I disagree with the argument, but do believe there is a point to be made that WWE does love to book minorities as racial stereotypes. I actually don't believe Vince discriminates consciously against wrestlers due to their race, but the one-dimensional gimmicks they get saddled with (Cryme Tyme, Kofi, Shango/Godfather) don't get fans interested enough to build to any real push.
If you look at some of the more successful non-white champions (Eddie, Rey, Booker), they had characters and profile pre-WWE. I think it is just lazy, perhaps somewhat ignorant booking on creative that uses race as a crutch.
The big counter-examples I can think of are the Rock, Lashley and Shelton Benjamin. Ironically the latter two lacked any semblance of personality and couldn't do anything with an uninhibited character.
Time out. Let's be fair here. The fact that the people you listed had one-dimensional gimmicks had absolutely nothing to do with their race. Fandango's not black. Jack Swagger's not black. John Cena isn't black. Randy Orton isn't black. RVD isn't black. In fact, let's keep this short, can you name me a white wrestler who doesn't currently or never had a one-dimensional gimmick? The same thing goes with stereotypes. RVD isn't a stereotypical pothead? John Cena wasn't a stereotype? Triple H wasn't a stereotypical blue blood? The Hardy Boyz weren't stereotypes? Edge & Christian?
As for blaming that for their lack of push, this isn't the right thread for that, but no. It doesn't matter how one-dimensional and stereotypical your gimmick is, your job is to go out there and get over with the crowd. You do your job, THEN you get a better gimmick. Not the other way around. The Ringmaster wasn't one-dimensional, it was zero dimensional, and Steve Austin made it work until they gave him a better gimmick. That's how pro wrestling works. You earn gimmicks.
I have never called Vince racist, because I frankly don't know his personal stances. But to say he isn't racist because he gave an African-American a chance in NXT means nothing.
No, you just tried to diminish everything that would make him look not racist(saying Rock isn't black, the Mark Henry title run was a token run - nice buzz word, by the way) and highlighted everything that would make him look racist(teaming black people together, like that's such a horrible thing now) and let us figure out how you really feel.
The Rock is bi-racial, Rocky Johnson is African-American. There's a significant difference. Rock's Samoan heritage is mentioned on WWE program more than African-American side. WWE has found a great deal of success with Samoan wrestlers(Roman Reigns is the latest).
So are we just going to pretend that you didn't compare you being 1/16th white to Rock being 50% like they're the same thing? Is that what we're doing? Because that was one hell of a comparison, so I'm not sure how it's getting swept under the rug so easily.
And, no, Rock's African American heritage got mentioned much more often than his Samoan heritage. It's funny, though, because there are race baiting Samoans just like we have our race baiting African Americans here, and they think WWE is racist against them...citing the fact that Jimmy Snuka and Rikishi were never WWE champion.
I'm wrong for my opinion? In a topic about heavily discussed by non-black people I actually give an opinion from a black fan perspective.
Who said you were wrong? The remark you quoted, which wasn't even directed at you, said nothing about anybody being "wrong." But yes, you gave a clearly biased opinion, just like some other black fans have given biased opinions, just like some black fans have given unbiased opinions.
I wonder why lol. That goes for other minority demographics as well so it isn't just African-Americans. Hard to market them when they're hardly given the opportunity to carry the ball.
Maybe because the market isn't there even when they are given that opportunity? They had no trouble pushing Khali to the moon when the Indian market got behind him. They're not just going to push someone, hoping they'll find a fan base. Guys have to develop a fanbase first, then they get the ball.
This is one of the most blatantly racist threads I've seen in a while. It's no secret that Vince McMahon and the WWE are not racist. Do they like stereotypes? Sure. And they give them to white people just as much as they do any minority. For a black person to single out their own race for treatment that clearly every race gets...you're essentially saying that black people should get better treatment than any other race just because they're black. Or you're just incredibly biased against every non-black and biased towards every black person(like the last thread, where someone tried to say Big E is more talented than Cesaro...right), which is flat out racism. Look, there's a lot of legitimate racism in today's society, and garbage like this just makes it more difficult to fight against the real stuff. I hope you realize that.
