Does the WWE need another Godfather character?

[Jack-Hammer]

I never really saw the need for a Godfather character during the Attitude Era, let alone in this day and age.

In most cases, The Godfather character reminds me a lot of Brodus Clay. Basically, Charles Wright plays a character that comes out wearing some sort of flashy outfit, is a big guy, dances around with women and has a generally jovial attitude. Brodus Clay does the same thing. The biggest differences are that Wright would dance in the ring with local strippers that worked in whatever region Raw happened to be in that night and he'd say words like "ho" and "pimpin'".

A pimp wrestling character in this day and age probably wouldn't work anyhow. Society today is at an extreme when it comes to being politically correct. Even though Wright's character was about as far from an actual pimp as I am from being a Nobel Prize winning physicist. Wright wasn't in there swearing every other word or making veiled or not so veiled threats or smacking his "hos" around, etc. Couldn't get away with that in wrestling during the Attitude Era, let alone today. Hell, people shit themselves Raw just because CM Punk & Paul Heyman "mocked" Jerry Lawler's heart attack in a planned angle that'd gotten the seal of approval and encouragement weeks earlier from Lawler himself, so they're not going to tolerate a "pimp" of any sort.

The Godfather is really one of those characters during the Attitude Era that lent an aspect of sleaze to pro wrestling, and I don't mean that in a good way. The character was harmless, but still kinda sleazy.

[Big Papa Santo]

Originally Posted by Mack_Swagger

Two weekends ago at the Royal Rumble pay per-view in Phoenix, AZ. We saw the one-time only appearance of the Godfather! He got a standing pop from the adult side of the WWE universe, not their kids. When the Godfather came down that walkway with his two hoes it was a major attitude era flashback for us all! But the Godfather got eliminated from the rumble match by Dolph Ziggler in one second, wtf? We were all pissed at that.

With the WWE now being the WWE-PG. Will we ever see the Godfather and his hoes again in this wrestling era? Or how bout the WWE create another Godfather type character with a wrestling star. Some one like...Elijah Burke aka The Pope" D'Angelo Dinero! If the WWE re-hires Burke he could come back to the E as The Pope" D'Angelo Dinero or "The Pope" Elijah Burke. It's just a shame that the WWE released him the way they did. I think if Elijah Burke had some one to fight for him backstage he could have still been in the E. He could have been a step or two above both Kofi Kingston and R-Truth.

But would the WWE-PG still be open to re-introduce a Godfather-like character little alone re-hire Elijah Burke?

You're asking two separate questions here, but I'll try to answer them both.

On the topic of another Godfather-esque character ever gracing a WWE ring again, no. I hate to sound like that guy who blames everything on WWE being PG, since I despise those people, but it has nothing to do with the WWE's TV rating. We live in a different era, an era of political correctness where even the slightest jab at race, religion, or in this case, gender, is like jumping into a pool of sharks. And it's not just The Godfather that wouldn't work on TV nowadays but pretty much every memorable star from the Attitude Era. Original D-X wouldn't work, for obvious reasons. (I'm not talking about the watered down, late 2000s reincarnation that always tried to be "edgy") The Nation of Domination wouldn't work, because a whole group of angry oppressed black superstars is "Racist" (Although in WWE's defenses, it's not as hard to be a black superstar as it was back then, because now they don't incorporate race into every black superstars character) And don't get me started on Val Venis, Sexual Chocolate, or Stone Cold. So since the pimp character is out the equation, I do think that a womanizing lady's man character would work well. We've already seen lite versions of this type of character just over the past couple of years, and its a good way to get the divas that barely get any airtime shown on TV. So my shortened answer is: A pimp character in today's WWE? Not a chance. But a lady's man? Yes.

Now on to your question within a question (Call Christopher Nolan, I just thought of a new movie idea) About a possible Elijah Burke return, well.....no. I can see why some people (Like yourself) admire Elijah, but I personally don't care for him. That's not to say that I didn't enjoy him in ECW, but I don't see any place for him in the WWE, and most of the casual fans won't even remember him. And before you say, "But you should see his TNA stuff, he's gotten so much better!" Well, I don't watch TNA nor do I have any interest in starting. To me, Burke was just another vanilla, really athletic superstar not unlike Shelton Benjamin or Jack Swagger. (I actually really like Benjamin, but I'm not going to be blinded by my fandom and try to say that he was going to be a future world champion, the guy had a lot of areas to improve on)

So the answer to both of your questions, is nada.

[harrythem]

If by Godfather character you mean the ability to take someone with very little talent/mediocre charisma and turn them into a viable member of the roster that gets a huge crowd pop (for his entrance at least. His matches were shit and the silence that happened during them showed that) then, yes, the WWE needs one.

If you mean an actual pimp character then, no, the WWE doesn't need one. For all the money that a low-card comedy act like that could draw, it will be far outweighed by the money that all the Bruno merch will make...which only is happening because WWE got away from that type of character...a fair trade I'd say!

[TWJC: The Beginning]

I think a lot of people need to realize that the character was risqué and kinda like jersey shore, most of the attitude era undercard was. You had a pimp and a pornstar. These guys weren't really that talented. The rest of the undercard was in garbage punch/kick/throw a trash can at a guy matches. Why? Because they weren't that talented. If you need sleazy characters, blood, boobs, and cussing to get over, you're not a very good pro wrestler. If that's what you like, maybe you're not really a pro wrestling fan.

[Dilligaf]

As much as it was nice to see Godfather for his "one time" return, TBH the spot was wasted on him, Id have prefered to see JBL get into the RR this year.

Did anyone else notice how the "Ho's" were dressed, a lot more tamed down & a little elegant than we've seen them in the past, I can remember the WM2000 tag team match with D-Lo as his partner and that one ho in the pink shorts and pink boob tube barely containing her breasts.