WWE has always had rumors of racism from both the Latino and African-American crowd. WWE was able to put these to rest a bit over the years, but rumors were still present and hard for the WWE to shake. That is why when people bring up the World Title scenario, WWE comes off as a bit bias toward the White Wrestler. However, there have been black performers who have won both the WWE and World Heavyweight Titles, respectively.
Rey Mysterio, Alberto Del Rio, and Eddie Guerrero were all WWE or World Heavyweight Champions in their time, two of whom have been champion in the last number of years. Guerrero may have been a multi-time WWE champion had he not died suddenly nearly a decade ago.
Both Booker T and Mark Henry won the World Heavyweight Title in the last decade, and The Rock won the WWE and World Heavyweight Title as well. The Rock is half Black and half Samoan, so many do not think of him as a black performer. However, I will say that U.S. President Barack Obama is also half black and considered the first black President in history. That being said, I think it’s fair to use The Rock in the scenario as a black champion, something he himself is proud of being.
It should also come as no surprise that in the Attitude Era, racism rumors were so big that the WWE decided to address them on a weekly basis with all-black faction The Nation of Domination. Known as a hit hard and fast group that seemed more like a pack of wolves than civil rights activists, the Nation still addressed big things that the WWE was not doing for the average black performer. While the Nation did end up bringing in a white Owen Hart, the idea was that they would move from this into simply being a dominate faction. Owen’s presence sealed that concept. This happened when The Rock became the leader of the Nation and Farooq was dropped. Ron Simmons ended up being part of the legendary APA tag team with Bradshaw, so it worked out for all involved.
Rock eventually used this Nation as way to get over and fight with top stars. Eventually he went on to be a major success in the main event scene. So the once-interesting concept that addressed black issues ending up being a way to build stars.
The WWE recently faced racist claims once again, so the idea was thrown out to make a “New Nation” with Kofi Kingston, Big E., and Xavier Woods. All three men would help to lead a new movement to get respect as black performers. It could build them well and, due to being heel, the group could end up doing things that a face team couldn’t do to get noticed.
The Nation of Domination was brilliant for it’s time, but controversial. WWE has not shied away from controversy these days, but it seems like they decided to do so recently.
The New Nation faction and storyline has been dropped. The group was not used on either RAW or the upcoming SmackDown broadcast. Main Event doesn’t even show them together.
All men worked either on SmackDown or in dark shows as face competitors. WWE dropped the idea for really no major reason according to sources . Although many do think that TNA’s similar group involving MVP, Bobby Lashley, and Kenny King could be a big reason. Many think the WWE started the group simply to compete with TNA’s version. However, that seems doubtful as they were two different factions. The only similarity was the skin color of the members.
The problem with the idea to drop them is that yes, it leads to many wondering why WWE would drop the only real black stable since the Nation. Obviously WWE had ideas that would touch on race, and that is something WWE would clearly be smart touching on. However, this also means that they’d have to push all men a bit for it all to work or racism would be even worse for them.
So WWE found themselves in a catch 22: Do the angle and risk the idea of pushing a few guys who aren’t ready and do not have the proper tools needed, or don’t do the angle and seem racist in dropping it, but don’t risk looking worse. WWE took the latter, and it might have been a smart concept. That does not mean the racist ideology will go away however. Fans have cited WWE as racist for years despite their both good and bad depiction of their black performers. Sadly, this just comes with the territory in WWE. You can’t win ever truly.
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