Truth B Told 11.20.08: Fear of a Black Federation

Posted by Bayani Domingo on 11.20.2008

Look, if a Black man can become president and run the country…why can’t one run a wrestling company? Maybe one day that dream will TOO become a reality. That’s right kids, drink the grape Kool Aid.

Sometimes the 411 readers come up with good ideas of their own…in which cases as a writer it is my job to steal it and pass it off on my own:

Territories are dead and buried. If the NWA wants to be a legit organization, then it needs a TV presence. BET might be a good home. They need ratings and an identity, plus Af-Ams generally follow wrestling. All NWA needs to do is throw Burke, Skipper, and a few other PoCs in there to fill the channel's mandate. Since BET usually draws sub-1.0 numbers, the expectations will be low.

Posted By: Iron Knee

Well I did mention that the NWA needed to find a good channel to partner up with, but I'm not sure how well that Brent Albright will do on BET, but there is a point to be made that the African American demographic really has a lot of potential for growth. When you think about how many African American fans there are when you pan the crowds during episodes of RAW or Impact there are a fair number there. Not to mention on the Indy scene as even in SoCal you have a good number of Black wrestling fans at shows like PWG. But you know, maybe throwing in a few more Black wrestlers like Elijah Burke and Elix Skipper (and I hope PoC's doesn't mean what I think it means) to get a time slot on BET, it is "BLACK Entertainment Television" after all, not "Partially a light shade of Grey Entertainment Television". A show on BET would have to consist of a large percentage of Black entertainers, in effect a "Black Wrestling Federation". Could it work? Would the world be ready for a 2 hour program filled with nothing but "Dark Matches"?

I think the point about BET floundering is pretty true. It is well known that the network has been struggling for ratings and there are constantly rumors that the company will fold at any moment. For a network that still has a strong history, a niche market and a decent following a wrestling show might be in order. When you think about all the times they show athletes, rappers, and actors in the audience during RAW or Smackdown a good number of them are Black, why wouldn't you be able to sway some of that popularity to a network that already has a history of fostering Black entertainers. Now don't get me wrong because this wouldn't have to be a "No Whities Allowed" type company. I don't think any company should be allowed to completely discriminate against someone for their ethnicity or race. Although let's face it, it happens. Either purposely or inadvertently. I mean, how many Black wrestles are there in RoH? What about the NWA tapings that had like 3 Black dudes on the whole weekend. I would think you'd almost have to have a few wrestlers who aren't Black in a company catering to African Americans. Of course they'd probably end up as "heels" but you know…turn about and all. Still a company that features a "majority" of Black wrestlers wouldn't be that much different from any of the other companies like WWE or TNA that have a majority of White wrestlers. The social aspects could be argued, but then again it's not like people bitch about AAA and CMLL having too many Mexicans in the company. okay, it's just me, but then again I'm racist. Don't blame me, I was fine until I started living in LA, then again they do make a damn fine bag of street fruit salad, $3 is an absolute STEAL of a deal. But I digress.

The cornerstone of any good company is the wrestlers. Okay, the production value, name cache, money backing, and THEN the wrestlers, but let's at least look at what potential wrestlers would be available to …have we come up with a name for this hypothetical company yet? ECW (Ebony Championship Wrestling)? TNA (Total Nubian Action)? NWA (N*ggaz With Armdrags, Commissioner Dr. Dre anyone?)? I don't know, we'll settle on BWE (Black Entertainment Wrestling) for now. If you take a look at which wrestlers aren't already on contract with the WWE or TNA, have a "contract" with RoH (Briscoes…wait…are they even Black? Like how much? What's the under/over on 40%?), and haven't forsaken wrestling to compete in MMA (Lashley) then you end up with a talent pool that looks like this:

Elijah Burke, Monty Brown, Elix Skipper, Human Tornado, Eddie Kingston, Ruckus, Sabian, Scorpio Sky, Babi Slymm (Muscle Gang), Kenny King, 2 Cold Scorpio, The Godfather, Viscera (Mable), D-Ray 3000, Rodney Mack, Orlando Jordan, Onyx, Kory Chavis, Maven (isn't he already on BET?) and Jack Evans…okay, maybe only Jack believes he's Black, but I don't have the heart to tell him. You also have managers like Slick, Julius Smokes, and Prince Nana.

