Black people love professional wrestling. They adore the theatricality, the drama, the story lines and the professional athletes/actors who perform staged, premeditated, choreographed action in the square circle.
Black people have long had many wonderful performers to cheer for: The Ugandan Giant, Kamala; Virgil, the former servant of The Million Dollar Man Ted Dibiase; Ron Simmons, who led the Nation of Domination - a Black power themed group that also included the half-black Rock - and the recently inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame, Koko B. Ware. Many more Black wrestlers are currently active, but they have yet to acquire the status of these gentlemen in the eyes of Black people.
With all these talented grapplers, it is hard to imagine Black people having any grief or beef with promoters of wrestling, consider the only way wrestlers "get over" is by impressing the audience and having them part ways with their money to watch them fake wrestle and buy their merchandise.
The problem though, is that Black people consider Vince McMahon, the chairman of the publicly traded company World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) a racist.
Consider, there has never been a Black person crowned as WWF/WWE champion (The Rock is not fully Black, thus Black people will not consider him Black enough. He does not pass the Paper-Bag test).
Vince McMahon has continually cast Blacks in stereotypical roles. Consider Cryme Tyme, an African-American duo, noted for their propensity to commit crime. Thus, McMahon is buying into the idea - although crime stats do prove its veracity - that Black people commit crime.
WWE.com wrote about the duo:
"Tonight a new tag team, Cryme Tyme, will be introduced to the RAW audience. In an effort to humor and entertain our fans the tag team known as Cryme Tyme will be parodying racial stereotypes.Most recently the WWE had a Black wrestler named MVP, whose character played upon the stereotypical, over-confident, flamboyant Black athlete (think NFL, NBA). Despite numerous attempts to push this character, he never got over with the fans.
Shad Gaspard and JTG do outlandish, outrageous "stunts" to ready themselves for tag team action on RAW. This attempt at Saturday Night Live like humor is bound to entertain audiences of all ethnic derivations.
We hope you enjoy the weekly adventures of Cryme Tyme."
Booker T is the only Black man to hold the WWE championship in the history of the WWWE/WWF/WWE:
"Without overwhelming the reader with statistics allow me to once again point out the obvious. In it’s history, the WWE has never had an African-American world champion. WCW, before it’s demise had a few, namely Booker T and Ron Simmons, both of whom were buried upon their arrival to the WWE. While the argument could be made that Ron Simmons (known as Faarooq) never had the charisma required of a WWE champion (particularly at the time of his jump) Booker T is/was a charismatic showman with much to offer when given proper room to develop a character.Vince McMahon might be a marketing genius and self-made billionaire, but he is no friend of Black people or of promoting a Black person (besides the half-Black Rock), which is why he is included in Stuff Black People Don't Like.
"The long standing excuse for these burials the WWE simply does not have the fan base to support a minority champion. This argument fails to hold water, particularly when one attends a live event and notes the demographic of the crowd. Consider also, the success of John Cena, portraying a character that most fans would admittedly associate with an African-American culture."
