WWE Champ - Bobby Lashley (Black)
Raw Women's - Asuka (Asian)
US Champ - Riddle (White)
Raw Tag Team - Cedric and Shelton (Black)
Universal - Roman Reigns (Samoan)
Smackdown Women's - Sasha Banks (Half Black)
IC - Big E (Black)
Smackdown Tag Team - Ziggler and Roode (White)
If so, well done WWE. I love you.
Even if not intentional, it does represent progress as none of the champs listed could truly be called undeserving. More importantly, I'd even argue that most fans today don't really care about the performer's skin color. What matters to us is whether or not they can work, and are they entertaining.
It's fair to say that WWE has come a long way since the days of Slick, Kamala, Papa Shango and Akeem.
Don't get me wrong, there are still times when the WWE can make fans cringe, even recently with the Apollo Crews "Nigerian Warrior" stuff. But I am more offended by what they've done by ignoring really good workers like Aleister Black, punishing him for his wife's leaving due to them wanting a chunk of her social media income.
He's been getting punished forever it seems lol. I'm talking even in NXT with his mediocre run, then the random call up with him and Ricochet. But his main roster run from day one has been weak. Zelina Vega leaving had zero to do with that. Did you really love his pirate feud with Kevin Owens? Or him waiting for people to knock on a door only for it to be Cesaro? Dope booking.Originally Posted by 3puppies
As far as everything else, I can't agree more. I actually will take it a step further and say that there are a lot of fans that have been fans of minority wrestlers going back to when my parents were kids in the 60's. My dad is white, favorite wrestler is Rufus R Jones of all people lol. It's just that you didn't have a lot of black folks looking at pro wrestling-they're looking at the NFL, NBA, they're even looking at european leagues because there's more money and it's not a niche like pro wrestling.
I think now we do have more diversity because there's more diversity in this country and on this planet. 15-20 years ago you had a handful of non-Japanese wrestlers in New Japan. Now, half the roster is a mixed bag. I mean they still lack in the African descent as I can't think of a single black wrestler in that company or really ever to be signed with NJPW. Seriously, who the fuck has been signed to New Japan that was black? ZERO. Scary right?
IMHO, WWE is the most diverse wrestling company of all time and always has been.
What's wrong with the apollo crews thing? It's the most interesting thing he's done in ages.
iwgp champion bob sapp would like a word
I think people look at it as lazy booking feeding into a stereotype. 3pup is older than me so he's seen even worse lol. I will admit, when I saw it at first I was like....Seriously? But then I thought, Chadwick Boseman was from South Carolina. What's wrong with Apollo Crews portraying a Nigerian prince?
The only thing I don't like is the accent. That's the difference with Black Panther, T'Challa didn't have an American accent his entire life then go all King Booker with it lol. Either way, I dig it because Crews is one of the most non-charismatic people in the company.
I'll be honest I didn't know he was actually signed with them I thought he was like part of some K-1 storyline or something lol.
iwgp champion bob sapp would like a word
As for Apollo Crews, Nash is right, I don't like the accent appearing out of nowhere. All the stories I've heard about how Vince throws his ideas together, I think what I cringe most about is that I fear how bad this can get. I suspect Crews will soon start asking fans to e-mail him their bank account information so he can help funnel countless hidden treasure out of his home country to prevent it from being taken by terrorists regime.
I guess a part of it is that I don't feel confident that Crews - who I think is very talented in the ring, but terribly bland on the mic - is able to work a convincing heel style. So now he has Vince telling him he has to act black.
Of course, a lot of this is probably premature projection on my part, and by today's standards I am a terrible hypocrite for loving WWE despite its racist past and perhaps less-so present. This was just the first recent thing that popped in my mind. I am sure we wouldn't have to look far back to find other examples of WWE not being racially sensitive. Setting aside Tozawa for a moment, I love R-Truth, but his "cousin" Pretty Ricky was not his best stuff. Not everything will turn out gold.
And to give Vince the benefit of the doubt for a moment, just because some of the stuff he's done over the years won't fly by today's standards, doesn't mean he should be condemned as a completely horrible person, nor should he be thought of as a saint.
I will give Vince the benefit of the doubt because he's old and out of touch and has been for decades. Godfather talking about he was able to talk about 420, lighting phatties, all that weed talk went straight over Vince's head. It was getting a pop, selling merch, so Vince kept on with it lol.
There are definitely angles and characters that were racially insensitive but I also think that without knowing fully who and how something came about, we can't crucify him or any company/promoter/booker/talent just yet. I mean look at the Hurt Business. Did they just say "Let's put these 4 black dudes together!" or was it like with New Day where it just so happened 3 black dudes that are friends wanted to do something together?
Crews is legit Nigerian and his parents are both from Nigeria. For all we know the royal heritage thing could be true and if not, it's just a similar gimmick to what Reigns is doing (not coincidentally starting after Crews was seen chatting with Reigns). Also, I watched the promo on YouTube and as far as I could tell, he was only putting on the accent when he was quoting his grandfather, so he was just doing his voice, as far as i could tell. But even if he started doing it all the time, you could say he was previously hiding it to assimilate into American culture.
Good way of putting it.
I’d love if they tied this thing to him tapping into his roots because Reigns advised him.
The only ones I'm not as interested in right now are Asuka and Ziggler & Roode. They've done a great job of getting everyone else the titles and keeping them involved, mostly none of them seemingly out of nowhere. Really didn't expect Riddle to win, but pleased that it led to Bobby beating Miz.
Roman is killing it, Sasha was a good change from Bayley, though if they flipped it back to her by Summerslam I wouldn't mind. Even people without a title are seemingly involved with something decent.
Yeah he's a first born Nigerian-American.
I will say that it was like 3 months ago when he was seen talking to Crews so I don't know if there is any connection whatsoever but we'll find out eventually.
All the current ROH champions are black or Mexican (Rush, Dragon Lee, Kenny King, Gresham, Shane Taylor, Moses & Kaun).
Impact has Swan, Moose and Fire N Flava who are black and TJP who is filipino.
MLW has Jacob Fatu, Lio Rush and the Parks.
AEW has a japanese women's champ and the rest are white.
No other country on the planet has the diversity that the US has but it's expected when we're a melting pot for many different races.
Growing up I was literally the only non-white person who watched wrestling. Even during the boom period. Eventually there was a young kid who was Vietnamese that hung out with my younger brother and he liked wrestling for about 2 months. I wonder if my dad was black if I would have been into it like I am now. I mean I had friends and cousins when we were super young like 7-8 that would come to shows with my family but I was the only one who seemed interested.
Now it's a total mixed bag. My sons hang out with white kids, black kids, etc. and everyone seems to be into anime and wrestling just at different levels of interest.
Why you denying banks Latin heritage. Shame on you.
Sapp is a very big deal in Japan. He is fluent in Japanese for a reason.
Lol and they say AEW is the future.
Probablys is but it doesn't really matter to me. What's more important is that all those champions are in their spots based on their talent and not just because of their race and a need to tick PC boxes and that's how it should be.
I mean it might have been a purposeful decision based on trying to tick equality boxes but there's no one there in the position they are in where I'd feel like they'd been gifted a title just for that reason.
I'm completely aware of who Bob Sapp is. His brief IWGP run simply slipped my mind. The first time I saw him was at like 2am when ESPN showed the 2002 K-1 Grand Prix. I mean I wasn't exactly off on what I remember with how he wound up in this situation.
I will say this, pay him enough and you can get a W on your resume.
I read that her father was black and her mother was of German descent., didn't see anything about Latin heritage.
Yeah she's not. Maybe he's thinking of Bayley or made a joke that's gone over my head.
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