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Chris Jericho On If He Has Seen Racism In WWE; What Vince McMahon Thinks Of Scarves

9K views 70 replies 45 participants last post by  FriedTofu 
#1 ·
Source: HuffPost Live

As noted earlier, Chris Jericho spoke with HuffPost Live this week to promote last night's season finale of Tough Enough. During the interview, Jericho said that McMahon calls him "the most effeminate tough guy he has ever met" and that Jericho is directly responsible for Alberto Del Rio's scarf gimmick because McMahon hated seeing Jericho wearing a scarf. Jericho claimed that he was inspired by Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones to wear scarves, but McMahon thinks scarves are more feminine than rock and roll.

"When Alberto Del Rio was in the company, he wore scarves to the ring and that was a direct order from Vince," Jericho recalled. According to Jericho, McMahon would say that "scarves are heat".

On the topic of racism within WWE, Jericho said, "if you want to find something to complain about, you can, but if you want to also appreciate what's going on, you can".

While Jericho said he never saw racism in WWE, he admitted there was stereotyping in the past, giving the examples of Japanese performers always throwing rice and Mexicans wearing sombreros.

"Diversity is the word and WWE is a billion dollar company," Jericho said. "I think WWE is probably far and beyond more diverse than most entertainment companies are. I think right now the Tag Team Champions [the New Day] are African American and they just won the [titles] from some African American dudes [the Prime Time Players]."

Jericho then joked that even Canadians are not immune from WWE's stereotyping.

"What about Canadians? What about racial profiling against Canadians? A mountie? We had a mountie [in WWE]!" Jericho noted. "If there's any type of racial comments, everyone's offended except for Canadians. No one ever stands up for the Canadians. Ever! You know why? It's because we're too friendly to worry about it."
 
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#22 · (Edited)
Name one black wrestler good enough the top guy. They tried Lahley but it didn't work. Then there is Rock who is half black but he still is black. You had Hogan and he is orange. Booker T and Mark Henry were Wolrd Champions at one point but they were never good enough to be the top guy.
 
#9 ·
I think WWE is as racist as their fans need them to be; the majority of his fans are ******** so Vince doesn't push people of color unless he's trying to attract a new market, which is why HHH signed Itami and those 2 Indian guys. It's also why ADR got such a big push, Botchcara got a million chances and why he called up Hunicara and Kallisto so soon trying to court Hispanic viewers. Black people won't get a big star unless our market share either increases or decreases drastically.
 
#13 · (Edited)
I had no idea he was such a fucking idiot. Being a Canadian is a nationality you mong, not a race fpalm That said, he did what a lot of Canadians do is pretend to be nice while shooting a bunch of hateful drivel. I mean, when you really examine the kind of person Jericho comes across here is that "Hey blacks got their fucking championships, but us canadians get treated like shit and no one even cares about us because we're too nice .. but those african american dudes have it so much better" ...

Oh fuck off Jericho. That kind of view is the very kind of racist view held by a shit ton of racist idiots that think that a hand out that's well below the ceiling is "good enough" for people of colour ... and then turn around and whine about how whites (in his case Canadians) have it worse ... This is what typically happens when you ask a closet racist questions about racism.

Ugh ... Can't believe i was ever a fan of this idiot.
 
#29 · (Edited)
Ehh idk because besides Booker T not winning at 18 I can't think of any specific holding blacks back moment.

It was clear he was high on Lashley until he quit.

MVP maybe would of got there but he left

Shelton has Cesaro levels of charisma but isn't as good in the ring.

R Truth screwed himself out of a main event slot with an ill timed wellness policy failure.

Ahmed Johnson was injury prone.

D'lo midcarder

Ron Simmons got overshadowed by the Rock

Henry and Booker were World champs with successful reigns.

Kofi, Big E, Woods, Titus, Darren, Apollo... well Kofi, Big E, and Apollo still got a shot if Christian eventually got one

I'd like to see more World Champs that look like me sure. But I feel like people only want it to happen just to say it happened. A lot of the black talent they had is meh. Just because there's been plenty of shitty White champs doesn't mean I want meh black champs like Shelton.

As far as stereotyping who haven't they parodied. We've had Thugs, the Yakuza, Mexicans on lawn mowers, apache chiefs, trailer trash, angry muslim, snobby brits wrestling in general isn't the place for Well thought out characters.
 
#44 ·
Of course there's been racism in WWE. Anyone who's watched WWE for an extended amount of time can see it. Not surprising when Vince is calling the shots. And while it will change somewhat when he's no longer in charge, HHH isn't exactly a saint, either, even in re: racism. So, while it may improve to a certain degree, I don't think it will be completely gone from WWE when Vince is done and H is running things, sadly.
 
#55 ·
So you think he is going to say "WWE is racist" .Why would he do that?
Honestly, racism is an awful concept that I cannot understand. But I doubt WWE is racist, they have never had a problem with The Rock, Rikishi, BookerT, Rtruth, Jazz, Teddy Long, Chavo, Layla, Sasha etc...

I garantee you, if an african american or latino superstar comes and makes money to the WWE, they will happily push him/ her. Racism is not a joke, you can't call someone racist because you don't like the way they work.
 
#52 · (Edited)
I also think there's the mindset that anyone who isn't black or hispanic = white.

I'm not sure that Roman Reigns considers himself "white" per se. I mean, I guess it could go either way, but I don't necessarily think that he's white full-stop.

Also, I didn't realize that New Day came up with their own gimmick. I cringed so bad with the face version of their gimmick because it seemed SOOO stereotypical/racist (but the heel version is amazing). I think it depends on the wrestler. It doesn't seem racist or stereotypical with someone like R-Truth, because Ron Killings actually likes rapping and dancing, so it's more an "extension of his personality" as they say. On the other hand, a guy like Brodus Clay, it feels very contrived and stereotypical.

I'm not sure why the non-stereotypical black wrestlers don't get as much of a push as some other guys, and I wouldn't be surprised if race played at least SOME part in it. Big E comes to mind. I didn't watch much when Lashley was around, but he's another that seemed like the total package. David Otunga was the intelligent, cocky, narcissist, but he just always seemed boring for some reason. ADR was just awful (in my opinion).... I guess if you want to take it back a couple decades, Papa Shongo got that little bit of a push by feuding with Warrior, but nothing came of it.... Then Kama fell flat... Then Charles Wright ended up getting over big time with a VERY stereotypical gimmick, but didn't get an ME push (though, in all fairness, Godfather wasn't really WWF World Champion material).

I'd imagine many/most white fans are like me and just want to see whoever fits the bill of performers we like get a push (I like big, powerhouse guys that still have some agility), but I'm sure Vince has at least some reservations of pushing guys that aren't the same race as his main demographic.

I don't think it's necessarily racist, but I do think that people tend to gravitate towards performers (of any sport, form of entertainment, etc.) that are of the same race as them. Probably because they feel like they can relate in some respect. It's like Mayweather who's loved by most all black people I see around my area, but hated by most all white people around my area... Or Michael Vick... Or Tom Brady... It just seems that people often side with whoever is representing their race (whether it's Mayweather vs. Pacquiao, Tiger Woods vs. Phil Mickelson, Larry Bird vs. Magic Johnson, etc.), and I would imagine that this comes into play for Vince, at least from a marketing/money-making standpoint. I'm not saying he's right or wrong for it, I'm just saying that he probably takes it into consideration.
 
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