Few acts from WWE’s Attitude Era remain as instantly recognizable as Too Cool. The oversized clothes, the breakdancing, the worm and the audience participation turned Scotty 2 Hotty, Brian Christopher and later Rikishi into one of the period’s most beloved acts. Yet Scotty 2 Hotty has explained that the team was not the result of a long-term creative plan, and its breakthrough with Rikishi came far faster than fans may remember.
Speaking about his WWE career, Scotty looked back on being paired with the late Brian Christopher, first as Too Much and later as Too Cool. The partnership, he said, began with two wrestlers who had been opponents, played different on-screen roles and were suddenly placed together without much explanation. At a point when Scotty feared his own WWE run might be nearing an end, the pairing gave him an unexpected new direction.
An unexpected WrestleMania 14 pairing
Scotty signed with WWE in February 1997. By the weeks leading into WrestleMania 14 in Boston in March 1998, he had spent a substantial stretch away from television and was unsure whether the company had a place for him. For a wrestler from Maine, the prospect of WrestleMania taking place in nearby Boston made being left off the card especially disappointing.
He recalled sitting at home after having not been used for weeks, if not months, and feeling as though a release could come at any time. Then, on the Wednesday before WrestleMania, he received a call from Vince Russo asking him to travel to Boston that Friday for an outdoor event. That event became the well-remembered DX workout featuring Mike Tyson.
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Scotty wrestled Taka Michinoku at the outdoor show, but the bigger development was his inclusion in the tag team battle royal that opened WrestleMania 14. Brian Christopher was assigned as his partner. It was a sudden combination that did not fit the characters either wrestler had been portraying to that point.
“They just threw Brian and me in that match together, for no rhyme or reason,” Scotty said. “He was a heel, I was a babyface up to that point. We had wrestled each other a bunch of times, and all of a sudden we were just thrown into this match as a tag team. It made no sense whatsoever.”
That seemingly random assignment became the foundation for Too Much. The tandem spent roughly a year under that name before WWE adjusted the presentation. In hindsight, the early pairing illustrates how unpredictable WWE creative could be during that period. A WrestleMania battle royal arrangement made out of immediate necessity eventually led to a team that became a defining crowd-pleaser of the era.
From Too Much to Too Cool
Too Much did not begin with the hip-hop-influenced look and dancing that made the act famous. Scotty said the initial run lasted about a year before Russo approached him and Christopher at Nassau Coliseum with a simple instruction: change the wardrobe and take inspiration from how younger fans were dressing.
The idea was compared to the evolution of The Hardy Boyz, who had shifted from conventional ring attire toward a more casual street-clothes image. Beyond that broad direction, Scotty said there was little detailed guidance. The two men had to determine what the new version of their characters would look like on their own.
“We want you guys to kind of do what the Hardy Boys did, where they went from tights to street clothes, and we want you to dress like the kids are dressing in the malls,” Scotty recalled being told.
The following week, while in Springfield, Massachusetts, Scotty and Christopher went outside the building and located hip-hop clothing stores. They settled on baggy jeans, a practical choice as well as a visual one. The clothing supported the style they were trying to create, while still allowing them to wear knee pads, braces and other necessary gear underneath.
The change was a pivotal one. Too Cool’s identity became rooted in a look that was distinct from the standard trunks-and-boots presentation, but the wardrobe was only one part of the formula. The team’s eventual appeal came from the way the clothing, mannerisms, music and dancing all worked together. It gave WWE audiences a duo that felt different from the more severe rivals and antiheroes surrounding them on the roster.
An ACL injury threatened the relaunch immediately
The official transition from Too Much to Too Cool came with difficult timing. Scotty placed the character change in May 1999. The team filmed a Sunday Night Heat backstage segment on a Tuesday to announce that Too Much was finished and Too Cool had arrived. The segment was scheduled to air the following Sunday.
One day after filming it, the team wrestled D’Lo Brown and Mark Henry at a live event in Portland, Maine. During that match, Christopher suffered a torn ACL. For Scotty, the immediate concern was obvious: the team had just introduced a new concept, but one half of it was facing what he believed would be an absence of at least six months.
Scotty expected WWE might simply decide not to air the filmed material. Instead, the company moved forward with the segment. Too Cool was officially established even though Christopher’s injury put the team’s momentum on hold almost as soon as the new name was introduced.
“We were just starting this new character; we just filmed that thing last night that’s supposed to air this Sunday,” Scotty said. “I thought, sure enough, they’re not going to air it, or there’s no point airing it. Brian’s going to be out for at least six months. They aired it, still played. So now we’re Too Cool.”
There was another complication in the background. Russo, the person Scotty identified as the driving force behind the Too Cool idea, departed for WCW while Christopher was sidelined. Scotty was again left at home, now wondering whether the creative pitch that had led to the team would survive without the person who had initiated it.
WWE did bring the act back later in 1999. Scotty recalled returning to Raw around October, though he was uncertain whether Too Cool attacked Edge and Christian or The Hardy Boyz in its return angle. The team that was not attacked made a run-in, while The Holly cousins also became involved. Those developments built toward Survivor Series 1999, where Too Cool and The Hollys faced Edge and Christian and The Hardy Boyz.
Rikishi turned a promising duo into a phenomenon
The most enduring version of Too Cool was not formed until December 1999, when Rikishi was paired with Scotty and Christopher. The three performers quickly developed a connection that reached beyond a typical alliance. Their post-match dances gave audiences a recurring moment to anticipate, while Scotty’s Worm became one of WWE’s most recognizable crowd-participation spots.
What is striking about the timeline is just how new the trio was when its most famous early moment occurred. Scotty noted that the memorable scene at the Royal Rumble, in which all three danced together, happened only four weeks after Rikishi joined the act.
That short runway did not prevent the presentation from catching fire. The trio felt immediately natural on screen, even though the pairing had barely existed. Rikishi’s presence added an entirely different energy to the group, providing a larger-than-life personality who could dance alongside two established partners without disrupting their chemistry. The act became one of WWE’s most popular babyface attractions during 2000.
Scotty estimated that he and Christopher remained together through all of 2000, with Christopher being released in 2001. The Rikishi Too Cool version, however, had an even shorter lifespan. Rikishi joined in December 1999 and turned against Scotty and Christopher in December 2000, later wrestling Steve Austin at that month’s pay-per-view.
In other words, the complete Rikishi Too Cool run lasted less than a year. Despite that, its influence has far outlasted its actual duration. The group’s dancing segments, crowd reactions and individual catchphrases remain closely associated with WWE’s late-1990s and early-2000s identity.
A lasting legacy born from improvisation
Scotty’s recollection underlines an important part of Too Cool’s story: nearly every major stage involved uncertainty. He entered the original pairing at a time when he worried he could be released. The team’s first WrestleMania appearance happened without a clear character rationale. Their relaunch came from an intentionally broad wardrobe note, then Christopher’s ACL injury struck immediately after the new identity was filmed. Finally, the addition of Rikishi created a legendary act in a remarkably brief period.
Too Cool’s legacy is therefore not simply a story about an Attitude Era novelty act finding the right dance moves. It is also a story about performers adapting when opportunity arrived unexpectedly. Scotty 2 Hotty and Brian Christopher took an unlikely WrestleMania pairing and gave it a personality. Rikishi then helped elevate it into something that audiences still remember decades later.
Darryl Polo
Darryl Polo is a passionate wrestling fan covering WWE, AEW, TNA and beyond. He loves great rivalries, breakout stars and the moments that keep fans talking long after the bell. How we work.