WWE Hall of Famer “The Godfather” Charles Wright recently appeared on the Scheduled For Two Falls Podcast. He reflected on his legendary career as a few unforgettable gimmicks. In a few highlights, he looked back on his memorable run as Papa Shango. Transcription credit of Ciarán and Niall of the Scheduled For Two Falls Podcast. The full episode is available here.
On him missing his cue during the WrestleMania 8 Main Event:
“That night I never heard anything from anybody at all. I was so involved in what I was doing at the time, working with Hogan, Sid, Warrior. I wasn’t really concerned. The problem is that they knew I was green so they were going, ‘Don’t go until we tell you to go.’ And so for whatever reason I got the cue late. I didn’t know. I’m there at the curtain like a track star getting ready to run and it was a long way. So then they say ‘GO GO GO GO,’ and I went.
“Once I got there I was like ‘Oh s—, what’s going on,’ because I wasn’t watching the monitors. I never heard anything about it for years, and I mean years later. I’m doing autograph signings and people are like “Hey, what happened when you missed the cue” and I’m like, ‘No I didn’t, what do you mean?’ So then when I started checking into it I’m like, ‘Oh S—.’ I never heard it from one person, not even Taker and you know why? Because it wasn’t my fault. I never even knew about it.”
On fighting Bret Hart (as Papa Shango) for the WWF Title.
“They were so concerned about that match because I was so green and only a few years in the business. So we had to do the match the night before, whatever town we were in, we did that exact same match. Bret was such a cool dude. Good worker, good leader. There was one agent who just didn’t even want to have the match. ‘Oh, Papa is going to make Bret look bad, and it’s going to be the worst thing for his career. And Bret stood up for me and said, ‘Nah, he can work. He’s green, but he can work.’ So shout out to Bret for that. Aside from doing it the night before, there was nothing rehearsed.”
On being Papa Shango:
“I wish, looking back, I wish I was not so green in the business because I could probably have been better at being Papa Shango, like Kamala was at being Kamala. I probably could have been a better Papa Shango but dude, I had no idea what I was stepping into. Going from a country tobacco chewing, country music listening, old truck driving, biker to a voodoo man. It was a stretch!”
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