The Godfather on His Pimp Gimmick Being Phased Out, Being Given the Papa Shango Gimmick

– While speaking to The 90s Wrestling Podcast, WWE Hall of Famer Charles Wright, aka The Godfather, discussed his career, why Vince McMahon gave him the Papa Shango gimmick in the early ’90s and more. Below are some highlights.

Godfather on getting the Papa Shango gimmick because Vince said he had a “babyface”: “Yeah, at the time, yes, yes. He [Vince] said, ‘We got to do something with your face.’ So they decided — that was cool what they did with it. He said my face didn’t match my body, so he covered it up with that. So, it was cool.”

His thoughts on the Papa Shango gimmick, which he only had for about a year: “You know, I don’t try and look back and figure out what happened. This is what happened. They paid me so much, and they paid me to do it. And you know, I had a lot going on. It wasn’t just their fault. And you know, I always had another job, and I always had the strip clubs here in Vegas. So, I always had another reason to make money, so I would come and go. There’s all types of thing. But like you said, it’s memorable. People still remember it, so that’s cool because it wasn’t around long. And for people to still to be talking about it today, that’s pretty cool.”

On his match with Bret Hart: “Good guy, great worker, taught me some stuff. Loved working with him. Wish I would’ve gotten to work with him some more. As Papa Shango, I loved working with Bret. To this day, good guy.”

On the process of becoming The Godfather pimp character: “They were at the time they weren’t really doing nothing with me. Mark Henry and D’Lo [Brown] were kind of pairing off together. The Rock was kind of going on his own. I was kind of getting lost in the shuffle, so me and my got together, and we created this Godfather character. And me and John Bradshaw [Layfield] were kind of playing with it at the house shows. It was getting over at the house shows with not any girls whatsoever. But the way we were doing it, it was really getting over big time. So, Vince heard about it, so when we got to TV, Vince asked, ‘Hey, do you think you could put some girls to it?’ So, we went out and got some girls and put ’em on TV and it took off. It got over overnight.”

On why The Godfather gimmick had to be phased out: “Vince didn’t want to take it away, if Vince could’ve had, he’d have had me out there with the girls forever. Just times were changing man, back then times were already starting to change. He went public, we were no longer on cable, we were on network now and people are taking a closer look at what we’re doing and you know from the puppies, and the suck its, to Val Venis. I mean, I was calling girls hoes and talking about smoking weed. So I mean, I was a handful. Vince would tell me at TV ‘Yo Charles, I’m fighting for you I’m fighting for you.’ But it got to the point where I couldn’t be on Saturdays, or Sunday mornings, I couldn’t be on before 10 o’clock at night. I couldn’t say this, I couldn’t say this, the girls had to be covered it just got really stupid after a while, but yeah I wasn’t happy at all. I wasn’t, at that point, I was done.”

If using any of the above quotes, please credit The 90s Wrestling Podcast, with a h/t to 411mania.com for the transcription.