The contributions of Bobo Brazil are really being glossed over in this thread. I mean when he showed up black wrestlers weren't even really allowed to face white wrestlers. He came along and got so popular that promoters eventually changed that. He also came out and wasn't a stereotype either. He stood up toe bad guys in such a way that looks of faces don't do. He also refused the NWA World Title in 1962 in a phantom reign.

 

Bobo was an amazing performer indeed. I have only got to see bits and pieces and clips of what he did. But he was definately a door opener. I don't think anyone can gloss that over, highly influential and groundbreaking but that doesn't necessarily mean best,

Clicking around, I was reminded that Bobo actually held the NWA world heavyweight belt. Only for two months, he dropped it right back to Buddy Rogers, but still that must've been a huge deal at the time. The NWA didn't officially recognize the title change, for whatever reason. Anyone got a more detailed story on that?

 

I was also little surprised to see he debuted so much earlier than Ernie Ladd and Abdullah and other guys I thought were around at the same time. If OWW's database is correct, he started seven years before Abby and a full decade before the Big Cat. Also, Wiki claims that he was in Atlanta's first-ever mixed race match... in 1970. Can that be true? I know Southern rassling always lagged a bit behind the times, but still, jesus that's awfully late to still be segregating anything.

I know he storyline refused it because Rogers faked an injury during their match. As for why it wasn't officially recognized. I've never actually found the reasoning to that. I know the NWA was really touchy about the kind of match that the belt changed hands on. I know they did something similar with Killer Kowalski around the same time period. The NWA tended to get pissy if the match didn't have 2 falls in it.

Is there any footage of Ladd from the 60's? I've heard it said that he was incredibly agile for his size (hence the Big Cat nickname) and a really good worker in his prime, but everything I've seen of him is mid-70's on where you could tell he was starting to lose a step. Still pretty good for a guy his size though.

There have been plenty of Americans with less African ancestry than The Rock who were classified as black. Sally Hemings was three-fourths white. Homer Plessy was seven-eighths white.

Been watching alot of '95 and '96 ECW, and I have to put my vote on 2 Cold Scorpio.

 

Worked well as both a heel and a face. Was doing amazing moonsaults and 450's and other crazy shit before cruiserweight wrestling exploded in the states. Could also work really well in a straight up wrestling match. May not have been the best talker in the world, but has undeniable charisma.

 

and could also dance like a motherfucker!

I went into the Megathread for something else but I found this thread. Reading through it, I made a list of the results from the GWE.

 

I included Carlos Colon because looking at him, he looks Afro-Latino. I could've put in other Puerto Ricans like Savio Vega and Homicide but I thought Colon was obvious. Surprisingly no JYD.

 

49) Aja Kong (4085 points, 83 ballots, 39.89 avg, high: 3 - anarchistxx, 2006: 18)

91) Too Cold Scorpio (2521 points, 74 ballots, 67.27 avg, high: 1 - Mando>Eddie, 2006: 145)

101) The Rock (2228 points, 57 ballots, 61.93 avg, high: 8 - anonymous, 2006: 64)

103) Carlos Colon (2185 points, 56 ballots, 61.98 avg, high: 12 - El Boricua, 2006: honorable mention)

136) Butch Reed (1189 points, 38 ballots, 69.71 avg, high: 24 - anonymous, 2006: honorable mention)

156) Mark Henry (1007 points, 37 ballots, 73.78 avg, high: 42 - Phil Rippa, 2006: unranked)

234) Abdullah the Butcher (396 pts, 17 ballots, 77.71 avg, high: 32 - El Boricua, 2006: honorable mention)

238) Sasha Banks (360 pts, 13 ballots, 73.31 avg, high: 22 - Scarlet-Left, 2006: unranked)

248) Booker T (316 pts, 12 ballots, 74.67 avg, high: 16 - Mando>Eddie, 2006: honorable mention)

250) Koko B Ware (312 pts, 10 ballots, 69.80 avg, high: 19 - Mando>Eddie, 2006: unranked)

251) Ernie Ladd (311 pts, 14 ballots, 78.79 avg, high: 44 - NotJayTabb, 2006: honorable mention)

