GOTNW Posted May 3, 2016 Report Share Posted May 3, 2016 There's a lot to be said about this. First stuff that came to mind: I watched the Lawler-Snowman stuff yesterday and wouldn't exactly describe those Memphis studio fans as being "racially progressive". I am shocked that it's the black guy that the other commentators on Raw always make fun of. WWE having quotas for ethnicities and apparently checking how much time every ethnicity gets in case someone accuses them of racism. Etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johnny Sorrow Posted May 3, 2016 Report Share Posted May 3, 2016 Them making fun of Byron isn't because he's black, it's because comes off like a giant nerd. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GOTNW Posted May 3, 2016 Author Report Share Posted May 3, 2016 Them making fun of Byron isn't because he's black, it's because comes off like a giant nerd. Next to J-B-I love puro and Otto Wanz-L and Michael Cole? I don't really see it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
funkdoc Posted May 3, 2016 Report Share Posted May 3, 2016 i mentioned Punch-Out in another thread, which leads to something worth mentioning here. those games are at least as outlandish as pro wrestling with their ethnic stereotypes, but i think the main reason people are cool with that is because they're more funny asides to the characters. Don Flamenco may be a ladies' man who dances with a rose in his mouth before fights, but he's also a smart & skilled boxer. compare that to Kamala, or (to bring this outside of race but same idea) Eugene once they forgot he was supposed to be a wrestling savant. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bierschwale Posted May 3, 2016 Report Share Posted May 3, 2016 Byron gets teased for being the new guy, especially when Cole & JBL first worked together 10 years ago. It's dumb, but at the same time, does anything close to rookie-hazing involving Bradshaw surprise you? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gutenberger Posted May 4, 2016 Report Share Posted May 4, 2016 Are we talking solely about today's Pro Wrestling? Because man, watching this whole oldschool stuff on the Network sure cracks me up. If some of those things had happened and aired in Germany, wo probably would've had a ban on all of Pro Wrestling... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johnny Sorrow Posted May 4, 2016 Report Share Posted May 4, 2016 Them making fun of Byron isn't because he's black, it's because comes off like a giant nerd. Next to J-B-I love puro and Otto Wanz-L and Michael Cole? I don't really see it.Have you listened to him? He comes off as a dweeb, a dork, a wimp. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
supremebve Posted May 4, 2016 Report Share Posted May 4, 2016 Them making fun of Byron isn't because he's black, it's because comes off like a giant nerd.Next to J-B-I love puro and Otto Wanz-L and Michael Cole? I don't really see it.Have you listened to him? He comes off as a dweeb, a dork, a wimp. So, with all the problematic racist things in wrestling how did making fun of Byron even come up? You are allowed to make fun of black people, you just can't make fun of him for being black. They've never done that, they just make dumb jokes about a coworker. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jushin muta liger Posted May 4, 2016 Report Share Posted May 4, 2016 Them making fun of Byron isn't because he's black, it's because comes off like a giant nerd.Next to J-B-I love puro and Otto Wanz-L and Michael Cole? I don't really see it.Have you listened to him? He comes off as a dweeb, a dork, a wimp. So, with all the problematic racist things in wrestling how did making fun of Byron even come up? You are allowed to make fun of black people, you just can't make fun of him for being black. They've never done that, they just make dumb jokes about a coworker. Yes I agree. Byron is a complete cornball but he's playing his role as cornball announcer for the babyfaces. I don't hate him like other people do because he's doing his job. However, I've seen people on social media say that Byron is only there on Raw because he's the token black guy. WWE does keep one black male minimum in terms of announcers whether it was Booker T, David Otunga on the Raw Pre Show or Byron now. Not the case with the female ring announcers but that's another story. With WWE, it wouldn't surprise me if they had Byron out there so they can look diverse. They used philanthropy as part of their marketing so they fall in line with other corporations that do the same thing with philanthropy, diversity, or any other corporate buzz word they have. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
S.L.L. Posted May 4, 2016 Report Share Posted May 4, 2016 i mentioned Punch-Out in another thread, which leads to something worth mentioning here. those games are at least as outlandish as pro wrestling with their ethnic stereotypes, but i think the main reason people are cool with that is because they're more funny asides to the characters. Don Flamenco may be a ladies' man who dances with a rose in his mouth before fights, but he's also a smart & skilled boxer. compare that to Kamala, or (to bring this outside of race but same idea) Eugene once they forgot he was supposed to be a wrestling savant. I'm not gonna sit here and pretend that Kamala wasn't a racist gimmick, but like Eugene's early run as a wrestling savant, I appreciated a lot of Kamala's 80's stuff where he worked as a clever African savage. No knowledge of English, barely understood the rules of his sport, but he got put in the Iron Claw once and never blindly charged a Von Erich again. He wasn't just a wildman, he learned from experience. Despite being a scary monster heel, he was a guy who did a lot of cautious backpedaling schtick. Certainly, a backpedaling black man could have some...uneasy connotations, too, but this is where the African savage gimmick actually kinda saves him. Kamala probably didn't blindly charge lions in the African wilderness, either. He was playing a stereotype to be sure, but just like Don Flamenco's stereotype was eased by being a smart and skilled boxer, and Eugene's stereotype was initially eased by being a wrestling savant, Kamala's gimmick was eased by being not just a dangerous hunter, but a clever one. Of course, all this goes to shit in his 90's