FanPost

On Race, Rock's Blackness and the WWE Championship

Dwayne Johnson is black. And Samoan. Whatever anyone else says, he was the first and only so far black WWE champion. With Kofi's rise of late, many people including myself have talked about WWE needing to put the belt on their first African American champion. We are wrong (because the Rock was that), but our argument is not. Here's where I'm coming from...

The elephant in the room

LARISANO has opened my eyes to what is now an obvious point. Vince might just be ready to crown a black champion for the first/second time largely because the WWE belt might not be tops anymore. The WHC had a few black champions, but never when it was regarded as the TOP strap. We can argue about the lineage of the WWE versus the newness of the UC, but it is quite likely and at least possible that WWE considers the UC tops - it's the one on Raw, the one they had their "guy" Roman chase and win, the one they give to their 10 million (ish) dollar man Brock. Lots of people say, yeah but it's only on tv once a month, defended rarely, etc. You're not wrong. They have done a crap job of establishing their top strap as their top strap, but it seems a stretch to say that means it isn't the top.

Why that matters is that this may be Vince letting in to whatever amount of pressure real or imagined to crown a black WWE champion knowing that he is still not crowning a TOP champion. So that point is out of the way, let's agree that this may all be a shrewd move by Vince to seem to make a historic choice without actually doing so. It might not, but that's not the point of THIS post.

Vince

You cannot take one example (like JYD) and say that shows a pattern. You can, however, look at the overall booking and establish some tendencies. There are plenty of inappropriately racist characters that Vince has used (Kamala, JYD, Sabo, etc). There are also plenty of questionable characters and stories(some would point to the NoD, but that felt like a group that was more than willing to be who they were and if I'm wrong, I apologize) like Sexual Chocolate, Booker's WM19 fued, etc. The more telling thing to me is the fact that black wrestlers seem to be cast as others more often than not. And while not innumerable, there have been plenty of black wrestlers that would have made since to be pushed more than they were...Mark Henry (yeah he was WHC, he was also a giant, strong, good speaker relegated to comedy for YEARS), Booker, Ahmed (think about how many white wrestlers JUST LIKE Ahmed Vince had in the upper crust for years - big, powerful, amazing/scary look, intensity), Farooq (how he didn't get the strap I don't know), you get the idea.

Also, some would point to the handful of non-white champs as a counter, but look at that (very short) list. Take out Pedro, cause I have no idea what the booking was like mainly, you have a few foreign heel gimmicks (Sheik, Jinder), a couple of Latino guys playing Latino guys (when that demographic was skyrocketing), and that's it. So, two/three guys who's thing was that they were bad BECAUSE of their diversity, and two treasures in Eddie and Rey. Not really showing me that Vince is a changed man.

The Rock

I have had a few very poorly worded comments that denied the Rock's blackness, and I apologize to the Rock, but moreso to the black commenters and readers on this site. My own children are black and Hispanic, and if someone tries to tell them they are not black at any point...well, let's just hope that never happens.

The reason Kofi is still the symbol of a giant problem (not having a black WWE champ) has nothing to do with the Rock, how he identifies, or even the "character" WWE had him portray. When talking about the Rock being the first black WWE champ, the issue is with how one man views the Rock - Vince.

It is in poor taste for the you and me's of the world to question Rock's blackness. It is valid, however, to question how Vince SEES the Rock (or saw when he was being pushed). If we were talking about the first black winner of something where the only contributing factor was athletic superiority over an opponent (boxing, golf, tennis, any individual sport or accomplishment that could only be done by an individual), the fact that we had a champion already would negate the current problem/issue. BUT, because we are talking about a champion where a big part of it is being picked by someone to "win," how that someone sees his champion is VERY much a part of the discussion.

It seems impossible to look at the last 40 years of WWF/E product and not see the racist tendencies of Vince. From character portrayal, to booking decisions, to the lack of featured black performers as a real threat to the main event scene, I don't think many would argue that there is something there to be concerned about. Having said that, there are two options when thinking about the Rock: either Vince thought of him as a black wrestler, has had one black WWE champion (in his mind), and has never made a thing of it...or Vince thought of him as Samoan, and regardless of Rock's culture, WWE has not had a champion they consider black as the WWE champ. You decide which is an accurate depiction of how WW/EVince views their belt's history.

Why this is important

If we were talking about Tiger Woods being the first black Masters winner, the fact that he is mixed race would be a non-issue. He, as a black man, won a tournament (steeped with its own specifically racist issues) that a black man had never won. There is not the perception that previously deserving black golfers were singled out and disallowed from winning the green jacket (although, again, at the institutional level you could talk about black golfers being allowed in places in general).

Even something like Franco Harris winning the SB MVP, which is technically chosen, but is done so very quickly, so there is not as much concern about the race of the recipient, is a momentous thing that happens. There is not necessarily debate about a given black athlete having deserved it OVER Bart Starr or Joe Namath.

While performance certainly plays into who Vince chooses - he does not just push a guy immediately to the top without letting him perform and see if he holds the audience - ultimately, this is about a company choosing the "winner" of their top prize (I know, UC belt now, see above). If we think Vince viewed Rock as Samoan (and I do), and if we think he has specifically not allowed the rise of black wrestlers in his history (which I do), then tapping his first black wrestler to hold the 60-some-odd year old WWE championship is a big deal.

The Story

So far, WWE is being careful, but it is worth noting - they are getting close to the point of no return. I saw a reply the other day to the effect of "it's too late. If Kofi doesn't win, I'm cancelling the network."

They have made it clear that there is a racist history with this belt, and the only way the story ends correctly is with him winning. Is it as big of a deal as they are making it (with the UC belt being maybe/probably tops now) - depends on your outlook - but it's not nothing.

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