Racism in wrestling (but mostly WWE) thread

[Cackling Co Pilot Kamala]

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1188297337392828417

Posting this here cause there's not a "Encourage Others NOT to Get Wrestling Merch Zone" thread.

HOW COULD WWE MARKETING THINK THIS SHIRT WAS A GOOD IDEA IN 2019!?

I can totally imagine Vince grousing "Well, pal. When did the term 'watermelon smile' become politically incorrect?" backstage.

 

[Big Beard Booty Daddy]

Re: WWE is a racist company

https://twitter.com/GoGoMyles/status/1188297337392828417
Posting this here cause there's not a "Encourage Others NOT to Get Wrestling Merch Zone" thread.

HOW COULD WWE MARKETING THINK THIS SHIRT WAS A GOOD IDEA IN 2019!?

I can totally imagine Vince grousing "Well, pal. When did the term 'watermelon smile' become politically incorrect?" backstage.

This is the same company that has had horrible representation in their World Title picture, New Day and Killings are modern day minstrel acts, HHH vs Booker T, and so much more. It's really not surprising that they let this one slip by.

 

[Cackling Co Pilot Kamala]

Re: WWE is a racist company

New Day being a minstrel act is a molten hot take.

 

[BUTT]

Re: WWE is a racist company

Bruce Mitchell had a take a couple of years ago that the pancake gimmick was a throwback to black sambo stereotypes. Let me find it.

He just retweeted it today! https://www.pwtorch.com/site/2018/02/16/mitchell-bruce-mitchells-black-history-month-new-day-pancakes/

 

[Big Beard Booty Daddy]

Re: WWE is a racist company

New Day being a minstrel act is a molten hot take.

They're incredibly popular, and incredibly talented, but they were created to be a singing, dancing act to appease and entertain Vince McMahon.

 

[Cackling Co Pilot Kamala]

Re: WWE is a racist company

I didn't know Little Black Sambo ate pancakes bit. I'll temper my criticism of the New Day being racist accusation a bit. I definitely the genesis of their gimmick (especially their pre debut vignettes with the gospel choir) were racist but I think they've transcended that.

When you were talking on Twitter about WWE having two minstrel acts, BBBD, I assumed you were referring to Street Profits and R-Truth so maybe three racist acts?

 

[Big Beard Booty Daddy]

Re: WWE is a racist company

I didn't know Little Black Sambo ate pancakes bit. I'll temper my criticism of the New Day being racist accusation a bit. I definitely the genesis of their gimmick (especially their pre debut vignettes with the gospel choir) were racist but I think they've transcended that.

When you were talking on Twitter about WWE having two minstrel acts, BBBD, I assumed you were referring to Street Profits and R-Truth so maybe three racist acts?

My dislike of the Street Profit gimmick is totally different from this. It's more of a personal dislike (nothing against the guys in the team, just the gimmick), so I didn't even think of them in this light.

 

[Cackling Co Pilot Kamala]

Re: WWE is a racist company

Personal opinions on them aside, objectively speaking, Street Profits' gimmick is a marginally toned down version of Cryme Tyme, which was a totally effin racist gimmick.

 

[Fall of Epic]

Re: WWE is a racist company

https://twitter.com/ryansatin/status/1188656864126332929

Oh boy.

 

[909]

Re: WWE is a racist company

Becky Lynch doesn't know all the merch she has according to her. I do not believe them.

 

[Precious Roy]

Re: WWE is a racist company

It's best to take everything they say with a grain of salt, but there's a huge difference between ACH in NXT who literally has one t-shirt and Becky Lynch who's one of the top pushed stars, WM main eventer, video game cover and probably in Austin/Cena merch territory at this point where they'll slap her face or catchphrases on anything they can sell. She probably has hundreds of pieces of merch at any given time. I'm sure she's got a teddy bear and pajamas and halloween costumes and everything else

Honestly, he has nothing to lose here really by going public with this, but I'm not sure what he has to gain. WWE loves to passive aggressively fuck with people for things like this. If they give him a bigger push it's almost like he blackmailed them for it. And if he's trying to get out of his contract and go to AEW, they're definitely not gonna release him and get the bad press

 

[Big Beard Booty Daddy]

Re: WWE is a racist company

There were a bunch of NXT wrestlers surprised with their first shirt when they had that massive drop a month back. All the designs looked dreadful and plain, so should we believe that the wrestlers, who didn't know the shirt were coming out, all collaborated on those plain as fuck designs? Or was it just him that did?

 

[Cackling Co Pilot Kamala]

Re: WWE is a racist company

Honestly, he has nothing to lose here really by going public with this, but I'm not sure what he has to gain.

