Mark Henry's "Silverback" Gimmick/Nickname

[RepoMan 0]

True story: we have an ABA team in Buffalo which was called the Rapids. The name was changed to the Silverbacks, complete with a logo of a silverback gorilla with a basketball. This logo offended some people so it was changed to a panther looking thing. Morale of the story is that people are indeed to sensitive.

 

I don't think the crappy logo helped things

 

 

[Cheech Tremendous 0]

I'm not easily offended, but I do find the gimmick somewhat odd and kind of racist. I mean, you have one of the biggest, blackest guys on the roster essentially calling himself a gorilla. Talk about walking on thin ice with that one.

[The Niggardly King 0]

It's Prowrestling.....

 

[Cheech Tremendous 0]

I can't wait for new gimmicks like "The Knuckledragger" Booker T and Water-Melon Eatin' Vis. How about a gimmick where Shelton can't swim? MVP has his wages garnished because he can't pay child support?

 

You like those, too? After all, it's just pro wrestling.

[David Blazenwing 0]

Water-Melon Eatin' Vis.

 

Ha ha... I want that action figure.

 

[Guest King_Ghidra]

I can't wait for new gimmicks like "The Knuckledragger" Booker T and Water-Melon Eatin' Vis. How about a gimmick where Shelton can't swim? MVP has his wages garnished because he can't pay child support?

 

You like those, too? After all, it's just pro wrestling.

 

I see what you're getting at, but i think that's stretching the point. Comparing wrestlers or other sportsmen to animals which epitomise the characteristics they claim to represent is a universal.

 

I would look at the cryme tyme gimmick as far more potentially racially offensive from the angle you are coming.

 

[Lil' Bitch 0]

I thought he was better off as "The World's Strongest Man"

[2GOLD 0]

Henry is what he is. Plus didn't the guy change his body size at one point and become a quicker wrestler only to be told by the WWE that he was too small and they didn't pay him to be fast?

 

Yeah, he got down to about 315, but was told to gain the weight again for the Strongman competition. Just picture this... he was working on how to do Frankensteiners in OVW and other fun stuff. I wish we got a chance to see that Mark Henry.

 

But the dude is a hell of an athlete for being a short, now overweight guy. It sucked that he's returned bigger than ever.

 

Mark Henry breaking out a hurricarana would have been the greatest moment in the history of wrestling.

[Maztinho 0]

Henry is what he is. Plus didn't the guy change his body size at one point and become a quicker wrestler only to be told by the WWE that he was too small and they didn't pay him to be fast?

 

Yeah, he got down to about 315, but was told to gain the weight again for the Strongman competition. Just picture this... he was working on how to do Frankensteiners in OVW and other fun stuff. I wish we got a chance to see that Mark Henry.

 

But the dude is a hell of an athlete for being a short, now overweight guy. It sucked that he's returned bigger than ever.

 

Mark Henry breaking out a hurricarana would have been the greatest moment in the history of wrestling.

 

I concur.

 

Cole: What's Mark Henry doing, John?

 

*Mark Henry with a rana*

 

Crowd: UWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

 

[AlexPuma 0]

Henry is what he is. Plus didn't the guy change his body size at one point and become a quicker wrestler only to be told by the WWE that he was too small and they didn't pay him to be fast?

 

Yeah, he got down to about 315, but was told to gain the weight again for the Strongman competition. Just picture this... he was working on how to do Frankensteiners in OVW and other fun stuff. I wish we got a chance to see that Mark Henry.

 

But the dude is a hell of an athlete for being a short, now overweight guy. It sucked that he's returned bigger than ever.

 

Mark Henry breaking out a hurricarana would have been the greatest moment in the history of wrestling.

 

I concur.

 

Cole: What's Mark Henry doing, John?

 

*Mark Henry with a rana*

 

Crowd: UWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

That reminds me of the time in 2001 when Kane started busting out a Luchadore moveset for a few months with no explanation.

 

[Mad Scientist 0]

Henry is what he is. Plus didn't the guy change his body size at one point and become a quicker wrestler only to be told by the WWE that he was too small and they didn't pay him to be fast?

 

Yeah, he got down to about 315, but was told to gain the weight again for the Strongman competition. Just picture this... he was working on how to do Frankensteiners in OVW and other fun stuff. I wish we got a chance to see that Mark Henry.

 

But the dude is a hell of an athlete for being a short, now overweight guy. It sucked that he's returned bigger than ever.

 

Mark Henry breaking out a hurricarana would have been the greatest moment in the history of wrestling.

 

Ron Simmons would have to put in a special appearance on SD! just to say..."DAMN!"

 

Hell, he might have to say it twice.

[ChrisMWaters 0]

Had to do this.

 

And yes, I know that's not a silverback gorilla, but still. Oh, and yes it's poor quality...but all I had was MS paint.

 

[The Amazing Rando 0]

I'm not easily offended, but I do find the gimmick somewhat odd and kind of racist. I mean, you have one of the biggest, blackest guys on the roster essentially calling himself a gorilla. Talk about walking on thin ice with that one.

 

That's the point...he's calling HIMSELF that. It isn't being used as some race-bait in a bad storyline.

[Jericholic82 0]

i think there was a guy WWE had in OVW known as "Silverback" Ryan Reeves

That's the guy from Tough Enough 4. That's who I thought of whne they called Henry the silverback

 

Either that or call him the "Predator" since he kinda looks like the movie monster with the dreads, an old neighbors kid used to say to me that he looked like predator , so I got the idea.

