On paper, it sounds like a recipe for success: Three popular Mexican luchadores debut on Smackdown, where the WWE Cruiserweight Championship is defended. Two of the three are former Cruiserweight champs from WCW. It sounds like a great way to revitalize the Cruiserweight division and also provide a new tag team as well. Instead, we got the horribly stereotypical Mexicools, three luchadores dressed like gardeners riding a Juan Deere lawnmower to the ring. A backstage skit one night had a concessions manager mistake them for the help and demanding they sell sodas and popcorn. Even though this was done in a mocking way, it still helped perpetuate stereotypes. Thankfully, the Mexciools werent portrayed as heels for their entire run, as they became fan favorites in part due to their lucha-style. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=of90rOGoVN8 This is one area where WWE often falls down: The company thinks that by drawing a lot of attention to race, they are showing that the performers can rise above those characterizations or stereotypes. Instead they are simply drawing more attention to negative stereotypes and racist attitudes. The best way to send a positive message is the way they are treating Roman Reigns a Samoan wrestler who is not being defined by his ethnic heritage at all.
Scott is a former journalist and longtime wrestling fan who was smart enough to abandon WCW during the Monday Night Wars the same time as the Radicalz. He fondly remembers watching WrestleMania III, IV, V and VI and Saturday Night's Main Event, came back to wrestling during the Attitude Era, and has been a consumer of sports entertainment since then. He's written for WhatCulture for more than a decade, establishing the Ups and Downs articles for WWE Raw and WWE PPVs/PLEs and composing pieces on a variety of topics.
