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ARMBAR A COP posted:Just imagine being a 15 year old Mexican kid at this time. Excited that a group of legendary luchadors are in the WWE. drat. That sucks. I remember the rumblings of some of them coming and thinking that poo poo might be cool again like mid 90's WCW. According to Court Bauer, a person who may or may not be entirely truthful, the angle came from a writer making a racist joke. https://twitter.com/the_watw/status/922791887689404416 While none of them were WWE style promo guys (as much as I love Juvy on the mic), all of them had to at least be in or near the top 20 workers in the company at the time, and throwing them into the CW mix could have given Smackdown at least 10-20 minutes of great TV every week that might appeal to the Hispanic audience that they were allegedly trying to court in the wake of Eddie and Rey. But WWE had to WWE*. *While in a new form, it was another example of a WWE template: Have someone complain about racism and make sure that it's clear that they are the assholes. They moved Hassan to the show on the same episode and had 5 guys beat him up, so it was also kind of redundant.
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Dec 12, 2021 12:31
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| # ? May 11, 2024 23:33 |
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RAW 6/27/05: "When I think of you, I think of fruit." - RVD to Carlito with an oddly clever, for him, double entendre
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Dec 14, 2021 00:36
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Smackdown 6/30/05: "Is there any Mexican in the House? Is there any Mexican in the House? Is there any Mexican in the House? So tonight I got a very special message for all of you. Do you know what the gringos think of you. The gringos think that you're fat. The gringos think that you're lazy. But you know what, quite frankly, they right. But I'll tell you this <???> Don't work against the gringos, rise against the gringos." - Juvy The Mexicools also now have giant Corona looking bottles and Juan Deeres  
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Dec 15, 2021 01:05
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Oh jesus gently caress the giant Corona bottles. Everyone talks about the Juan Deere lawnmowers but nobody brings up the coronas.
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Dec 15, 2021 01:07
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I legit had no clue that Kerwin White debuted 10 days after the Mexicools. I wonder what the gently caress problem Vince had that summer. Raw 7/4/05: "There's only one place to put the blame, and that's on the Hispanic people. The Hispanic people have done nothing but support me and stand behind me all over the world you and I know what 'real America' <said with finger quotes> feels about the Hispanics, and I started thinking about it and this perception has done nothing but rub off on me and hold me down, hold me back. So I have decided to denounce my Hispanic heritage and I've decided to join middle class America, apple pie, 4th of July, that's now me. I've also decided to not be known as Chavo Guerrero <saying Guerrero with sarcastic rolling sound and then making a spitting sound>. I have legally and proudly changed my name to Kerwin White." - Chavo/Kerwin 
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Dec 16, 2021 12:08
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I always assumed Kerwin White was going to end with Eddy tanning his hide but who knows.
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Dec 16, 2021 12:13
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A part of me, a part that's probably wrong and/or naive, is intrigued by the idea of Kerwin White, but as told by a brilliant POC writer/comedian who could provide real experienced perspective to the character of a person who decides to switch their race to white. The character would have to be a sympathetic comedy protagonist instead of a complete heel, someone deeply flawed but with ambitious conviction, who's sick of the bullshit disprivilege of being non-white and decides to do something about it, something that's obviously a bad idea doomed to fail but that results in both comedic situations and the exposure of systemic inequality to the audience. Of course the moral of the story would be that you wouldn't actually want to do this even if you could, and the protagonist would re-embrace his culture proudly at the end. The Kerwin White we got was just another excuse for WWE to have a character say bigoted stuff on TV.
