WWE Hall of Fame 2016: Who is The Godfather?

Looking at one of the most colourful characters in WWE history, The Godfather.

“It’s time once again to come aboard the HO TRAIN!!” A catch phrase that could only have been uttered by one man, The Godfather. At the time of the Attitude Era in the WWF, Charles Wright made the Pimp Daddy one of the hottest acts in the world of wrestling. The Attitude Era was known for some of it’s more risqué angles and characters, but The Godfather has to be up there as one of the men who flew closest to the line of taste and decency. Not many other guys would try to offer women to his opponents prior to a match, to cut out the need for any kind of physicality, but The Godfather did that every time.

Back in the early 90’s, a young wrestler by the name of Charles Wright had landed in the WWF at the behest of his friend The Undertaker. It was a time of crazy gimmicks and Wright ended up with one of the craziest, Papa Shango, the Voodoo Witch Doctor man if the WWF. The highlight of Papa Shango’s WWF run had to be his debut during a run in at the end of the main event of WrestleMania VIII. He was meant to cause the DQ in the match between Hulk Hogan and Sid Justice, but was late to the ring and it kind of went wrong for him. After that he was not much more than a comedy act, fans and wrestling journalists alike trashed the gimmick and he was gone less than a year later.

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He would be gone from the company for a few years, then would re-debut in early 1995 as Kama “The Supreme Fighting Machine” in a UFC inspired gimmick. Again that gimmick took Wright nowhere and after sporadic appearances he left the company again a year later. He would come back again in 1997 as Kama Mustafa, as part of the Nation of Domination. Fighting alongside Farooq, Rocky Maivia, Mark Henry, D’Lo Brown and Owen Hart, Kama began to be called “The Godfather of the Nation”. During a tag match, alongside Henry, against the L.O.D. 2000 team of Hawk and Animal, Godfather brought his hoes to the ring with him for the first time. The Godfather’s Hoes would become a staple of late 90’s WWF programming, and would usually consist of the ladies who worked at local strip clubs to each arena that WWF tv would be taped in.

With the disbanding of the Nation, in Autumn 1998, The Godfather became a full time pimp, complete with fur coats, lots of bling and hoes aplenty. His in ring style was that of a powerful, but at times technical, wrestler. Because of his character he became one of the most over superstars in the company during 1998/99. Fans would chant along with him during his pre match routine and the hoes would enter the ring alongside their man before and after his matches. The crowd lapped it all up, that was exactly the kind of thing that the predominantly 18-35 male demographic wanted to see.

You could say that whilst he was not the most exceptional talent in the ring, he was a dependable hand and was regularly in above average matches. He formed a tag team with Val Venis, loosely titled “Supply and Demand”, Venis was the pornstar character to Godfather’s Pimp. Due to Godfather’s popularity he was booked to win the Intercontinental Championship from Goldust in April 1999. He was set to defend (and probably lose) the belt against Owen Hart at Over the Edge, Hart tragically died during his ring entrance. He lost the belt to Hart’s tag team partner Jeff Jarrett a week later. Godfather would pick up arguably the biggest win of his career in March 2000, beating Triple H after interference from Shane McMahon and The Big Show.

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The Godfather character would be just one of the reasons that the WWF drew the ire of the Parents Television Council in the year 2000. WWF had started to air SmackDown on UPN, the PTC claimed that a company which had a pimp character involved was not fit to grace prime time television. Due to those views the WWF began to create the “Right to Censor” group, lead by Stevie Richards. The Godfather was forced to face his former tag team partner Bull Buchanan (Richards’ first RTC member), if Godfather lost he would have to join the group. Inevitably he lost the match and became the Goodfather not long after the loss. Totally changing his ring tire, from pimp clothes to shirt and tie, he would form a tag team with Buchanan and become a tag team champion.

In 2002 he would go back to the Godfather, apparently forming a legitimate Escort Agency. He would only be around for a few months before being released from his contract in Dec. of that year. He would make sporadic appearances for the WWE, most notably at the 2013 Royal Rumble to a massive response from the live crowd. On the Feb. 22nd, 2016, episode of Raw it was announced that The Godfather would be inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame.

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His colourful outfits, his party atmosphere and his willingness to enjoy everything whilst out in the arena made him one of the classic characters of his era. At a time when the WWF was pushing the envelope to the maximum, Godfather was at the forefront, the Conductor of the Hoe Train rightfully goes into the WWE Hall of Fame in the Class of 2016.

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