10 Wrestlers You Never Thought Would Get Over On TV

7. The Godfather

Orange Cassidy
WWE.com

Charles Wright, plagued by a succession of sh*tty gimmicks, was a very poor pro wrestler in-ring when in fact he finally found it.

As the cartoonish Papa Shango, his curse on the Ultimate Warrior was very much a value range version of the genuinely harrowing cobra bite angle worked by Jake Roberts and Randy Savage. As Kama, the 'Supreme Fighting Machine', a UFC-inspired gimmick devised some 18 years before Vince McMahon told CM Punk that MMA was barbaric, he tanked again. He wasn't a shooter, WWF fans didn't know what shooters were, and WWF fans wanted to watch pro wrestling.

Leaden and uninteresting, his stint in the Nation of Domination at least made halfway acceptable use of his mammoth frame and intimidating demeanour, but he wasn't over until he took on the persona of the Godfather in 1998. There, he discovered his dormant charisma by - imagine if they let them do this now - tapping into his real-life personality.

His was an exuberant presence, he engineered a raucous call-and-response with his big booming voice, and, dating the act forevermore and rightly so, offered the sight of scantily-clad women for the 14 year-olds when they couldn't access their favourite Bookmarks when their folks were on the phone. Also, the Godfather rarely wrestled, since his opponents mostly took him up on his offer.

Sweet deal all round really. If you were 14 in 1998.

Contributor
Contributor

Michael Sidgwick is an editor, writer and podcaster for WhatCulture Wrestling. With over seven years of experience in wrestling analysis, Michael was published in the influential institution that was Power Slam magazine, and specialises in providing insights into All Elite Wrestling - so much so that he wrote a book about the subject. You can order Becoming All Elite: The Rise Of AEW on Amazon. Possessing a deep knowledge also of WWE, WCW, ECW and New Japan Pro Wrestling, Michael’s work has been publicly praised by former AEW World Champions Kenny Omega and MJF, and current Undisputed WWE Champion Cody Rhodes. When he isn’t putting your finger on why things are the way they are in the endlessly fascinating world of professional wrestling, Michael wraps his own around a hand grinder to explore the world of specialty coffee. Follow Michael on X (formerly known as Twitter) @MSidgwick for more!