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Dec 16, 2021 12:45
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I think that could be a good movie or series. Chavo probably couldn't have handled the lead role, but with a good director scripting things, Eddie probably could have done well playing a sarcastic relation clowning him. This Smackdown was taped at the same show as the 7/4 Raw. It was clearly one hell of a night. Smackdown 7/7/05: Steven Richards as what the BWO refers to as "BlueWheat" (an Orlando Jordan imitation)  --- Tyler Durden — Today at 4:18 AM "Shut up and listen to us gringos . This is serious." -Juvy "We <???> funny latin guy right here." - Psicosis <...> We don't care if you're tall, fat, ugly, American, dummy, uh African, Japanese <to which Psicosis and Crazy do the thing in the picture below to Juvy's face in order to make his eyes squinty>. Even Mexican." - Juvy Gringos <???>. Listen up. Your rear end is grass and we are the lawnmowers." - Psicosis  --- Hassan says that Daivari will be sacrified for the greater good in his match later with the Undertaker. Wikipedia says: Daivari was defeated, but Hassan began to "pray" on the ramp, summoning five masked men, dressed in black shirts, ski-masks, and camo pants. Armed with clubs and a piano wire, they beat and choked The Undertaker out, and Hassan put him in the camel clutch. Afterward, the masked men lifted Daivari above their heads and carried him away. Three days later, the London bombings took place. "Like he's a martyr or something. Like he's a martyr." - Taz, while Daivari is carried out    With this, they have blown it, and Hassan will never appear on WWE TV (after one PPV appearance) again as UPN tells them to keep the character off their network.
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Dec 17, 2021 00:45
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Could swear Kerwin White had a manager/valet that was... a golf caddy? and I think he was later one of the spirit squad guys
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Dec 17, 2021 19:05
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Pretty sure that boy grew up to become the older brother of one of the Wingmen from AEW.
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Dec 17, 2021 19:10
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Blue wheat is a little rascals reference I guess. Even then the cultural references were ancient.
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Dec 17, 2021 19:50
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DJExile posted:Could swear Kerwin White had a manager/valet that was... a golf caddy? and I think he was later one of the spirit squad guys Dolf Ziggler
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Dec 17, 2021 19:56
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Two Beans posted:Dolf Ziggler oh god that's right christ, I cannot imagine how long that gimmick would have gone on if Eddie hadn't passed away.
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Dec 17, 2021 19:59
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El Generico posted:A part of me, a part that's probably wrong and/or naive, is intrigued by the idea of Kerwin White, but as told by a brilliant POC writer/comedian who could provide real experienced perspective to the character of a person who decides to switch their race to white. I'm right there with you. It's such a good idea for a wrestling character, and I think you're onto something with it being a solid "misguided face" angle that could be used to talk about the realities of racial politics in America. A shame that it came from a braintrust that really just wanted a way for another talent to go out and get cheap heat every week by vocalizing beliefs they held but couldn't actually say. (The one thing I'll give to WWE Creative here is that "Kerwin White" is a genuinely, terrifically funny name.)
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Dec 17, 2021 20:03
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PWG 2nd Annual PWG Bicentennial Birthday Extravaganza Night 1 7/9/05: "gently caress you f****t" - Excalibur says while flipping off El Generico and one of his partners
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Jan 2, 2022 11:37
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2005 might have been peak embarrassed-to-be-a-wrestling-fan time.
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Jan 3, 2022 00:55
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Animal-Mother posted:2005 might have been peak embarrassed-to-be-a-wrestling-fan time. Here's how we started the year at the Rumble. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ONXTjg5T6-0
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Jan 3, 2022 03:32
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WWF Superstars 12/17/94: Captain Lou Albano takes the "Headshrinkers" to a barber to, per Vince McMahon on commentary, "civilize" them: (I'm not really sure this needs a spoiler, but, all the same...) 
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Jan 22, 2022 11:42
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Raw 7/18/05: After Bischoff invites him to a country club in Arizona, Kerwin White says that it is too close to the border, and then he tells Bischoff and Jericho that "if it's not white, it's not right", which I believe is now his new catchphrase. --- "I am not Y2cheap Chris Jericho and my head is not up your rear end. Y'all two wanna be lovers, fine, go kiss and make up, have dinner and a movie, buy each other flowers, play with my little ponies, have a frickin' sleepover." - John Cena cutting a promo on Bischoff backstage
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Jan 27, 2022 13:12
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collocation posted:Raw 7/18/05: It was, yeah
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Jan 27, 2022 13:14
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Great theme song, though.
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Jan 27, 2022 21:33
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Smackdown 7/21/05: Christian says something weird about Josh surfing sites with tan men in his basement --- "JBL almost singlehandledly curbed illegal immigration on the US Mexican border" - announcer in JBL ad --- JBL says that we take over countries because we can and because might is right. JBL says that we give handouts to Africa because they can't help themselves. JBL calls MLK a great but lesser (than JBL) man.
