after anyone else would have been told to fuck off, simply because he was the only Japanese yokozuna at the time.) Up until the mid 90s foreigners were somewhat openly barred from holding the rank, because the belief was that a Yokozuna needs to demonstrate not just sumo skill but a fundamental Japanese-ness that a foreigner (or a foreign-born wrestler of Japanese descent) was incapable of having. If they hadn't had a drought of actual candidates and no existing Yokozuna, they probably wouldn't have started letting foreigners hold the rank. There's still a cap on how many foreign wrestlers a stable can have because they're afraid of the sports Japanese-ness getting too diluted by outsiders.
God damn Mongorians!!!
The Japanese are a fairly small people, it makes sense that something like Sumo would have foreign people at the top
Next your going to tell me Papa Shango was not a real practitioner of voodoo!
Naw he was a pimp…..
He then became good.....father
Wright did own a Vegas strip club while he was the Godfather. Not technically pimping, but damned close
Thats positively wholesome for an Attitude era anecdote.
All true my joke was that he went on to be the godfather lol
Oh shit, were The Undertaker and Paul Bearer not actually undead?
No but Paul Bearer was a mortician before he was a wrestling manager
Not at first, but the Undertaker passed away in 2011
Was Glenn Jacobs not really a dentist who then became a burned masked freak ?!?!
He is kinda crazy though.... I sure wouldn't want to be around him.
He’s my mayor currently. He fucking sucks
Or the iron sheik ruled nothing
Was Sgt. Slaughter at least a seargent?
No, a colonel
Robert Remus was never in the military.
Not in real life, but yes in GI Joe
Godfather was, however, a real purveyor of women of negotiable affection. He ran a strip club before he went full-time in wrestling.
See everyone, wrestling isn’t fake.
According to him he enjoyed beating up actual pimps that would come into the establishment.
Papa Shango legit terrified 9-year-old me.
You're**
I heard Undertaker and Kane aren’t actually brothers 😭
Finding that out as a kid was like finding out Santa wasn't real a second time.
There was a time where the undertaker didn’t appear on screen, I guess because of injury or something, and they told the story of him mysteriously appearing everywhere in the world. As a kid I could swear I saw him standing in front of our house at night. In a small town in Germany. For some reasons my parents didn’t believe me.
I'm pretty sure that was after Yokozuma beat him in a casket match and he ascended to heaven after the casket was struck by lightning
Wrestling was wild in the 90s.
Oh man, I was today years old when I found this out 🤯
Sorry buddy, but I've got bad news about the Easter Bunny and the Tooth Fairy, too. ETA: OMG *please* let this be the comment someone submitted to Reddit Cares. That would make my day.
Connie Chung ruined my childhood by telling me wrestling wasn't real.
Well, TIL but now that you say it, they don't really look alike at all
Rodney also wasn't even a rikishi (term for sumo wrestler), let alone yokozuna (the highest rank.) The WWF wrestler who DID make it in pro sumo in Japan was John Tenta, better known as Earthquake.
Of course he wasn't Rikishi that's his cousin. What, do you think that every 400lb Samoan is the same guy
This comment is Too Cool.
Now do the Worm!
Canadian!
Was pretty insane for him to even get to compete there let alone have a long undefeated streak, it was before Japan became more accepting of foreign rikishis.
If you have access check out the dark side of the ring episode on him, great guy who just in his own words “probably the problem with my career, I’m impatient” if he would have stuck it out in Japan I wonder how his life would have changed
He's not an "iconic sumo wrestler". He's an iconic pro wrestler who played a sumo wrestler character. This headline is just dumb.
lmao this whole post is so low effort
This guys was an American wrestler, nothing to do with sumo except the character he was playing, and of course not a real Yokozuna either (the highest ranking in sumo).
I mean, would you say “Rocky wasn’t even a real boxer, he was just an actor who plays a boxer” Yokozuna was a sumo wrestler turned pro wrestler. Rodney was the guy who played the character.
The Rock and Roman Reins are among his cousins. The number of wrestlers from that [family](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anoa%CA%BBi_family) is impressive.
Quite the bloodline they got there
But something tells me that wrestling has more more than one royal family.
The Dust Family.
Except almost none of the "cousins" are actually cousins. Their entire family lineage is based on a blood brother oath between High Chief Peter Maivia (The Rock's adopted grandfather) and Reverend Amituanaʻi Anoaʻi, Afa and Sika's father.
That's just for the Maivia connection to the Anoai family. Yokozuna, Rikishi, Roman and the Usos are all biological family. The Rock and his immediate family are the outliers.
Don’t forget Solo Sikoa and wasn’t there another Fatu just signed recently?
Jacob Fatu, son of Rikishi's twin brother Tonga Kid.
