Could an angle based on racism work?

[Guest nl5xsk1]

Could an angle based on a wrestler's racist beliefs get over today?  The AWA tried it (successfully) with Col. Debeers, and the WWF did it with Terry Funk in the mid-80's.  How would it go over today?

[Guest converge241]

I dont think so.

see The nation of domination stuff and the whole Ahmed feeling like he has been held back from the world title against Taker or the Hart Foundation-DX decorating the Nation locker room with rascist stuff.

The more PC that society gets the less chance you have of doing something like this.

All in all these would just bring the wrong kind of heat to the story.

The last time i think they even attempted something like that was Rikishi's reasoning for running over Austin. "the samoans are being held down" and that was aborted and hes just an ass-slapping dancing bastard again now. (actually id like to see someone ask Rikishi in character if he feels the samoans are giving a fair shake.... and then he calls out Scotty and Albert and dances..but I digress).

That stuff you cited did gangsters for the territory in the short term but even back then I'm sure they knew it was "wrong".

[Guest Tony149]

Belive or not, a storyline like that could be educational if the blow off match is a Respect Match. Where they shake hands at the end. I wouldn't try it though. There would probably be more backlash than good.

[Guest GatesFTW]

eh, remember when piper painted half his body black when he faced bad news brown? that was cool.

[Guest The Man They Call Texas Blu]

After the Bret Hart vs. USA feud I loss all my respect for HBK. When he stuck the Canadian flag in his nose, I never said a positive thing about HBK again. In fact I still hate the sorry bitCh.

 

But thats not really racism though.

[Guest dreamer420]

Belive or not, a storyline like that could be educational if the blow off match is a Respect Match. Where they shake hands at the end. I wouldn't try it though. There would probably be more backlash than good.

I could see this maybe working if it is going to display a positive message to the fans.  How would an angle like that start though and who would be involved in it?

[Guest Some Guy]

I thought the DX/Nation/Hart Foundation angle would have worked if tehy let it finish.  It looked like DX framed the Harts to make the Nation kick their ass.  When it eventually came out that that is what happened then teh Nation kicks DX's ass and ends up going face as a result.  Babyfaces can't be racist like the Nation were, so they drop the black power and oppression shit and poof no more racism on TV.  Plus they should make it clear that DX did a stupid thing but it wasn't out of hate it was out off being to chickenshit to fight the Harts by themselves.

[Guest razazteca]

bump

cause 6 replies and 66 views is just evil

[Guest muzanisa]

No way

 

These angles make me cringe and they are impossible to defend to your non wrestling fan friends.

[Guest RepoMan]

Belive or not, a storyline like that could be educational if the blow off match is a Respect Match. Where they shake hands at the end. I wouldn't try it though. There would probably be more backlash than good.

I doubt that could work. Pepole want to see wrestling, not an after school specail. Its too esay to mess up very badly to try.

[Guest Ace309]

A respect match wouldn't work (for me, anyway).

 

The angle would boil down to:

"I hate you because you're black."

"Let's wrestle and if I win you have to respect me."

*Black guy beats the living bejeezus out of white guy."

"I respect you, but only because you beat me and it says in my contract that I have to."

~fin~

 

I mean, no one says that in a loser-wears-a-chicken-suit match that losing the match proves that the loser enjoys wearing a chicken suit or sees the merits thereof. The "respect" would be seen as a punishment by most.

[Guest Tony149]

A "respect" angle wouldn't be like an after school special (Do people even watch those?) or seen as "punishment", if the loser turns face. I think it could be done IF booked right, and a lot of bookers could screw it up easy. Should it be done? Probably not, but I think it could be done in a way without pissing everybody off. Although some would get pissed.

[Guest Maurizio C... Version 2]

well, I've always been a big supporter of racist angles... if done well. the Gangstas in SMW was a good angle.

[Guest The Czech Republic]

Idea: the White Racist Bastard is a white racist bastard for a while, then when he gets triple-teamed by other fellow white guys, getting beaten within inches of his life, but a black guy is the one that saves WRB because he doesn't want to see a skilled wrestler such as WRB get his career ended, and WRB realizes there's no reason to be a WRB.

[Guest papacita]

For what it was, I felt the Nation angle was handled well up...up until Ahmed's injuries started fucking everything up.

 

Personally, I'd like to see more race related angles, but I don't think they'd be received well. Even well written race angles will probably end up offending somebody and alienating a portion of the audience.

[Guest Dynamite Kido]

racism = really cheap heat that is pointless in wrestling today. There is no way they would want the bad press that would bring.

[Guest OnlyMe]

If a worker used a racist gimmick over the long term, it would pretty much kill their career. Allowing them to air racist views would also be a turn off for many viewers.

 

If they did a short term racist feud (I don't know whether to count HHH / Booker in this) then it would come off as cheap and meaningless.