WWE Hall of Famer Jim Ross discussed Rikishi taking a wild bump in the Hell in a Cell Match at the Armageddon pay-per-view event in 2000 during a recent edition of Grilling JR.
During the match, The Undertaker choke slammed Rikishi off the top of the cell onto the bed of a truck. Here is what he had to say:
“I wasn’t overwhelmed with the stunt just because of stunts in general. Mick Foley going off the top of the cell in Pittsburgh in 1998 was not something that had been talked about for weeks that you were gonna do it. I had no idea what they were gonna do. It scared the shit out of me. But the bottom line is, you just didn’t envision somebody doing that. You just didn’t. It had such an impact when Foley hit that table. It was spontaneous. This seemed to be more contrived, and that took away some of the effect it had on me as an announcer and wrestling fan. So, I wasn’t crazy about the stunt.
“But I thought the match itself leading to that moment and how the finish went down was really good. I loved the match itself – look, you’ve gotta be very cooperative, you’ve gotta be very professional. There are six of you in there. You’re not all gonna get your shit in, but those guys did a pretty good job getting their shit in. It told a good story, it led to bigger things – WrestleMania 17 was Rock and Austin, and it set a little something up for that. I thought everybody got serviced well in the match, and it showed that Kurt [Angle] would never have to eat at the kid’s table at Thanksgiving. He’s gonna sit at the grown-up table from now on for the rest of his career……I thought Kurt became a made man that day in the sense of pro wrestling terminology. He hunted with the big dogs, he led the pack. He can do anything he wants and continue to make a lot of money, and that’s what he did.”
(H/T and transcribed by 411 Mania)