Hi, this is Fred Wallace with ” Off the Wire “, brought to you by Auto Logic, the Logical Choice.
I sneered in July when the WWE cut ties with Hulk Hogan for racist remarks attributed to iconic performer.
I’m not a fan of the Hulkster……
And I certainly don’t endorse or support the language he used, or is accused of using.
I just take issue when the WWE suddenly becomes the moral compass for the good of society.
This is the WWE, or WWF in the day, that made countless dollars promoting Sgt Slaughter vs the Iron Sheik 35 years ago.
This is the company headed by Vince McMahon who once taunted Nikolai Volkoff on TV after a well orchestrated blunder, calling him a ” stupid Russian “, then insinuating that kind of brain dead move exemplified how the Chernobyl disaster came to be…….
The same WWF that gave us Mr Fuji, Tatanka, Goldust, Eugene and the Mountie.
None of that may be racist, but it does play to stereotypes and exploits the fears and the phobias of all kinds of fans- all the way to the bank.
And it’s nothing new.
In the WWE, from 1973 to today, how many non-Caucasian champions have there been…………….. ?
By my count; zero……Almost exclusively white men have been the heavyweight champion with the odd Hawaiian, Oriental or Hispanic tossed into the mix for the sake of ” diversity “.
Maybe white men are better professional wrestlers, but I’m willing to wager that an actuarial somewhere in time has determined that a white champion, hero or villain, is better at the box office.
Again, while that doesn’t make the WWE a racist organization per se, I still have difficulty accepting their lectures or moral guidance on the issue of diversity and other matters.
I’m Fred Wallace