Does the roster look promising? Sure it does. But would those names alone carry enough "star power" to sell an entire show? To be honest that line-up wouldn't even rival ECW or TNA by a long shot, although it's at least on par with WSX or NWA. Sure that's not saying much, but at least it's a start. You have some solid hands in there and some former WWE/F wrestlers that would at least pique some fans interests but this really has as much to do with the name recognition these wrestlers come with as it would be about the hope that Indy fans that watch RoH or TNA to a lesser degree would be willing to give another company offering an "alternative" the opportunity to succeed. Hell, even if every Black wrestlers was considered a "free agent" that only really opens the door for another dozen or so mid-carders. Look at the Black wrestlers in the "e" and "T" and what do you have: Booker T, Brother Devon, Consequences Creed, Jay Lethal, Homicide (?), Shelton Benjamin, Mark Henry, MVP, Cryme Tyme, R-Truth, Kofi Kingston, Boogeyman, Ezekiel, and then the Briscoes. Not exactly setting the world on fire, huh? Maybe it has to do with the lack of real successful Black wrestlers out there. Is it an issue of them not being pushed? Are there just less quality candidates of African American decent? Is it the fact that Bobby Lashley has set the entire race back 10 years after walking out on the "e"? Eh…that's a column for another day. Point is that in general there isn't a whole lot of more star power that is on "contract" that isn't already available to a "start-up company" like BWE. The real question is: would you watch a company that featured the list above of "free agents" as the main center pieces with a few "crackers" and perhaps an Asian or Mexican dude thrown in there for "diversity"?

If you think there are few quality Black FA's out there in the men's division, the women's division is even worse. The WWE has helped out the rest of the industry by only really employing two Black women, Alica Fox and Layla El…or is it London? Or is she even Black? Wait…I'm checkin' that ass out and I'll say "yes". TNA, however has cornered the market on Black chicks in wrestling: Amazing Kong, Miss Jackie, Rhaka Khan, and Sharmell. When you take those women out of the equation all you have is Kristal Marshall (if she even wants to come back), Jazz, and then Josie. Who I was told by Ryan Byers (thanks for the heads up Byers) is one of the only Black wrestlers still in SHIMMER, okay Kong on occasion, but that's it. Hey, where is the diversity there? Fortunately for BWE it isn't necessary to have a women's division, or even a large number of Black valets, cuz' Black dudes aren't too picky when it comes to women. In fact there would probably need to be at least a half dozen white bitches with blonde hair and thick Mexican women in the company just to make it more realistic. Oh and at least one Asian chick who JUST got her naturalization papers and only does nails while her "import modeling" career takes off. What? Look, this is TRUTH B told…not, PC B told.

I think the booking could be fairly simple, in fact there are a lot of great wrestling minds that are available if they were made a good offer. You have Heyman, Gabe, and I'm sure some road agents from TNA or the "e" could be persuaded to leave if given a good opportunity. I would love to see what Michael Hayes would do with the "Book". Or not. It would be interesting to see what kind of storylines would be involved in a company like this. Would they steer away from the stereotypical exaggerations like Cryme Tyme or the Nation of Domination? Would a stable that provides a more hardcore image like BLK OUT get over as a "face" faction as opposed to the "heel" reaction they may get in other companies? You know, I don't think that the feuds and angles would be that different from most other companies, although the spin would be quite different because usually the "militant" gimmick gets a very negative stereotype, but the good ol' shuckin' and jivin' character who dances and raps to the ring gets a big "pop". You know there is a whole new dynamic of Black and African culture that just has not been delved into before on a more genuine level. Not the cartoonish way that has been traditionally done. This also opens the door for the "Mayo on a Pole Match". Losers eats a spoonful.

