Hey Scott, I was wondering if you could please do me a small favor. After some encouragement from my teacher to choose a topic related to wrestling for my History research ascertainment I decided to do it on Xenophobia and racism in wrestling. I figured with a everybody seemingly asking the blog for project advice, maybe the blog could lend a hand with two things
1) any places were I can get good research, both statistics (gate numbers, PPV buys, Win/Loss) and pieces on the old angles and characters from the old territory days
2)if anybody at the blog has any suggestions for angles two look at-anything relating to evil foreigners will do (Rikidozan, Canadian Stampede, Nikolai Volkoff, etc)
Thank you for your time Scott
Your loyal fan, Kyle Warne
For ANYTHING research-related, you want Karl Stern's "Stern Sticks". There's endless amounts of research material and records, especially on the territories. http://www.dragonkingkarl.com is your friend and I'd highly recommend the sticks, plus you get days worth of the classic wrestling audio shows as well.
Any African oddity would be worth mentioning too.
ReplyDeleteI was thinking that, but I'm having trouble finding actual heels rather then loveble (if highly offensive) goofs
ReplyDeleteChrist I need to proof read better (not two)
ReplyDeletewhat the fuck is an ascertainment?!
While I've dug up some good stuff since I sent this, I am having trouble getting a feel for who I should look at Nazi wise if anyone's got input (Hans Shmidt and Karl Von Hess seem to be the most commen names I'm finding)
ReplyDeleteKamala and Akeem
ReplyDeleteKamala seems to suit the stereotype better for sure-thanks for the input
ReplyDeleteI'm pretty sure Fritz Von Erich's original gimmick was a Nazi sympathiser. However, Hans Shmidt is probably a better bet as he had more longevity as a heel and wrestled some really big names.
ReplyDeleteOne of the great things about the Nazi sympathiser character is that the wrestlers were hardly ever German - Shmidt was a French-Canadian. Of course you could probably write an entire paper on the sometimes role of Canadians as evil foreigners.
You might want to have a look at how whichever foreign country was being used as a heel related to countries Americans perceived as a threat in the "real world". In the aftermath of WWII I suspect the main foreign wrestling character was the Nazi sympathiser.
ReplyDeleteAs the war became more distant and America found itself allied to Germany that ceased to work and evil communists became more common such as Ivan Koloff and Nikolai Volkoff. Roll onto the Gulf War and you get the Iron Sheik of course.
I'm not sure how the Japanese fit into this - I don't recall from documentaries I've seen about the the territories that there were many Japanese heels straight after the war - so maybe its related to rise of Japan as an economic threat to America in the 1980s.
As a counterpoint to this there seem to be several evil foreigner types which come from countries who are actually friends of America - Canada and Britain being the best examples.
You also have foreigners portrayed positively - especially in the North East territories where a major part of the wrestling audience was comprised of first or second generation immigrants. Bruno is the best example of this.
PS - forgot to mention Baron von Raschke in my other reply.
you really seem to not know that much about world war 2, do you?
ReplyDeleteSpeaking as a professional history teaching guy--I think the racism of goofy faces might be a really interesting approach, demonstrating that the racism wasn't confined to portraying heels. To flip it around, you also have the Truth Commission (USWA and WWF) who played up the white separatist stuff. It's a topic with an abundance of material to sift through. Good luck!
ReplyDeleteThe Final Solution? Not sure if his gimmick was Nazi related but that name certainly is...
ReplyDeleteAnd let us not forget those dirty foreigners from Parts Unknown.
ReplyDeleteThe Sheik was a pretty huge deal and used to do the whole pray to Mecca thing before matches.
ReplyDelete2 things come to mind Big Cat Ernie Ladd and anyone from the Polynesian Islands. Ernie because he was the first major black heel that was not some raving mad man from deepest darkest Africa. He was Articulate he would boast of his greatness and he would do this in flipping Mid South so I have always assumed Bill Watts let him run with that because he knew his fan base would want that "uppity " well you know the other word that goes there,to get his. As for the Polynesian's well the first one i saw in my life that was not a raving lunatic who's head was as hard as cement was the Rock . Well Making a Difference Fatu did not rave like a mad man but the rest of the shtick was there
ReplyDeleteI'd assume you are right as to Watts intentions, and I'll keep looking but as of 20 minutes on the internet I can't find any proof that Ladd ever played up his race as a reason to hate him
ReplyDeleteOriginal Sheik or Iron Sheik, to whom does the crown most successful evil middle easterner go
ReplyDeleteI was shocked when I discovered that Iron Sheik was actually Iranian considering all the fake foreigners over the years
ReplyDeleteI would say Original Sheik was more racist. He was portrayed as basically an animal. Iron Sheik was treated fairly decent for a heel. His amateur skills and Olympic background were part of his character.
ReplyDelete