WWE’s uneven attempts at reaching Black fans
Pro wrestling has always had a complicated relationship with race, largely due to its history of using stereotypes and offensive portrayals of its athletes. For decades, World Wrestling Entertainment, the largest pro wrestling company in America, has used offensive tropes of Black wrestlers on its programs while stunting the popularity of some of its most talented Black stars. In recent years, the company has showcased talents such as Kofi Kingston, Bobby Lashley, Bianca Belair and more, awarding them championships and mainstream attention for their efforts. However, there is still unrest among fans who still demand more representation higher up on the WWE cards. Last week, the company addressed those concerns head-on by integrating Black culture into its shows and tipping its hat to the WWE’s most loyal Black fans. The results show how far the WWE has come in Black representation and the stumbling blocks ahead.
The first sound you hear when you watch WWE premium live event Bad Blood, which was held in Atlanta on Oct. 5, is Future rapping the lyrics “my b— with it, too” off of “GTA” from his We Don’t Trust You album with Metro Boomin. As the song blares over the State Farm Arena speakers, WWE announcer Michael Cole runs down the matches for the show and cuts to a video skit in which WWE champion Cody Rhodes and WWE Hall of Fame and company chief content officer Paul “Triple H” Levesque having Metro Boomin as the show’s ambassador. The live event’s hosts were Jade Cargill, Bianca Belair and Naomi, a triumvirate of Black women wrestlers who have emerged as some of the biggest stars in the sport, often going viral for their Black Girl Magic brand of wrestling.
The event felt like a celebration of the Black fans who have been the backbone of WWE’s popularity and its current surge in ratings and income — just look at all the hashtags and social media comments about a given episode of RAW, SmackDown! or NXT. However, Bad Blood wasn’t without legitimate criticism from Black fans. The show didn’t feature any Black wrestlers in any matches. And Cargill, Belair and Naomi are the only Black wrestlers featured during premium live events for months, and there hasn’t been a Black singles champion on the WWE main roster all 2024. Black wrestlers have also been absent from the most prominent feuds in the company.
The juxtaposition of a live event that catered to Black fans in a Black city with Black artists from that city while Black wrestlers were missing from the ring was too obvious to ignore. At the post-WWE news conference, Levesque, the head of creative for WWE, was asked about the lack of Black characters on the shows. His answer was disappointing.
“I don’t see the difference in anybody. I don’t see the color, I don’t see the nationality, I don’t see any of it. I just see talent. I don’t see the difference between men and women. I see talent,” Levesque said. “We tell stories with those talent, how they can handle those stories, and how they can represent those stories, and how we can bring those stories forward. I don’t keep track of any of that. I do what’s relevant and what is best, the best in storytelling and what’s being delivered the best and then that’s what goes. No different than the men and women, who main events. Whatever the biggest stories are, that’s where we go.”
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The backlash was immediate and justified. Levesque’s use of the “I don’t see color” trope was as lazy and dismissive an answer as possible. To not see color is to not see the experiences that make us who we are. And to not see color in an industry that is primarily based on debasing characters because of the color of their skin is an insult.
If you squint, you can see the difficulty in highlighting Black talent from WWE’s standpoint. Some of it has come down to bad luck: The company’s next big Black star, Big E, suffered a career-threatening broken neck in 2022, derailing his rise and has left his group, The New Day, foundering. So much of the company’s TV time is being occupied by The Bloodline storyline, led by Roman Reigns and his Samoan brethren, leaving the on-air real estate that doesn’t involve them or the wrestlers in their ecosystem at a premium. At the same time, there’s been an exodus of Black talent from WWE, with wrestlers like Ricochet, Lashley and MVP leaving the company for rival AEW. However, that is also a reflection of their dissatisfaction with being part of WWE and how they were treated by the company.
Still, Levesque’s comments left the company reeling and understanding that they needed to send a better message. So on Oct. 8, WWE opened its NXT broadcast by showcasing every Black champion in the company — women’s tag team champs Cargill and Belair, NXT champion Trick Williams, and NXT North American Women’s champion Kelani Jordan — standing in the ring at the same time. Friday’s SmackDown! featured a women’s tag team championship match between Cargill and Belair and NXT tag team Lash Legend and Jakara Jackson. It would be the first time four Black women competed for the tag team championships in WWE history, something acknowledged on-air by the announcing team.
The follow-up to Bad Blood and Levesque’s disastrous news conference was a good faith gesture by a company that understands its need to do right by its Black fans, even as it stumbles to that point. The desire, at least, to truly embrace Black viewers is a step in the right direction for a company that has long insulted Black fans without any thought about trying to fix it. Still, WWE has a long way to go to get to a place where more Black faces are more prominently featured in main event spots with championships on the line. With the deluge of Black talent at NXT and a company that is very aware of its need to highlight that talent, it feels like a matter of time before Black wrestlers are back at the top of the cards, but this has to be an urgent goal that WWE must prioritize to see potential stars become main eventers.