You know I think the premise of a company like this is to bring in a larger audience that already watches wrestling, but may not be as invested or feel like they are being as closely addressed (or pandered to) as the rest of the fan base. It's not as if there still wouldn't be a non-Black audience that would tune in to see some of their favorite wrestlers on TV. Even in SoCal we got to see some of our favorite native sons like Tornado, Slymm, and Sky on TV for a brief shining moment when WSX was on. You could even steal the concept that WSX had when they were on MTV and try to tie music into the program. How about appearances and performances by Rap and Hip-Hop groups on the show? There are so many musicians that seem to show up at wrestling shows already that I would think that you would be able to cross them over fairly easily. Hell, even some wrestlers in the industry now have musical aspirations like Ron Killings and Scorpio Sky who are both pursing musical careers as well as wrestling ones, this might be their chance to showcase their talents in a more meaningful way. Really, does anyone think R-Truth is going to stick with the "e" long enough to debut a 2nd entrance rap?

I can't imagine that BET wouldn't be able to at LEAST match the kind of ratings they are getting now on a Wednesday night. If a wrestling show is good, it doesn't matter what color the roster is, wrestling fans will watch it. I think we've proven with shows that end up on odd stations like WSX and CCW that wrestling fans are willing to tune in for just about anything wrestling related, at least to some degree. While the appeal for some may be the spotlighting of Black athletes (and why is it Black wrestling ALWAYS get promoted on their athleticism over just about any other characteristic?) it also holds the appeal of bringing to the forefront some fairly interesting characters that might otherwise never be highly visible. Take guys in CHIKARA for instance, how could you NOT push a man dressed up like an Egyptian Pharaoh? The struggle will be having a very niche form of entertainment marketed to a very specific demographic on a network that hasn't had a lot of buzz in years. although there are only a handful of truly successful Black-centric shows on TV or or movies you have to think the cross over appeal to the rest of parts of the country that "love America" would be enough to at least make this a viable option. Besides, unless you're a Nielsen family no one is going to be the wise. On the bright side, unlike when you're bumping your Young Jeezy and T.I. tracks on your stereo in your car and you get caught at a stoplight by some brothers pulling up next to you, you won't have to turn the channel on your Television and pretend you were listening to Daughtry the whole time.

The Truth

A Black wrestling company? Yes…We…Can!! But, No…It…Won't…Happen. Well at least not any time soon. I think it's a novel idea and with so much wrestling on TV now and even more trying to find it's way onto the airwaves you'd be hard pressed in finding a market that could support it. Then again if you've on BET the bar would be set so low it would be hard NOT to succeed. It would be interesting to see how a wrestling company on BET would stack up to the ratings that the CCW gets on CMT. This isn't about a movement to empowering the Black consumer. This isn't an opportunity to present Black wrestlers in a more positive light, give them an opportunity to succeed they wouldn't have in a regular company due to politics, stereotypes, etc. This is about …Money, money…yeah, yeah. Damn it…I guess your brainwashing has worked Vince. Next thing you know I'm going to assume that all Black dudes will only fight each other and insist on adding an extra spin to every single move they do to make it "flashier". "That's great Tom, but why did you have to do a front flip spin when you signed off on this week's payroll?"

