10 WWE Gimmicks With Racist Undertones

6. Shelton Benjamin

Chad Gable Shelton Benjamin
Twitter, @WWE

It's no coincidence that Jason Jordan's overdue success NXT came when he paired up with Chad Gable. Previous efforts as a solo star and alongside Tye Dillinger hadn't endeared him to the crowd despite an obvious aptitude, but Gable's magnetic charisma in campaigning for the eventual American Alpha union was so innately likeable that the pair barely had time to heels in the roles before organically turning face to feud with The Revival.

The ex-Olympian didn't deserve the sharp end of the stick when he lost his partner to a farcical fatherhood storyline on the main roster either. Nor did he deserve the bizarre new problem of his new team being a racially-sensitive parody of his old one.

Advertised back in 2016 before injuries derailed his return, Shelton Benjamin's eventual comeback was to fill the slot literally left behind by the man most lazily compared to him. Aside from the obvious profiling at play, Benjamin's age and limitations triggered unfair 'American Beta' digs at the duo despite rapidly rising up the ranks. Gable yet again deserves huge credit for letting his physical charisma in and out of the ring carry the team to the prominent spot they currently command.

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Michael is a writer, editor, podcaster and presenter for WhatCulture Wrestling, and has been with the organisation for 10 years. Alongside the production of daily written, audio and video content covering WWE and AEW, he also provides knowledge and insights on all aspects of the wrestling industry thanks to a passion for it dating back over 35 years. As one third of "The Dadley Boyz" Michael has contributed to the huge rise in popularity of the WhatCulture Wrestling Podcast and its accompanying YouTube channel, earning it top spot on the UK's wrestling podcast charts with over 10,000 episodes and 70,000,000 total downloads. He also co-hosts Benno & Hamflett, In Your House!, Podcast Horseman: The BoJack Horseman Podcast, and has guested on long-running Sunderland AFC podcast Wise Men Say. With WhatCulture, he has provided in-person coverage of some of the biggest pay-per-views and Premium Live Events in wrestling history, including WrestleMania, Survivor Series, All In & Double Or Nothing in destinations such as New York, New Jersey, Chicago, Dallas, Las Vegas, Philadelphia, London and Cardiff. He has also been featured as a wrestling analyst for the Tampa Bay Times, Fightful, POST Wrestling, GRAPPL, GCP, Poisonrana, 411Mania and Sports Guys Talking Wrestling. Michael's background in media stretches beyond wrestling coverage, with a degree in Journalism from the University Of Sunderland (2:1) and a series of published articles in music and culture magazines The Crack, Pilot as well as Sunderland AFC's premiere fanzine A Love Supreme. When not offering his voice up for daily wrestling podcasts, he can be found losing it every other Saturday at the Stadium Of Light, and at Cribs gigs nationwide.