"It's good for business" - WWE legend Rikishi on training Bow Wow to wrestle
WWE Hall of Famer Rikishi has discussed training rap artist Bow Wow to become a professional wrestler after the American star revealed he plans on joining WWE.
On the latest episode of Insight with Chris Van Vliet, Rikishi explained that while he is yet to begin training Bow Wow to wrestle, he believes the star entering WWE will be "good for business" if he can bring a new wave of fans into the world of sports entertainment.
"I'm very excited to be able to be the guy to be able to give him this knowledge and help train him. For me, it's good for business. If Bow Wow can come into our industry and put a**es in seats at WrestleMania, then why not? And everybody should motivate him or help him because him coming in, or anybody coming in from hip hop or the movie industry into our industry, obviously they're green and they need to be smartened up. So there is no time for jealousy or those who just hate on the poor guy who is just trying to come in to live his dream." - Insight
Rikishi says he will train Bow Wow the same as all his other students
While Bow Wow might already have a huge following, being of a certain celebrity status, Rikishi says this will not affect the way he trains the young star.
"I'm going to train him like I train all my students. We know his celebrity status, but in order for him to really understand the industry correctly, we got to put that all aside. He's got to understand what it is when he gets in the ring how to protect himself, how to be a storyteller and all that theatrical movement. Not really getting in there and punching each other in the face and so forth. I like to say when students come in, I like to find the students and the students have to find me, meaning I want to see what kind of athletic ability he has. Is he easy to train? Does he listen well? Those types of things. Does he have an attitude? Is he coachable? Stuff like that."
Rikishi was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2015. He currently runs his wrestling school in California, where Bow Wow will reportedly begin training soon.