There are all the time legitimate causes to be vital of WWE. We’ve seen how the legendary Mick Foley has distanced himself from them within the wake of President Donald Trump’s abhorrent commentary within the wake of the homicide of director Rob Reiner. It simply so occurs that throughout the weekend previous that horrendous information, I watched a few of Saturday Night’s Main Event. It featured the ultimate match in John Cena’s pro-wrestling profession. His imaginative and prescient for the evening was to spotlight superstars from WWE’s farm system, NXT. So, in that spirit, NXT superstars earned the fitting to face WWE primary roster superstars. This arrange a match between NXT Champion Oba Femi and WWE Champion Cody Rhodes.
A brilliant future forward
Femi, whose actual identify is Isaac Ogdubesan, is Nigerian and portrays himself as a Nigerian “Ruler” within the WWE universe. As he made his entrance throughout Saturday’s present, I spotted two issues. One, he seems like he completely belongs on WWE’s primary exhibits. He’s a star from his stature to his presence. He instructions our consideration earlier than he even says a phrase. Secondly, it’s refreshing to see a personality on WWE TV painting an African ethnicity and be taken critically. It led me to consider how far we’ve come by means of these portrayals we see within the current day.
Today, now we have Femi, now we have Kofi Kingston, who actually received to spotlight his Ghanaian heritage whereas he was WWE champion, and even Apollo Crews. Crews briefly portrayed a personality as a homage to his Nigerian heritage. He took on the function of a Nigerian Prince who not solely received the WWE Intercontinental Championship but in addition received a match at WrestleMania 37 in opposition to “Big E.” Saturday evening, I assumed to myself, “Damn, this actually beats the examples of African characters that I noticed rising up.”
You see, as a Black child from Brooklyn, the Black wrestlers of my time have been like Koko B. Ware. He was a high-flying, very charismatic and entertaining wrestler. But he wasn’t one who was put in additional severe roles. There was Virgil, who was as soon as a supervisor for and lackey for the “Million Dollar Man” Ted DiBiase. But Virgil didn’t have the abilities for the corporate to spend money on as a top-tier expertise. During the early Nineties, there have been two wrestlers who portrayed African characters, however they have been exaggerated, cartoonish variations of what I suppose white America seen Africans to be.
Tony Atlas’ cautionary story
There’s Tony Atlas, who within the Eighties turned one-half of the WWE Tag Team Champions with the daddy of The Rock, Rocky Johnson. By the early Nineties, within the extra cartoonish panorama of pro-wrestling characters, Atlas was saddled with the character Saba Simba. He was a babyface (good man) Ugandan Warrior who would enter the ring and carry out this mockery of a tribal dance as a part of his entrance. To a largely white viewers on the time, it was a reasonably repulsive presentation.
Atlas, merely dubbed Mr. USA within the Eighties, was a personality with some promise. Hell, he squared off with Hulk Hogan throughout that interval. Personal points with him derailed his trajectory. But that doesn’t absolve the inventive workforce from having him assume the function of Saba Simba come the Nineties.
Not fairly the second in command
On the opposite finish of this spectrum, you may have Kamala “The Ugandan Giant.” I do know that you simply’re sensing a sample right here. Kamala, whose identify isn’t pronounced as our former Vice President, was a heel (dangerous man) throughout the time that I watched him. However, within the Eighties, he was portrayed as a way more vicious character. Regardless, within the early Nineties, he was a personality who didn’t converse any language, made bizarre noises, and slapped his stomach in some form of ritualistic approach. It was such a caricaturized view of what an African pro-wrestler could possibly be.
When you have a look at this juxtaposition, there are actually tons of latest the reason why the characters of yesteryear couldn’t fly in as we speak’s panorama. One of the largest causes is that society simply received’t permit it, and with good cause. I’ll all the time proceed to champion nuanced optics of Black folks in pro-wrestling. We can go searching the entire trade and see the reason why we will’t flip again. Look no additional than Queen Aminata or Bishop Kaun as examples. The period of portraying African expertise as mere afterthoughts is over. And even in an imperfect firm just like the WWE, they’re getting it proper.
About The Author