270) Ricochet (275 pts, 13 ballots, 79.85 avg, high: 46 - jackwebb, 2006: unranked)

274) Clive Myers (271 pts, 12 ballots, 78.42 avg, high: 54 - PeteF3, 2006: honorable mention)

279) Ron Simmons (239 pts, 8 ballots, 71.13 avg, high: 24 - Scarlet-Left, 2006: unranked)

352) Kamala (128 pts, 7 ballots, 82.71 avg, high: 50 - ChuckScumm, 2006: unranked)

355) New Jack (124 pts, 6 ballots, 80.30 avg, high: 25 - Mando>Eddie, 2006: unranked)

387) Norman Smiley (97 pts, 6 ballots, 84.83 avg, high: 45 - anonymous, 2006: unranked)

466) Bob Sapp (35 pts, 1 ballot, 66.00 avg, high: 66 - anonymous, 2006: unranked)

519) Rufus R. Jones (14 pts, 1 ballot, 87.00 avg, high: 87 - Dean Rasmussen, 2006: unranked)

557) Kofi Kingston (1 pt, 1 ballot, 100.00 avg, high: 100 - Jimmy Redman, 2006: unranked)

 

Edit: Took out Mero.

514) Marc Mero (15 pts, 1 ballot, 86.00 avg, high: 86 - DMJ, 2006: unranked)

 

This is a joke on purpose, right ? Mero is italian. Like Kevin Sullivan said "Why do you take a cracka to play a brotha ?"

 

Isn't this topic a little… racist anyway ?

 

 

514) Marc Mero (15 pts, 1 ballot, 86.00 avg, high: 86 - DMJ, 2006: unranked)

This is a joke on purpose, right ? Mero is italian. Like Kevin Sullivan said "Why do you take a cracka to play a brotha ?"

 

Isn't this topic a little racist anyway ?

No. I swear to god I had no idea Mero was not black. He's darker than some people on this list. I'm taking him out now.

Don't worry, you're not the only one. Mero said during his Johnny B. Badd days, lots of people thought he was black. Same could be said for Tazz. Those dark-skinned Italian bastards.

Don't worry, you're not the only one. Mero said during his Johnny B. Badd days, lots of people thought he was black. Same could be said for Tazz. Those dark-skinned Italian bastards.

I know Tazz wasn't but Mero duped me and I'm black. He was basically playing Little Richard in WCW.

Rocky Johnson popping up in the Memphis run I'm currently watching reminded me of this topic. He's been pretty good in every territory I've seen him in, and it makes me wonder why he didn't have a longer run anywhere.

 

Black Man vs White Man

Well Booker T said it about brotha Hogan.

Wait Tazz isn't black but Ricochet is? This is just as weird as when I found out that Brodus Clay is apparently supposed to be black.

Man US racial categorizing makes no sense.

 

So pictured here are a black guy and a white guy?

Wait Tazz isn't black but Ricochet is? This is just as weird as when I found out that Brodus Clay is apparently supposed to be black.

Man US racial categorizing makes no sense.

 

So pictured here are a black guy and a white guy?

Ricochet is half black like Aja Kong, The Rock, and Sasha Banks. (Also like our current President - President Obama)

We still have some pretty fucked-up unwritten racial rules in our society. "If you appear to have three white grandparents and one black one, you count as being black." Which of course goes back to the old laws about slavery, which were written to broadly include as many people as possible under the definition of "this person can be owned like property".

 

But for the record, Ricochet looked a lot more traditionally black when he was younger. Somehow he's... grown out of it? Which I wasn't aware was even physically possible, but I've known him since he was sixteen and I've watched it happen.

If nobody has mentioned Stevie ray let me add him here

he carried Big T in Harlem Heat 2000

If nobody has mentioned Stevie ray let me add him here

he carried Big T in Harlem Heat 2000

If nobody had mentioned Stevie Ray it's because of the first word in the topic title.

If nobody had mentioned Stevie Ray it's because of the first word in the topic title.

 

You're a fruit booty, sucka!

Jimmy Valiant says it's Pez Whatley.

We need to add Mercedes Moné to the top of the list.