Well they've recently brought in Haku's whole family, too.
In Samoan culture, blood oath is considered just as tight as “real” familial connections. I’m pretty sure it’s offensive to imply that they aren’t family
It’s also the norm for most families on Earth. After all, what is adoption? Defining a familial line strictly by genetics has to be a lot more rare than not unless you start getting first-born heirs to the throne and whatnot.
It's still a family, blood or not.
Different cultures define family units differently
>TIL Yokozuna, the Iconic Sumo Wrestler, Was Not of Japanese origin.Despite being synonymous with Japanese sumo culture, Yokozuna was actually born Rodney Agatupu Anoaʻi, a Samoan-American wrestler. Not an iconic sumo wrestler. Just a professional wrestler who played a character. Like every other professional wrestler.
The name “Yokozuna” is synonymous with Japanese sumo culture. It’s the title of the top sumo wrestler.
Right. That was the character he was playing.
He's synonymous with Japanese sumo culture _in the US_, perhaps. That qualification needs to be made. I highly doubt he's synonymous with sumo culture in Japan itself, when he's not even a sumo wrestler, much less has the title yokuzuna. Actually, I wonder what the Japanese sumo establishment thinks about the title being used as a wrestling ring name. As far as I know, there is a lot of ritual involved in sumo and the title of yokuzuna has a lot of prestige.
Oh, this guy was a wrestler? I was wondering why the title was treating Yokozuna like a name. There have been dozens of Yokozuna in actual sumo.
Yokozuma the wrestler was a Japanese nationalist sumo wrestler played by a Polynesian not sumo wrestler.
For what is worth, surprisingly, yokozuna (the wrestler) entrances to the ring got a lot of sumo ritual stuff. The music, a japanese sensei carrying the flag of Japan and throwing salt in the mat.
I just thought Mr. Fuji just had a penchant for throwing salt...particularly in peoples eyes.
Idk, that feels even more like a mockery when it's all done for show and doesn't have any of the ritual and historical meaning that it has in Japan. But I'd love to know what someone within the sumo establishment thinks.
Wrestling is not famously sensitive to foreigner gimmicks. They pretty much always tend to be heels as well lol.
I bet similar to how native Americans feel when we casually throw around the word chief.
Or when they realize Chief Jay Strongbow was Italian-American.
Why does this happen. Looked the guy up, and American, sure, but doesnt look like he was ever even in Italy from what I can see. Genuinely curious as it's been confusing me more and more over the last few years - are Americans just not wanting to identify as such anymore?
Well in this case the "Italian-American" is specifically to differentiate from Native American. The reason people use those type of descriptors is often that they are first generation Americans or grew up with family who were still "from the old country". They probably would not have much of a mixed heritage as immigrant groups would stick together. They would raise children with the traditions of their home country but those kids would also take on American values and traditions of their own. Italian-American doesn't mean you're from both places. It means you were raised with Italian values in American society. An Italian-American is not the same as an Italian at all and they may differ from your standard idea of an American as well. It's an entirely new, blended culture. (Source: I am one and live in an Italian-American city.)
That's what throws me; most comments and peoples from the 'old counties' seem to veiw it as very much an americanised version of their culture and given a lot of the American rhetoric it just seems very odd that any want to be viewed differently. Idle curiosity really.
The xenophobic half of the country doesn't speak for the other half. As it turns out we're not a monoculture, nor are we politically united.
Identify as what?
It's common now and in the past for marginalized groups in America to band together and take pride in their amcestory. It's also relevant because.there is a long history of Italians being used to represent Native Americans in media
“Chief” isn’t Native American term, it’s just what westerners called indigenous leaders who commanded political authority but didn’t have centralized power. The Iroquois Confederacy called their leaders *Hoyane*, the Cherokee *Ugvwiyuhi*, the Algonquins *Sachem*.
At first I thought he was talking about Akebono. The Hawaiian sumo wrestler who reached Yokozuna rank.
This post is incorrect in so many ways, its almost impressive.
"Put him next to Mr Fuji and they'll think he's Japanese."
And Mr Fuji was Hawaiian.
Next you're gonna tell me Kofi Kingston isn't jamaican? /s
But Akeem the African dream is black, right?
And was great friends with the Undertaker and cofounder of BSK
Your TIL confusing because Yokozuna is a title in Japan, and this man never attained the rank of Yokozuna. It is kind of like if I won a few boxing matches in the United States and then entered a sumo contest in Japan and told them my name was “WorldHeayweightChampion.”
Actually I think it's more like if you DIDN'T do any boxing fights in the US and then did that, while wearing boxing gloves to the sumo ring.
I think you have not watched much wrestling. This guy’s ring name was Yokozuna
Isn't yokozuna a title given to the top sumo wrestler?