He's not doing this to "gain" anything. He's calling it out cause it's the right thing to do. He'd probably want to effin kill himself if he decided he could live with that t-shirt being out there. He's doing it despite the fact that I'm sure he knows that it's likely to have negative consequences.

 

[cobainwasmurdered]

Re: WWE is a racist company

I'm so shocked Roy doesn't understand why someone would take a stand against racism.

 

[Cackling Co Pilot Kamala]

Re: WWE is a racist company

I don't buy the person who designed the shirt's explanation either. as others mentioned, I've heard top workers talk about how they have little to no input on their merch. How am I supposed to believe that some NXT midcarder, who I quite honestly forgot was on WWE's roster until this weekend, was working closely to help design that shirt? What a bunch of garbage.

It'd be nice if SOMEONE anyone else on the WWE roster stood up with ACH against this bullcrap but so far, I'm just seeing indie people.

GCW announced an all POC show during WrestleMania Week though this weekend too so I guess take the good with the bad.

 

[cobainwasmurdered]

Re: WWE is a racist company

Cedric Alexander changed his twitter av to black and white and tweeted the hashtag ACH has been using

https://twitter.com/CedricAlexander/status/1188516303792955392

 

[Mickey Massuco]

Re: WWE is a racist company

Speaking of representation, you’d be surprised at how many people in the largely white pro wrestling media will have to Google what blackface is amid this controversy. Of course, their limited ability (and fear) to understand the nuances of racism and hold WWE accountable for its tone deafness has been part of the problem for decades.

subtle jab at meltz

https://www.forbes.com/sites/alfredkonuwa/2019/10/28/nxts-jordan-myles-lashes-out-at-wwe-for-blackface-adjacent-t-shirt/#6cd3a71153a9

 

[Cackling Co Pilot Kamala]

Re: WWE is a racist company

I always felt Dave Meltzer was kind of anti black but I'm not sure why. Only thing a Google Search about Dave Meltzer being racist showed me was him defending Ric Flair from accusations of racism.

 

[Big Beard Booty Daddy]

Re: WWE is a racist company

Well, he's going all in now

https://twitter.com/GoGoMyles/status/1188832139468591105

 

[Cackling Co Pilot Kamala]

Re: WWE is a racist company


at the Jay Lethal Uncle Tom dig.

This ACH saga maybe should gets its own thread at this point. What say you, mods?

https://twitter.com/GoGoMyles/status/1188829526727577605
https://twitter.com/GoGoMyles/status/1188830062570823680

At the very, very least, I think the lying WWE Shopzone dude should get canned ASAP.

 

[Fall of Epic]

Re: WWE is a racist company

Goddamn that Jay Lethal tweet. That's fucked up.

 

[Cackling Co Pilot Kamala]

Re: WWE is a racist company

Oh Jesus. I might have to take back my New Day is not a minstrel act argument now.

https://twitter.com/davidbix/status/1188660781027602432

WHO THOUGHT THIS WAS AN OK IDEA!?

 

[Fall of Epic]

Re: WWE is a racist company

New thread plz (or at least let's resurrected the "Racism in Wrestling" thread).

 

[909]

Re: WWE is a racist company

Took a long time for ACH to get over with me but it has finally happened.

 

[AA484]

Re: WWE is a racist company

I think it has more to do with WWE merchandising employees being absolutely clueless and out of touch than it does to any type of intentional racism. But this isn't the type of stuff that a billion dollar corporation should let slip through. Could you imagine the NFL or MLB releasing this type of stuff?

 

[fazzle]

Re: WWE is a racist company

Could you imagine the NFL or MLB releasing this type of stuff?

Nah, it would never happen. (At least MLB got rid of theirs. Or are going to? Not sure)

 

[Cackling Co Pilot Kamala]

Re: WWE is a racist company

Indians removed Chief Wahoo from their logo this season but I think you can still buy hats with the logo in their team store. Cause they don't want to lose the racist dipshit market.

Anyway, I can't believe the guy who loves wearing vaguely Nazi iconography (and won the World Title Match at WrestleMania XIX) was so duplicitous to ACH.

 

[AA484]

Re: WWE is a racist company

Ha, good point, Kamala. I guess release as *new* merchandise, not grandfathered racist merchandise.

 

[Cackling Co Pilot Kamala]

Re: WWE is a racist company

https://twitter.com/jimbalor/status/1188881557299384322
BE A STAR!

 

[alkeiper]

Re: WWE is a racist company

I couldn't find anything in MLBshop for Chief Wahoo. I'm sure it exists somewhere, but MLB essentially gave the All Star game to Cleveland in exchange for the Indians dropping the logo.