WWE: 10 Shockingly Racist Gimmicks That Made Fans' Jaws Drop

1. Piper's Pit €“ Jimmy Snuka

I just watched this piece of footage from 1984 and I was half wetting myself laughing at the sheer audacity of the segment. However, the other half of me was appalled at Piper's behaviour. Roddy Piper is himself an ethnic stereotype of a 'rowdy' Scotsman. Piper's Pit was notorious for its 'anything goes' action. Another moment of WWE racism €“ Piper talking 'soul food' with Tony Atlas €“ also goes down as a classic in the annals of bad taste, but Snuka's appearance on Piper's Pit has to be up there in the most outrageously racist moments in the WWE. Piper is screaming like a demented madman at Snuka before producing a pineapple to make him feel 'more at home'. He could have stopped there, but the Rowdy one produces more fruit (coconuts and bananas, naturally) and throws it at Snuka while ranting and raving that these projectiles will remind his adversary of the Fiji Isles. He mashes a banana into Snuka's face and punches him. The set falls down around them and Piper keeps up his volley of verbal and fruit-based abuse on Snuka. Seeing Snuka steel himself up again and flying into a rage, Roddy ducks into a room and locks the door with a screaming, hysterical Snuka being held back by three or four men. The sight of Snuka crawling on his knees while Piper beats him with a belt, shouting all sorts of abuse at him is jaw-dropping stuff. Apparently this attack on Snuka was because Snuka complained of not having enough time to speak when he had previously appeared on Roddy's segment. Roddy's response to Snuka's grumbling seemed totally out of proportion and I cannot believe such provocative, racist material was sanctioned by the WWE. Racism should not be amusing, but this caper is so wrong and so off the wall that's it's actually horribly funny, in a perverse sort of way.