WWF face run, particularly the whole "trying to pin the guy when they're on their stomach" bit, because now they were portraying him not simply as a fish out of water, but as actually, unambiguously dumb and as someone who had difficulty learning from his experiences. And, of course, there's the very real possibility that these are all narratives I've completely imagined that were never intended by bookers or promoters or even Kamala himself who just wanted him to be a big scary African savage, no more, no less. But I'm not 100% sure my interpretation of the character is total bullshit, either, because even if it wasn't meant that way, it wasn't until his 90's face run that they gave me any concrete in-text reasons not to take it that way. If I see a tree fall in the text, and the author doesn't explicitly say it didn't in said text, why shouldn't it make a sound? Granted, I think I might be the only one who ever heard this particular sound, but I'm a weird dude. This is all a very roundabout way of me saying that for all the talk some people make of wrestling being a lot like comic books, we could really use a Crisis on Infinite Promotions to reboot wrestling history. A guy like Kamala could really stand to have his slate cleaned and his history retconned to better fit into the Post-Crisis vision of wrestling. Pretty sure he's not the only one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MoS Posted May 5, 2016 Report Share Posted May 5, 2016 I honestly don't know where to put it, or whether it should be put, but the guy who was stunned by Steve Austin at WM, and who goes about calling all Mexicans rapists and thinks that a formal debate is a good place to talk about his penis size is now presumably the official Presidential nominee of a centuries' old party, a party which boasts of people like Abraham Lincoln as its members. Congrats, America. You are the land of the brave. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jimmy Redman Posted May 5, 2016 Report Share Posted May 5, 2016 Trump running for President is what it must feel like to live in a universe booked by Vince Russo. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johnny Sorrow Posted May 5, 2016 Report Share Posted May 5, 2016 I'm sure Vince digs Byron because he's good looking and he has both an athletic background, ( he was a wrestler for a bit in FCW/ NXT), and he has a legit broadcasting background. He's that good looking suit who does the local news. And he can be good, but this total Melvin , geek, guy who acts like a total zero who wants a safe space character he's doing is the fucking worst. I want him to snap and go full school shooter . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vedhead Posted May 5, 2016 Report Share Posted May 5, 2016 You really hate safe spaces huh? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MoS Posted May 5, 2016 Report Share Posted May 5, 2016 Vince McMahon would be a better President than Donald Trump. I am sorry, I just can't get over this. WTF, America? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
El-P Posted May 5, 2016 Report Share Posted May 5, 2016 Trump running for President is what it must feel like to live in a universe booked by Vince Russo. Tequila on a pole for all those Mexicans and woman abuse for all. Yep. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
van_Fair Posted May 5, 2016 Report Share Posted May 5, 2016 Trump running for President is what it must feel like to live in a universe booked by Vince Russo. Tequila on a pole for all those Mexicans and woman abuse for all. Yep. Trump/Russo 2016 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gutenberger Posted May 5, 2016 Report Share Posted May 5, 2016 Trump running for President is what it must feel like to live in a universe booked by Vince Russo. Tequila on a pole for all those Mexicans and woman abuse for all. Yep. Trump/Russo 2016 If that happens, I want a 24/7 livestream from the white House! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Death From Above Posted May 5, 2016 Report Share Posted May 5, 2016 Kamala's WWF "doesn't know how to pin people" gimmick feels like the kind of thing that would have worked much better on a non-televised circuit where a new audience is seeing the shtick every show (and we know this is an environment Kamala did well in), but struggles not to seem utterly ridiculous when put on national TV every week. Having said that, the WWF really should have known better. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kjh Posted May 5, 2016 Report Share Posted May 5, 2016 Vince McMahon would be a better President than Donald Trump. I am sorry, I just can't get over this. WTF, America? I'm no fan of Trump, but I think Vince could be even worse. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johnny Sorrow Posted May 6, 2016 Report Share Posted May 6, 2016 You really hate safe spaces huh?With the exception of my pants, yeah. Edit: That joke stunk. 😆 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Outsider Posted May 15, 2016 Report Share Posted May 15, 2016 Personally I never was negatively affected by racist or stereo-typing in wrestling except for 1 time and it changed how I viewed pro wrestling. Ok so I was born in early 80s and was obsessed with wrestling since I started watching TV. I remember crying when my mom took me to the mall saturday morning and didn't take me home in time to see beginning of SuperStars. No DVR in those days! Anyway I was obsessed with Hogan. In 90 when Sgt Slaughter came in I loved it and loved his new heel persona. My dad was born in Damascus, Syria so he would translate gen adnan for me.lol! But when my beloved hero Hulk Hogan started talking shit about Iraq it pissed me off even as a kid. From then on I hated Hogan until '96! I was so excited to see Sid Justice kick Hogans ass! I really thought Sid could have been the top baby face in pro wrestling! Well now we know what happened! The main point is middle eastern gimmicks are always "crazy terrorists" and it disregards the feelings of millions of Arabic or Muslim fans.Maybe I was too sensitive as a kid but if u look back that was the end of Hulkamania. I used to think that Vince was doing that storyline for the Pentagon in exchange for leniency in court! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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