Coming Up Short

I went to the NWA tapings last weekend and while I had tickets to both Saturday Night and Sunday afternoon I decided after the Saturday show to go ahead and sleep in and watch some football instead of making that 2nd show. Not that the show was bad necessarily, but it just wasn't good. There were about 100 people at the tapings, maybe 120, and they were typical SoCal fans, if you live in SoCal you know what that means, if you don't…wiki it. The tapings started pretty much on time and although they went about 3 hours and there times when we were asked to yell and cheer loudly during segments or while shooting commercials or what not, it was fairly uneventful. It was a crap shoot as to who was going to wrestle and who wouldn't. No Youngbucks, no Los Luchas (although I SWEAR there was a fake Phoenix Star wrestling), Mike DiBiase didn't wrestle, no Blue Demon (though they plied us with Full Throttle, Blue Demon energy drink all night long, literally loading us up every half hour or so in the hopes to get us pumped up), and no Ric Flair. Okay, so I knew Flair wouldn't be there…but not even a David sighting. Just sad. They did manage to pass out popcorn, chips, and candy though so that was nice, but the whole "studio wrestling show" experience was weird. Not sure how I liked it or how it will come off on TV but it was definitely worth the drive to experience it first hand. Now while some of those guys really did work their asses off and while guys like Adam Pearce, Bryan Danielson, Muscle Gang, Oliver John, and Derek Sanders really impressed or continued to impress me, I have to say that a lot of these newcomers are just so green. Even the one match that looked promising in the beginning featured one of the oddest botched spots I had ever seen. A guy who looked like a skinny, shrunken version of Cena's old "Prototype" gimmick was taking on Derek Jannetty and managed to hit a few quick moves and went to the top rope to finish him off with an SSP when he jumped up, did an inverted front flip…and apparently forgot to jump FORWARD and landed almost crotch first right back onto the top turnbuckle. I called that the "Shooting Star Unim-pressed". That kind of sums up the problem with the new NWA, they really are trying to build something from the ground up with so few real veterans and much fewer recognizable names. If the NWA show is to succeed they'll need more than 2 or 3 minute matches and relative unknowns from Jersey and Colorado. Hopefully the company can put together a more impressive line-up or at the least manage to entice some old veterans to get involved because I have a feeling that if they don't manage to tweak a few things during their next round of tapings next month they are going to fall short of getting a TV spot. I would hate to see that though because those guys really tried to put on a good show, but if there is one thing I've learned in wrestling, it's that you gotta have a "draw". Something tells me that Paul Diamond and his "SSIP" ain't gonna be it.

6 Degrees of…



You may have known him as Steve Lewington at some point…okay you probably didn't, but no need to fear because now he will be known as DJ Gabriel…which I have no idea where that comes from. It sounds like a disc spinning archangel. Well hey Mr. DJ, we're going to link you up this week with a man who seems to be eerily familiar to you….



Maxwell "Muthafuckin'" Caulfield. We're gonna Booooooowl tonight…damn…that might one of the gayest references you'll see here on 411. Until JT's here tomorrow.

Whatchu talkin' bout readers?

Seriously…who said that Asian chicks look like they have "downs"? That's just fucked up…unless you're talking about Cambodians, in which case…that's just rude to point out on the internet. Not untrue…just rude.

6 Degrees Results

#1.

Bayani-

It's been a while since I've done a 6DO but here we go-

Brooke Burke was host of the reality show Rockstar-INXS and Rockstar-Supernova which included co-host Dave Narvarro.
Dave Navarro was a contestant (and winner) on Celebrity Poker Showdown. Another contestant on the show was Ben Affleck.
Ben Affleck is married to Jennifer Garner.
Jennifer Garner starred in the movie ‘Elektra' which co-starred Bob Sapp
Bob Sapp was victorious over Akebono at ‘K-1 Premium 2003 Dynamite'. This event also included a bout between Mauricio De Silva and Sylvester Terkay.
Sylvester Terkay had a 6 month run in ECW. His associate/corner man was the recently released…. Elijah Burke.

Thanks-

Brian Eyer

Left Overs…

At $10.33, WWE stock is at it's lowest in years. Also at 1,033 lbs JBL's WWE stock is at it's lowest.

What the hell has Dolph Zeigler done to earn his spray tan? Is he joining DX soon? When he finally debuts I hope he's known as "Sunkist" Dolph Zeigler, you know, cuz' he's orange and juiced.

