Whether you know him as the fun-loving Godfather, the badass Kama, or the creepy Papa Shango, no one can deny that Charles Wright had one of the most interesting pro wrestling careers of his time. It’s rare that you see a guy get such longevity out of a career switching gimmicks every few years. But, the dude was impressive enough to do it and do it well.
As a kid, I was absolutely terrified of Papa Shango. I remember watching him completely fuck up the Ultimate Warrior, who I was convinced as a child was legitimately an invincible alien from another planet. OF COURSE it made sense that no mere mortal man could take down the Warrior. You’d need a little voodoo magic if you were going to take on an entity that powerful.
That was the scariest part – seeing the Warrior oozing black goop out of his head, and of course the fabled vomit scene. Every bit of that, I thought, was 100% completely real. I thought I was basically watching a documentary back in those days. He had one of the coolest Hasbro action figures ever made (I’m going to have to add that thing to my collection one day). Everything about the character just popped to a kid taking in the WWF during that era.
Now, pictures of a version of Papa Shango that was intended for the Attitude Era of the late 2000s have surfaced.
Papa Shango almost returned to the WWF around 1997-1998. They were going to do a scarier and more realistic version of the character but Vince McMahon changed his mind. This would have been a cool character to have on WWF TV. pic.twitter.com/AJtjO9iXl8
— WrestlingNews.co – WWE/AEW News (@WrestlingNewsCo) December 24, 2019
Man, this guy was creepy af in the cartoonish early 90s WWF (I actually listed him as the scariest wrestler of all time). Can you imagine what he would’ve pulled off in the no-holds-barred nature of the Attitude Era?
We would’ve seen some legit murders. Definitely some ritual sacrifices – hell, it feels like we saw that every week with the Ministry of Darkness. The stuff between Stone Cold Steve Austin and Kane was so so good because of the aura surrounding Kane. Imagine that with some weird voodoo Papa Shango flair in a program for the WWF Championship. That could’ve been his ticket, man.
We’d see some spooky symbolism…people would definitely be puking. Lots of smoke. Maybe some ghosts. Some shrunken heads. Knowing the Attitude Era, someone probably would’ve eaten a shrunken head, or maybe that’s what Mae Young would’ve given birth to instead of a hand. Hot damn, imagine Papa Shango possessing Mae Young. Fuck – the possibilities are endless.
One of the cool things about the character is you could’ve had him head up some stable of creeps (maybe he resurrects a vampire…Gangrel?), or just be this all-powerful shaman constantly operating in the shadows of the WWF. He could’ve set people on fire. He could’ve put shoot curses on people and then we’d see all the creepy Final Destination-esque ways his enemies would fall. You could’ve put him in a tag team with a shoot demon and run some fucked up matches. I’m telling y’all – this was big time money that the WWE missed out on back then.
It would’ve absolutely ruled. It would’ve been like the first season of True Detective baby, and I am HERE FOR THAT.
Also, how could this have started going around in late December and I’m just now hearing about it? I’m supposed to be a journalist, people.
Stoney Keeley is the Editor in Chief of The SoBros Network. He is a strong supporter of Team GSD and #BeBetter. “Big Natural” covers the Tennessee Titans, Nashville, and a whole wealth of nonsense. Follow on Twitter @StoneyKeeley
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