Diversity Day

One thing I will readily admit is I was pretty oblivious to things as a child.  Case in point watching the old WWF and seeing some of the gimmicks that were present may have been used for comic relief, but in today’s climate; let’s face it, they’re down right awful.  In fact let me list some of these transgressions and I know I’m missing some more:

1. Kamala the Ugandan Giant – a trucker from Memphis, portrayed as a savage from Africa that didn’t know how to wrestle, spent part of the 90’s learning how to bowl and saying that he is a man.  Yeesh
2. Saba Simba – Take a Hall of Famer (Tony Atlas) give him a spear and tribal attire and behold – Saba Simba
3. Reverend Slick – A man who started out as a pimp with a theme song called “Jive Soul Bro” that featured an entrance video of him eating fried chicken.
4. Akeem the African Dream – Speaking of Slick, he was involved in transforming the One Man Gang into Akeem the African Dream – a white man from deepest and darkest Africa that had the uncontrollable urge to dance
5. Booker T at Wrestlemania 19 – Hey lets take a top African American star put him in one of the main events at the biggest show of the year but in the build up to the match have the evil dastardly bad guy saying that people like Booker don’t belong.  Racist much, ummm yea, but that’s ok because good always triumphs over evil, except good didn’t win.  Pretty disgusting

With all that being said, the track record for Vince Mcmahon and his cohorts is less than stellar, more unimpressive if you ask me.  But if anything there has been progress made, just take a look at the Rock, he transcended all of that crap, so its a step in the right direction.

Wrestling has a weird dichotomy.  So many wrestlers are from foreign lands and for a while stereotyped, whereas most of the crowd soaked in xenophobia.  Think of the dastardly Iron Sheik proclaiming Iran is #1, Mr. Fuji pushing Japan’s superiority, Alberto Del, the Mexican aristocrat, or even fan favorite Bret Hart losing his mind and proclaiming Canada being morally sound.  Usually these wrestlers are portrayed as evil and countered with chants of “USA! USA!” But think about it all those years of entertainment are provided by wrestlers who were not American.

So where in the world am I going with this?  Well I’d like to talk about wrestlers from Japan.  For the uninitiated, wrestling is huge in Japan.  Shows regularly sell out and top promotions such as New Japan Pro Wrestling are world renowned.  But here in the states, it hasn’t always been great. As recently as 2017, then WWE champion referred to Shinsuke Nakamura as Mr. Miyagi which caused the fans at the arena that night to chant, “That’s too far!” Still Nakamura and female stars such as Asuka, Kairi Sane, and Io Shirai have dominated the WWE minor league territory, NXT. Each has been NXT champion, but that has not always translated on the main roster (Io Shirai has not had her main roster call up yet). Asuka who may be considered the best performer in the Woman’s division doesn’t need the job quite frankly. She’s worked in the video game industry, runs businesses and has a successful YouTube channel. She’s doing it out of love and passion. I’m sure the others I’ve mentioned also have other activities that they could engage in rather than wrestling. Nevertheless, these opportunities have not translated to successful/long world title reigns and these athletes are clearly deserving. Not sure whether its the perceived broken English or just a glass ceiling that’s been enacted that prevents these stars from achieving the full success they deserve. It really just goes to show that no matter the race, the WWE still has work to do to remove the negative perception with fans.

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