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Who does Kofi Kingston sing for? In the first episode of Smackdown Live after Fastlane, Kofi and Vince McMahon had a lively conversation about chances, belonging and opportunities. Specifically, Kofi told Vince: "I have never complained that you have never allowed someone like me to compete or compete for the WWE title." I think if you do not have # 39; are not the space he's talking about, you can not
The same week that this promo was aired, it was announced that Harlem Heat, the team made up of the current Booker T and his brother Stevie Ray, would be enthroned in the same space as a unit. Even with the selection process "Duck, Duck, Goose!" From the WWE HOF, longtime fans would consider their longevity, victories, and title reign powerful enough to warrant induction. On social media, I noticed Booker T's humor during his second appearance at HOF in New York, as he and his brother had no equal in New York apart from the name of their team. On a popular Facebook wrestling group, someone innocently asked, "Why are they calling Harlem Heat when they are from Houston?" The answers explain how a Kofi Kingston can be enjoyed and pbaded at the same time.
"Harlem seems harder than Houston."
That's right … for a segment of the population – 3rd Ward, 5th Ward, Acres Homes … Houston is as "difficult" as any what other place in New York, but people who do not attend places with people of color use the information they do not have to look for to explain things, so when someone says "Harlem seems harder, "what they say is" I was largely exposed to blacks by the media and I badociate the "hard" blacks to this area of the country.Therefore (insert the name of the WCW) this was not bad to name a team "Harlem Heat", it was based on the expectations of people.
What does this have to do with Kofi Kingston, main actor in the making? He would be intellectually dishonest to say that there has never been a WWE black champion (I do not need gray hair anymore, so t Black is The Rock? "Will not be at the center of it all). It would be just as dishonest to say that there were no suitors. But look at this list. Ahmed Johnson, Ron Simmons, Bobby Lashley and Mark Henry leave. What do these men have in common? Johnson played professional football for the Dallas Cowboys. Simmons finished 9th in the Heisman Trophy race and was selected by the Cleveland Browns. Lashley was a D2 wrestling champion, and Mark Henry was an Olympian. When Kofi Kingston says "Someone like me", he does not talk about the Black WRESTLER, but the Black EVERYMAN.
If you examine the presentation of champions and black contenders, their initial list or introduction highlights their athletic background. . The Rock was the "blue shredder," Bobby Lashley "the champion of the Armed Forces," Mark Henry "the Olympian." Apart from MVP, a clear interpretation of the "broad diva catcher" model, the Black WWE competitor had John Henry quality for him, "pure" and "all American" and "hard work" and others. Kofi, who has a background in martial arts, was not a collegiate "relationship-capable" athlete, so even without a strong foreign accent, he had a "Jamaican" gadget at the door.
Something wrong with a guy with dreads given a jamaican gadget? It depends; if Dolph Ziggler had received the Sheamus gadget, how would it have worked? If Randy Orton wore a mask and a "mexican" tattooed with henna on his stomach, would that have been accepted? At the time, for Vince McMahon, a new black character needed a gadget that people would "understand", and at WWE, you will not find a lot of black characters whose gimmick does not. was neither "super athlete" nor deeply rooted in a "Black who is familiar to whites". Look Sasha Banks, NXT era: Sasha Banks does not speak slang, does not dress cheap, is not promiscular and is not too flirtatious. But an almost white crowd began chanting "Sasha's ratchet!", Which did not correspond to the way she was presented or how she behaved in real life. They were given something they did not know and they used an unrelated buzzword to explain what they saw.
This is not a story of anti-white supporters. In fact, I would say that the promotion is responsible for presenting characters in three dimensions from all walks of life so that all black teams do not have to be part of the hood. I've tried to explain to a group of friends in 2015 that Xavier Woods represents what "cool" is now, and he fell into the deaf ear, because the black nerd who does not skip the day is not something that he has really experienced, and looks at what he's done for himself in multiple spaces in 2019. I'm not sure Will never forget Konnan among all those who once said on his podcast that Woods was "The Whitest of the Blacks (WWE)". That's why Kofi Kingston sings: People of color who do not fit in the boxes. He's a great athlete … he was not an amateur. He has fire around him … he's just not rooted in the fact that he's pulling himself off his boots.
So when you look at Booker T, five-time WCW champion, who immediately went into conflict with the Rock and Stone Cold when he joined the WCW, it took him five years to win his next world title. WrestleMania 19 is known for his Triple H title defeat, in a quarrel based on the idea that "people like him" have failed to be champions; in fact, he had to become an English king to finally achieve it. Triple H., whom I do not consider at all racist, was able to appeal to Vince's mentality of the black athlete to make this true in the present moment.
The story of Kofi Kingston, WHAT he wins the WWE title, loses his The WWE title match, or simply having more time on TV for a while, is special , difficult and scary because it's an unknown territory and because they will not say right away what I'm trying to say. The "every man" of color – the one who belongs to the middle clbad, the one who does not have any muscles coming out of his ears, the one who does not start dancing or knocking at the slightest drop – is rarely presented in WWE, especially at the top of the map. But the more we struggle, the more you understand the world around you and the better the world as a whole.
(Cameron Hawkins ( @ceehawk on Twitter) co-hosted every Wednesday night with PW Cast Cast Cast, co-presenter of the Wade Keller Pro Wrestling post-show.)
Send your editorials to pwtorch @ pwtorch.com.
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