WWE and it's racism and prejudiced portrayals of characters.

dlofnep

Finlay, Regal, The Arab angle of different generations, whether it be the Iron Shiek, Slaughter or recent angles. Not to mention, the degrading of french-canadians. The WWE has a track record of making foreigners heels.. What's everyones opinion on this. Personally, I find Vince's stereotypical storylines, flag waving, illegal war supporting BS a travesty. If he wanted to seel the product to other countrys, he should make the culture of WWE open to someone other than flag waving americans.

Thoughts?

Fozzy

I agree. WWE is one of the most immoral companies around. But the majority of American viewers seem to be ok with this sort of stuff, and like it. And if WWE didn't have their core American fanbase, they would be in big trouble

I'd say part of the reason that it still happens is that there's no authorative figures who think it's that serious. The PTC attacked WWE, but for the wrong reasons. Any other similar group would either be put off confronting WWE because of the PTC's experience, or they just genuinely think it's just a silly little wrestling show

The Hassan character confused me so much. I can't remember exactly what happened, but on one episode of Raw, he spoke the absolute truth, and in any other country it would make him a face for sticking up for what he believes in. But the Americans proved his point by booing him. It was the fans who were the heels. Not to mention JR and King being racist every week, JR telling Hassan to leave his country

I wouldn't criticise their angles with Regal though, he's a natural heel, and being English sets him out from most other guys

Gotta love when they go to Canada though, it's such a good change when you see the talented guys get cheered and the rest get booed

gimmick

Good thread, though I diagree somewhat saying that the heels are always anti-american, rather they are anti values. Why else would Les Resistence have been booed at the point.

Why does Vince do this? Well because it is the lowest common denominator. Get someone to rag on your area, or your values, and booing will inevitably happen. Other ways of getting heels over doesnt work too much anymore. Look at old school wrestling, a gut like Eddie Guerrero would have been top hel with his constant cheating, but in this new era, it was lapped up and made him top face, likewise with Austin/Rock with thier anti authority personas. This would have made them heels in the 80s/early 90s.

D-FENS

This true, however Vince is also willing to take the pi$$ out of Americans as well.
JBL, the greediest coward in WWE since Dibiase, is very fond of pointing out where he comes from and Angle, the proudest flag bearer since Hogan, has been portrayed as a cheating heel most of his career.
Even the original Helmsley character and the Mean Street posse, from Vince's own town, were portrayed so people would hate them.
Basically, he's willing to exploit any aspect of society including his own, if he thinks it will make money.

killeoin

Remember when the US first went into Iraq, Steiner was having a feud with one of the Les Resistence fellas at the time (I think, open to correction) and they had a "live debate" where steiner was face simply because he supported it even though his points were incorrect....I believe he said something along the lines of "they started it now we'r gonna finish it" (making reference to 9/11) before it broke out into a brawl.

gimmick

^ Isnt that more of an indictment of American stupidity than anything else though? Likewise the whole Hassan affair as mentioned above.

killeoin

yeah it is but I suppose it could also be said as just another sign that Vince seems to forget the first W in WWE....World
Its just based towards an American Audience and he doesn't seem to care about anything outside that.