Why would Evan Bourne show up on RAW with crutches and show everyone just how vulnerable he is unless he wanted to get attacked? It's like spending your first day in county jail and complaining about spilling all that Vaseline down your ass crack.

Did the "Face" team have a name in that ECW tag team match? How about: Hardy Irish Kofi?

Armando Estrada was released, Como se dice…Walmart Greeter?

Ted DiBiase starring in "The Marine II"? Great, what's next? Snitsky starring in "See No Evil II"? Droz in "Walking Tall…..oohh…that's right…my bad.

Cena and Vinny Mac caught in the front row of an AC/DC concert together? What's next? Vinny Mac kickin' it with Cena at a Lil' Wayne concert? Vince and Cena spotted at a Pinkberry with Heidi and Spencer? Cena helping Vince dispose of the dead Korean hooker in the trunk of his limo? Just kidding…Vince doesn't need help disposing of an Asian hooker, he just wished her "Good luck in her future endeavors" with Kenny and Burke.

The WWE hasn't cast a lead for their upcoming film "A Chance at Both Barrels" yet. If Lita isn't involved in that project somehow I will wash my hands of the entire thing…if she is she will have to wash her face after the entire thing.

The Great Booty Debate 2008

Had to reach into my "rainy day" picture stash this week. Not sure if it's the best, but at least they were quick and easy. The pics…not the chicks. Although I'd prefer the opposite. This week we're pitting Yuki against Jacqueline.

Random Asian Bitch Lookin' Good Pic of the Week



Angry looking Asian girl? Yeah…welcome to MY world Anglos. You didn't think they were all laughing and covering their mouths with fans did you?

Random Latina Bitch Lookin' Good Pic of the Week



That bikini would be a hell of a lot better if they made it with Velcro instead. Who knows how to tie a sheep shank now a day?

Brock Lesnar is the NEW UFC Heavyweight Champion. He had a stunning upset of Randy Couture and now looks ready to shut everyone's mouth about how much of a failure he has been since he quit the WWE. Except his mom…he'll never be able to please that bitter old woman. Never!! Oh shit…I meant Sable. My bad.

Paul London is apparently living in LA now and considering taking acting classes in the hopes of getting into the "entertainment business". I'll let you know when I hear about the first time he injuries another actor with an SSP during vocal warm-ups.

When did Alex Wright and Rob Conway have time between Indy gigs to sire a son? You know…that question really answers itself doesn't it? I'm glad Alicia Fox was there with Gabriel to help debunk the theory that all Black chicks can dance. Change we can believe in Alicia.

So how surprised was I to see that the cast of "Not-Rated Pro Wrestling" showed up at the NWA tapings on Saturday night? Ron Jeremy, Tommy Gunn (who my GF pointed out in his swank Prowler…yes, someone still owns a Prowler), Evan "HHH" Stone, a few porno chicks I didn't recognize, and the infamous Craig "Matt Hearty" Valentine. I wasn't sure if they were guests there to simply watch and learn, or whether they were scouting new talent, but they were there and on their best behavior. They were taking everything in, they were respectful, didn't create a distraction and seemed to enjoy and react to the action as any regular fan would. Kudos to them. It actually makes me a little curious as to where the company is going and considering I haven't heard anything from them since the last column I did with the review of their DVD (any of you readers out there interested in a follow up?). Well I checked out the NRPW website and they seem to be having another show coming up next weekend. Thanksgiving weekend. When most people are on vacation…so…not sure what the plan was for getting a good turn out was but…that's certainly thinking outside of the "box". Which is odd for a company promising a lot of "inside the box" type action. Then again it's in Bakersfield again so…if you live there, there's really nothing else going on so you might as well just go right? Eh, anyways, where else can you see a tag match involving Gangrel and Goldust? The answer is 1999. But in lieu of time travel, I guess check it out…let's see if Valentine and Stone picked up any tricks this weekend. Which is either a reference to buying a hooker or learning how to hit the SSIP.

Till then, the Truth will set you free.

-B