Daily DDT
Fansided

Does Racism Exist in Vince McMahon’s WWE?

By Sherron Watson

facebooktwitterreddit

Do African-American Wrestlers get a raw deal in WWE?

More from WWE

I’ve been a fan of World Wrestling Entertainment my entire life. The best memories I hold dear to me as a wrestling fan was the amount of great talent I saw in the Attitude Era. My only wish was the WWE would’ve develop African-American superstars on a main event level. The biggest thing that stands out to me is during the entire history of the WWE there’s never been an African-American to hold the WWE Championship. If you take a look at their WWE Championship history there have been 119 champions but none of them were African-American. This is important to me not only as a writer, but also as a die-hard fan of World Wrestling Entertainment. There are plenty of African-Americans that love the sport of wrestling, and the biggest gripe I’ve heard is that there’s just not that many of “US” on the main event level.

WWE.com

In 2003, during the road to WrestleMania 19, World Heavyweight Champion Triple H cut a promo during Monday Night Raw in the middle of the ring in front of Booker T and WWE Hall Of Famer Ric Flair. Booker T was told by “The Game” that “Somebody like you doesn’t get to be a World Champion in the WWE,” “You’re a Common Street Thug,” and “I laughed my ass off thinking of the thought of you challenging me at WrestleMania.”  I remember sitting on my couch saying “WOW, how could he say such a thing. Booker T, along with long-time WWE superstar Mark Henry have given everything to World Wrestling Entertainment and both have never held the richest prize in the game. To be honest, in my era of wrestling I’ve only seen African-American wrestlers in WWE be portrayed either as a performer based on a racial stereotype, a wrestler that doesn’t really have a character, or mostly as a competitor that is largely absent from TV or has never played a major role in WWE storylines.

Over the years we’ve seen the “Hustle, Loyalty and Respect” from an icon like John Cena. We’ve even seen the “Never Say Die” attitude from Daniel Bryan. However, when it comes to African-American Superstars I’ve seen the stereotyped tag teams of “Cryme Time,” and the Church/Hip-Hop version of Kurt Franklin and The Family in “The New Day.” Let’s go back to “Cryme Time” for a second, without question the most racist wrestling gimmick I’ve ever seen. JTG along with his partner Shad competed night in and night out as a tag team wearing bagging jeans, boots, and platinum grillz in their mouths. To make matters worse, one of their catchphrases was “Yo Yo Yo, Pop a 40 and Check Ya Rollies.”

WWE.com

Kofi Kingston, Big E, and Xavier Woods formed the trio of “The New Day.” The church gimmick fits Woods, but Big E and Kingston were once at one point on the verge of main event super-stardom. Kingston has not only been an Intercontinental Champion but also had a great feud with Randy Orton. Big E was the Intercontinental Champion only a year ago. He defeated the likes of Daniel Bryan and Dean Ambrose. The former NXT Champion also had a great program with CM Punk and John Cena versus The Shield.

WWE has made an effort of changing their public image over the years. They have went from bra and panties matches to the ever lasting parental guidance era that we are still seeing today, I just hope the day will come that the WWE will feature African-Americans wrestlers in the same main event light as the John Cena’s and Daniel Bryan’s of the world.

Now I want to hear from you. Do you believe the WWE has done a poor job developing African-American wrestlers?

More from Daily DDT

Home/WWE