We've had quite a bit of discussion about how pro wrestling in general and WWE in particular handles racial issues and presents non-white wrestlers here at Cageside Seats. A lot of that has been driven by and focused on The New Day gimmick that former champs Big E and Kofi Kingston, along with TNA and NXT alumni Xavier Woods, were given last year.
Other than social media and official WWE messaging from Big E and the group, we haven't heard a lot about wrestlers - and specifically performers of color - think about the "characters".
Ring of Honor's Cedric Alexander recently discussed The New Day, and issues facing African-Americans and other minorities in wrestling, in an interview on Glenn Clark's Jobbing Out podcast.
Clark and co-host Aaron Oster talked with independent wrestling veteran about the Briscoes turning down WWE and the notion of guys like Alexander making a living in a low politics environment vs. risking it all going to work for Vince McMahon. That brought them to a joking question about whether or not Cedric would be one of Adam Rose's Rosebuds like other indy workers have done ("oh God no"), and that led to talking about Kingston, Woods and E's act.
This opens up a whole different can of worms here, because everyone I know that watches WWE is offended by The New Day... extremely offended because of the whole racial thing," Alexander said. "It's like, 'oh we're three black guys, we'll sing, we'll dance. You've got Kofi Kingston, who's a phenomenal athlete, Big E Langston is a gigantic, threatening man and Xavier Woods is extremely intelligent. So why make them sing and dance when they obviously can be more... serious, I guess?
When they first started this thing, it was like two or three weeks that they did it where Xavier would come out and be like a Malcolm X type of thing. He was preaching black power without saying black power, which I think is fantastic because you don't offend anyone. But when you've got three black guys singing and dancing, stereotypes get fed too much and I hate it.
Alexander acknowledged that there has been progress in wrestling from the days when Bobo Brazil's championship wins couldn't be acknowledged, but the absence of black wrestlers in marquee WrestleMania matches shows that there's a long way to go.
Similar to how he and his friend Cedric Coleman were placed together as the former ROH tag team C & C Wrestle Factory, Cedric imagines that the friendship between the three men in New Day makes it easier for them to stomach working the stereotypical gimmick. Well, that and "a buttload of money", which he says would he would help anyone under contract who was asked to do something similar.
Far from pinning all the blame on WWE, Alexander pointed out where there are similar tendencies to categorize minority wrestlers by skin color first and everything else second, if at all. That includes ROH, where he said he and his friend Caprice Coleman were placed together in the C & C Wrestle Factory tag team simply because the company didn't have a "black tag team".
It's always a weird thing because you've got one black guy and another black guy, let's put them together in a tag team. If you take a guy like ACH and Rich Swann and compare those two guys who are completely different wrestlers. But if you put them side-by-side, people who are not big indie fans automatically assume that they're a tag team or do the same moves because they're two black guys who happen to be smaller and athletic.
Check out the whole interview, done to promote his appearance at next weekend's Maryland Championship Wrestlng show in Glen Burnie, at this link.
There's not a whole lot of new ground covered, but it's always interesting to hear from a voice inside the business. And while other racial and ethnic backgrounds are better represented, numbers-wise, in ROH and many other indies than they are in WWE, they're still the minority, and Cedric Alexander is really the first voice I've heard speak on The New Day gimmick specifically.
Anything here change your mind or prompt new thoughts on those characters specifically or the landscape for African-Americans in wrestling?