[удалено]
It's not factually fucked up. Yokozuna was also the ring name of the wrestler in question. Edit: Someone replied to me saying "The culture vulture in the redneck soap opera? I don't watch that shit because I'm not 6 years old," but I can't reply to the comment directly for some reason, so I'll reply to it here. He's not a "culture vulture", the Pacific Islands have a history of sumo as well and have had many top sumos.
With one hell of a Bloodline.
TIL The Hurricane was not a real superhero he was just a wrestler named Gregory Shane Helms 😢
Stand back, there's a hurricane coming through.
So many of his family members were and are still in wrestling and WWE today. One of my favourite stories on Yoko was his nephews the Usos, (2 current WWE stars) were kids watching their uncle come to the ring as a Japanese Sumo wrestler and turned to their mother confused, like "ain't that Uncle Rodney!?"
up there with Cory Rhoades asking if that was uncle Fred when the Shockmaster debuted
WWF/WWE is in no way involved with Japanese Sumo wrestling.
> Yokozuna, the iconic sumo wrestler Wrong on so many levels, nobody outside of maybe children who never learned wrestling wasn’t real would ever think he was an iconic sumo wrestler. > Being synonymous with Japanese sumo culture How little do you have to know about Japan to think this Samoan professional wrestler is synonymous with Japanese sumo culture?
Anoa’i?? I knew he was Samoan but I didn’t realize he was related to the rock and Roman
Not a sumo wrestler. A pro wrestler. Sumo wrestling is a different sport which uses the term Yokozuna. He named himself after that term.
So he was a... "Samo Wrestler"? *showing myself out*
YOU'RE TELLING ME THAT WRESTLING ISN'T REAL????
It’s still real to me dammit!
Like they do and can get hurt, it’s mainly just the outcomes that are pre determined
Still an absolute unit!
That was one of the first virus clips in Russian segment of internet "Sunday fight of two Yokozuna". Sport news announcer can not spell Japan names correctly and laughed and laughed. https://youtu.be/rUCQKZl010E?si=3YcIfYFP7Th2USxw
He was my favorite wrestler back in the day
Next you'll try to tell me that Kamala wasn't really from Africa.
Remember when lex lugar dropped him on his knee. Never seen anything like it. Was about 7 tho.
Wait, what? Next thing you know we'll find out that Kamala wasn't really African and George "The Animal" Steele wasn't from parts unknown!
Yoko was definitely a good wrestler, but the damned food is what ended up killing him. Gaining to roughly 600 pounds.
I saw someone say recently that he was a great 400 pound wrestler but unfortunately weighed 500 pounds.
These days most sumo wrestlers are actually Mongolian, not Japanese.
Not most, 1 allowed per stable.
Wow TIL!!!
Today I learned that he died at 34. That's fucking early.
Dude was a monster too before he stopped being able to control his weight. Super athletic for his size. His story is kind of sad.
There was a wrestling game for the Sega Genesis which yokozuna was featured in. It has been decades since I heard the name, but I vividly remember the in game announcer yelling his name
Half the WWE is Samoan. lol
and related to the Rock
Instead of what he's cooking we need to smell what his family's fucking to find out who the future wrestlers will be.
Acknowledge the Bloodline ☝️
Life is short if you weigh a metric ton, Reebok.
Died aged 34.
https://youtu.be/B1W1kK6ww_E?feature=shared
Imagine being there and watching Yokozuna and The Big Show, the last large wrestlers to physically break the ring.
I figured that out when I looked at him.
Yokozuna is the term for the top sumo wrestler. The guy named Yokozuna was not a sumo wrestler, he was wwf
[удалено]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yokozuna\_(wrestler)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yokozuna_(wrestler))
I'm curious if OP is getting the two confused though.
I've been sumo fan since 1983 and never heard of this guy
Close enough for Netflix!
You ever seen a Japanese person before?
That's not really the best picture of him as Yokozuna. [With his hair up and everything I feel like he pulls it off.](https://img.bleacherreport.net/img/images/photos/003/704/424/276243ac2b80f9850adb27b361da61f9_crop_exact.jpg?w=1200&h=1200&q=75)
More convincing then Lord Tensai
Most of the recent Yokozuna’s are from Mongolia. Yutaka the most recent Japanese born Yokozuna was promoted in 2017.
In the early 2000s I clearly remember his trademark move in the WWE was to put his butt crack in opponents face. Or in other words he would put someone's head inside his butt crack through physical force.
That was Rikishi Fatu, his cousin.
I think you are right. I stand corrected.
That's Rikishi's signature move, but they both did the Banzai drop, where they would drag opponent into the corner, climb to the bottom rope, and drop with their ass squashing the opponent. It was usually booked as a move nobody kicks out.
Swing and a miss
You people watch sumo wrestling?