Hello All

I am sorry for not writing a blog last week. I had some personal things going on and I didn’t have a chance to come up with a blog. Don’t worry though, I am refreshed, have watched all of my shows, and am ready for this blog.

I want to send a shout out to the “Score Atlanta Scoreboard Show”. From time to time, I go on that show, discuss some wrestling, and this blog. The main guy on that show is a wrestling fan, and he likes to ask me question, and we discuss what is going on in wrestling. So with that said, I am going to take a topic from when that show a few weeks ago. What is happening with all of the black wrestlers?

Now I know that when you bring up the topic of race, people always tense up. They don’t want to ask the serious questions, especially when it comes to sports. We like to think sports is a level playing field and if you are good, the cream will always rise to the top, and you will find a way to be successful. But I hope we all know that that is not the case.

Back in the early days (70’s and 80’s) of pro wrestling, there were a lot of black pro wrestlers. Junkyard Dog, Koko Bee Ware, Butch Reed, Rocky Johnson, Bad News Brown. These guys achieved some success, but not to the same degree as their counterparts, Ric Flair, Hulk Hogan, Randy Savage, Dusty Rhodes, Magnum TA. These men were all contemporaries, but the last set of wrestlers I named had multiple championship reigns, whereas the 1st group of men, never won more than tag team championships, and some didn’t even win that.

By the time the 90’s rolled around, we thought things were going to change. In 1992 the very 1st black heavyweight champion was crowned when Ron Simmons defeated Big Van Vader, to win the WCW World Heavyweight Championship. This was a huge deal, because we thought it was the start of a new era. An era where young black kids would be getting started in pro wrestling, because they had someone to look up to. But that never happened. Simmons held the title for 5 months, before dropping it to Vader, but after that he was never a contender for the title. He never got another shot.

At the end of the 90s, there was a little bit of hope. There a young man who was so electrifying, that he could not be stopped. I am talking about the Rock. The Rock went on to become one of the most entertaining performers of all time. Rock won his 1st title in 1999, and was a fixture in the title scene till he left the WWE to become a movie star, in 2003.

The decade of the 2000s started with more progress. Booker T won the WCW Title 4 times before the company closed in 2001. Now I know there were monkeys running that company in the end of it, but still, he was their champion, and that can never be taken away from him. And just to show that he was a great wrestler, he won the World Title, in the WWE in 2006.

But since then there have been no Black Champions in a major promotion that can be seen on TV. I know some of you are saying, “Didn’t R-Truth wins the Title in TNA”? Yes he did, but the last time he held that belt was 2004. TNA was not on TV then. Main stream America probably doesn’t even know he was champion.

And with the lack of push that Shelton Benjamin has gotten from WWE, it does not seem like there will be a Black Champion coming anytime soon.

With the rich heritage of Black Wrestling in this great business, I hope there will continue to be black wrestlers becoming champion in major wrestling organizations.

AND THAT'S THE BOTTOM LLLLLLLLLLIIIIIIIIIIIINNNNNNNNNNNNNNEEEEEEEEEEEEE