text: In May 2000, fan favorites Rikishi and Too Cool feuded with Edge, Christian and Kurt Angle, culminating in a victory at Judgment Day. After winning the Intercontinental Championship from Chris Benoit on the June 22 episode of SmackDown!, Rikishi qualified for the 2000 King of the Ring tournament. On June 25, at King of the Ring, he defeated Benoit in the quarterfinals and Val Venis in the semis. Both opponents hit him with a steel chair after losing, weakening his shoulder and helping Kurt Angle defeat him in the final. Stemming from Venis' attack, Rikishi faced him on July 6 and lost the title after Tazz hit him with a television camera. They rematched in a steel cage at Fully Loaded. In this match, Rikishi climbed the cage and, in an allusion to Jimmy Snuka, splashed Venis from the top. Rikishi soon lost the match after Tazz again hit him with a camera.
  Heel turn and main event status (2000–2001)
  On the October 9 episode of Raw, Commissioner Mick Foley used a slip of the tongue from Scotty 2 Hotty to implicate Rikishi as the person who had run over Stone Cold Steve Austin almost a year earlier at Survivor Series, the night after Rikishi debuted in the WWF. Rikishi admitted it, claiming it was to allow his cousin The Rock an opportunity for stardom, insisting that Buddy Rogers, Bruno Sammartino, Bob Backlund, Hulk Hogan and Austin – "The Great White Hope" – had always been pushed, at the expense of Samoan wrestlers like Peter Maivia, Jimmy Snuka, Samu, Yokozuna and The Rock. Rikishi then turned heel.