 

 

who cares, I mean we all know by Summerslam Henry will be injured again. and shouldnt his 10 year contract have ended already?

[Jingus 0]

That's the point...he's calling HIMSELF that. It isn't being used as some race-bait in a bad storyline.

No, the WWE is calling him that. I seriously doubt Henry would choose to call himself a fucking monkey.

 

And the worst part is that the WWE knows just how potentially offensive it is, because the announcers always refer to him as "the SELF-PROCLAIMED silverback" in a pathetic attempt to keep the racist catchphrase while trying to avoid any possible heat over it.

[Maztinho 0]

i think there was a guy WWE had in OVW known as "Silverback" Ryan Reeves

That's the guy from Tough Enough 4. That's who I thought of whne they called Henry the silverback

 

Either that or call him the "Predator" since he kinda looks like the movie monster with the dreads, an old neighbors kid used to say to me that he looked like predator , so I got the idea.

 

 

who cares, I mean we all know by Summerslam Henry will be injured again. and shouldnt his 10 year contract have ended already?

 

It did. They resigned him, or he renegotiated it. Something to that effect.

[claydude14 0]

Mark Henry's theme music is the best in years.

[Toxxic 0]

I'm with the guy who says that Cryme Tyme is more offensive than Silverback.

[Jingus 0]

More blatant and over the top, sure. But look at it this way: how long has wrestling had white guys play stupid parodies of black ghetto thugs? Whether it's PN News or PG-13 or Public Enemy or Too Cool or Rappin' Cena, there's always been some goofy crackers dressing up and acting exactly like Crymetyme. Is it more offensive because they finally let two black guys play the gimmick that's based on their race's culture?

 

Henry's gimmick bothers me more because the company clearly realizes it's wrong, otherwise they wouldn't put that "self-proclaimed" part in there.

[JaMarcus Russell's #1 Caucasian Fan 0]

Who really cares? Im black and I realize that WWE for what it is. Low brow entertainment. They have been doing borderline racist stuff for years and its time for fans to realize it appeals to the lowest common denominator. I dont exactly watch WWE for high end stuff. I didnt think about silverback=gorilla until I read this thread. People really need to stop getting hung up on race.

[Enigma 0]

Kane doing a hurricanrana on Albert was something I thought I'd never see.

[muzz 0]

Mark Henry's theme music is the best in years.

 

Agreed.

 

I've always thought of theme music as being incredibly important for a character.

[Maztinho 0]

Who really cares? Im black and I realize that WWE for what it is. Low brow entertainment. They have been doing borderline racist stuff for years and its time for fans to realize it appeals to the lowest common denominator. I dont exactly watch WWE for high end stuff. I didnt think about silverback=gorilla until I read this thread. People really need to stop getting hung up on race.

 

Ted DiBiase had a slave. A SLAVE!

 

JYD wore chains!

 

Vince likes this shit, also, maybe Silverback won't get injured during an entertaining push he's getting. Maybe.

[The Niggardly King 0]

Mark Henry's theme music is the best in years.

 

Somebody gonna get dey wig split!

[Toxxic 0]

More blatant and over the top, sure. But look at it this way: how long has wrestling had white guys play stupid parodies of black ghetto thugs? Whether it's PN News or PG-13 or Public Enemy or Too Cool or Rappin' Cena, there's always been some goofy crackers dressing up and acting exactly like Crymetyme. Is it more offensive because they finally let two black guys play the gimmick that's based on their race's culture?

 

Henry's gimmick bothers me more because the company clearly realizes it's wrong, otherwise they wouldn't put that "self-proclaimed" part in there.

 

 

PN News I was too young to really take in when I first saw him in WCW (and God, he was bad looking back). PG-13 I don't know, Public Enemy I only have a passing acquaintance with, Too Cool always were laughable and Rappin' Cena... well, my point is that Cena and PN News at least were MUSIC-based gimmicks (and Too Cool as well, they just danced to it instead of 'making' it). Granted, the music they were associated with was music traditionally associated with black culture, but it was music-based.

 

Cryme Tyme aren't a music-based gimmick, they are a thuggery-based gimmick, but a CARTOONISH thuggery based gimmick, and that's what disturbs me. Let's look at Homicide (in ROH, since TNA are too scared to let him speak), the heel Homicide was a violent thug who had a finisher called the Cop Killa, for crying out loud. But that's the point, he was VIOLENT and NASTY, and sure the ROH fans respected him as a wrestler, but the character he portrayed was someone you did not want to fuck with. Cryme Tyme on the other hand... those vignettes that aired before they debuted where they did their thuggish things of mugging someone, carjacking, all the time with that goofy and very very white voice doing the voiceover. I seem to remember a ROH show where the cameras show Homicide beating the shit out of someone outside (his opponent for that night, i think). That's the difference, with Homicide the violence was real, it was not laughed at, it was respected. The man could hurt people, and no-one doubted this. With Cryme Tyme the violence (and let's face it, mugging and carjacking involves violence or the threat thereof, and not to an adversary in tonight's match but to members of the public) was made to seem inconsequential, and so the respect was not there. To a kayfabe watcher, Homicide was primarily a vicious, nasty guy who could hurt people, whereas Cryme Tyme are a double-act that not only reinforce stereotypes of black people as ghetto thugs, but also trivialises the violence they are seen to do. It ends up as as a sort of 'oh, those funny black people, let's laugh at their antics as they mug and carjack'. And don't even get me started on the implied rape of Maria.

 

Am I making any sense here? I know what I'm trying to say, but I'm not sure if I'm getting it across as I intend.

[Toxxic 0]

Alas, the double-post.