This isn’t views by another white person, telling people of colour how they should feel they’re represented. No, this is opinions by the people who’s viewpoint matters.Without further ado, here are their words:
“Early teenage me literally did not give a solitary shit about Stone Cold Steve Austin – STONE COLD STEVE AUSTIN – because The Rock was there. There was a guy on my TV that looked like me that wasn’t dancing or a savage or a gangsta (and even he had to get past the Rocky Maivia, then Nation of Domination stage) – he was just the best. I was also genuinely gutted when Jason Jordan went out injured. Mixed race representation seems incredibly low – it tends to still be ‘if you’re a bit black, you’re black’While the Kurt angle is his dad story was a properly cheesy wrestling bit, it still felt really good to be visible. I think it’s definitely improving, it’s just a case of more of it and less typecasting.
Dudes like New Day where they’re super positive and gamers and acts like Velveteen Dream help push the envelope more than, say, Street Profits. I’ve LOVED the length of Kofi’s reign, and how it’s been booked. One of the best face world champions we’ve had in a while. But yeah, it needs more. Like, the US is about 60% white
(Then Hispanic, Asian and Black)
40%Wrestling rosters feel closer to 90%POC exist and not marginally” – @Benris84
“One of the reasons why diversity is important is that it solves people’s perception of certain communities, ethnicities and countries, and when you put a POC in an art form like wrestling, it benefits for the longevity of pro wrestling. A great example of that is wrestler by the name of Nor Diana. If the wrestling business is more like this then the business in terms of POC will be in the right hands or at least I hope that’s the case. I believe that it has changed for the better but there are some pieces of human faeces out there that can’t accept that a person of colour actually wrestles inside the square circle.” – @omartheplayaguy
“Talking about race in wrestling is… tiring. Whenever POC fans bring something up, the discussion is either met with vitriol (“You’re just looking for something to be offended by!”), annoyance (“Do you have to bring race into everything?”) or it’s derailed entirely (“This brand has a dinosaur!”) These are all silencing techniques used to quite POC from voicing their frustrations with the lack or quality of representation.In wrestling, fans who aren’t white and/or male will often be given the “here damn” treatment. By this I mean, promotions will throw a lacklustre push or title reign at a wrestler of color as a way to appease fans, and those looking to silence those fans get to point that out.
Promotions also sign a lot of wrestlers of color to say that they have a diverse roster and then use next to none of them in big spots. It’s true that a wrestlers success should be based on their body of work and their ability to get themselves over with the crowd and in a perfect world, that’s how it should be.
Another dog whistle in wrestling is the idea of a performer “not being ready” for a push or a Championship. While it’s entirely true that someone could not be ready for a title reign, it’s leveled fairly often at talent of color, and with some questionable wrestling Champions we’ve had in the past, being “ready” doesn’t hold water to me. It’s important to think about whose voices we hear most in wrestling. Just like we need more female commentary teams and interviewers, we need more people of color in these roles as we need to hear diverse voices.
People need to understand that wrestlers and fans of color are not a monolith. There are just as many nuances to us and our likes and opinions as anyone else.” – @WynterStorm24
“I think that having POC in major roles in wrestling is so important to Children of Color because it shows them someone who looks like them doing amazing things and lets them know that they too can do whatever they put their mind to. But I don’t think that just having a POC is enough, I think they need to be represented in different lights and not just in a stereotypical role. A good example of this would probably be Velveteen Dream, who strays so far away from the idea of masculinity and embraces a more feminine side to himself. Which shows that you don’t have to be one type of way to be successful.
There are other examples but Kofi is my favorite example because he is such a positive example for African-American children/teens/young adults” – @KhyleDeWitt
(Khyle also did a thread about Kofi Kingston being Champion, which I’ll link below for you all to read :https://twitter.com/KhyleDeWitt/status/1114807314588917760?s=19
“I’ve always found representation hard for me personally but in my youth but it didn’t really matter. As I hit my teenage years The Rock really was a big deal within the Asian community in my family and circle of friends as he was a non-white wrestler who was on top. There were people like Tiger Ali Singh of course and Low Down on Sunday Night Heat but this felt like more of a mockery than a true feeling of inclusion.I was a big Curryman fan when I first discovered him in TNA and was happy that it was Christopher Daniels under that mask. I felt he was the closest thing to a fun way to play with the idea of a foreign wrestler.
I was also a major fan of Mohammad Hassan and Davari when they first debuted with a subversion of the idea with a heel who wasn’t foreign by birth but just looked different. I think that gimmick was way ahead of its time and is probably more relevant now than it was then. Massive kudos to the WWE really trying to change the usual formula and make the audience question their reaction.Fast forward to today and I’m a big fan of teams like The Banghra Boys and even Jinder Mahal for the focus that was put on a very marginalised subset of the wrestling audience.
My viewpoint is that it’s getting better and with Kofi and the New Day leading the way there is a chance for some of those old norms to be broken down and a chance for us all to be like kids again forgetting the amount of melanin in someone’s skin being the driving force of how we perceive them” – @fowl_original
Here’s some icons and great pioneers:
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