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Jan 28, 2022 12:59
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ROH Homecoming 7/23/05: "You always gonna be a house n***a for the rest of your days you c***s***a." - Julius Smokes yells at a ring containing Jay Lethal, Samoa Joe, and James Gibson
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Jan 31, 2022 01:01
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Smackdown 7/28/05: The head of concessions went up to the Mexicools and said "comprende amigos, get to work" after yelling at his non-employees for being on a break --- Confederate Cash Chris Hamrick shows up, without the first two words of his name, but with some related gear to do a job.  
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Feb 7, 2022 11:04
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Raw 8/01/05: "It is Tonto!" - Jerry Lawler on Tatanka "I thought he went out with Sitting Bull." - Jerry Lawler
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Feb 8, 2022 23:01
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I remember that Tatanka return being both brief and totally out of left field
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Feb 9, 2022 12:26
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DJExile posted:I remember that Tatanka return being both brief and totally out of left field I remember him tagging with Matt Hardy at one point post-Litagate. It was super weird to see him so much after the new generation era.
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Feb 9, 2022 22:49
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I always got the impression that the Mexicools were a good idea presented in the worst possible light. Same with Kerwin, actually. The idea on paper being: "We're all insanely talented, but none of you can look past our nationality. You want us to lean into it? Fine. Enjoy getting cracked in the head with tequila bottles, assholes." But, you know... we got the WWE version. Mostly just offensive, and whatever makes Vince laugh. The WWE does this at least once every five years. It just can't escape the McMahon Fox News/Poop on a stick mindset. The Nation of Domination: Vascillated, but could have been so much more. Muhammed Hassan: Could have been fascinating, on paper. A genuinely good guy, getting increasingly frustrated with dog-whistle racism, over a slow, slow burn? I think this idea leads to a heel character no matter how it's done, but one has a point, and one is WWE over the top. Kai en Tai: Cool for approximately 4 weeks. Tried to cut off a dude's dick, and never recovered. Why is "Cool Japanese Wrestlers" too hard to portray? They've done it with an inverted approach as well. Where they have someone being a jingoistic rear end in a top hat, and the crowd cheers the heel, because he chants USA. I think the only time they've ever gotten it correct was Bret Hart: Heel in America, Face everywhere else.
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Feb 10, 2022 00:06
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NutShellBill posted:Why is "Cool Japanese Wrestlers" too hard to portray? Because to Vince, "Cool Japanese Wrestlers" never evolved past Mr. Fuji.
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Feb 10, 2022 00:09
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DJExile posted:I remember that Tatanka return being both brief and totally out of left field IIRC they were planning to give him a real run and then changed their mind when he showed up woefully out of shape
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Feb 10, 2022 00:23
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NutShellBill posted:Kai en Tai: Cool for approximately 4 weeks. Tried to cut off a dude's dick, and never recovered. Why is "Cool Japanese Wrestlers" too hard to portray? There was also Kyo Dai in 2003, a heel stable consisting of Tajiri, Akio (the future Jimmy Wang Yang) and a developmental wrestler called Sakoda. It ran for a few weeks before it was suddenly dropped, supposedly because Tajiri was afraid that having to do a literal Yakuza gimmick would cause him problems back home. It did stick around long enough to make it into the Raw Deal CCG.  
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Feb 10, 2022 00:31
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NutShellBill posted:we got the WWE version. I think the/a problem is that, to Vince, complaining about racism is inherently a bad thing. To him, it either was handled a long time ago or is something you should pull yourself up by your bootstraps to overcome without complaining (ie Ahmed's stance vs Nod's stance). So, even if the characters should have legitimate gripes, they are undermined, like you alluded to, by the writing.
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Feb 10, 2022 00:48
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PWG 8/6/05: Hardcore Kidd says that he's not in the back watching gay porn with Super Dragon to come up with show titles. --- "You can never trust a Mexican." - Excalibur --- "almost taking out uh the uh the r*****ed cameraman" - Excalibur --- "If there's one thing about mexicans, they know armdrags. They know blowing leaves and armdrags." - Excalibur --- "<unintelligible> you h*m*s" - Scott Lost to crowd --- Bosh and Lost say that Rocky Romero will mow lawns because that's what Mexicans do.
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Feb 17, 2022 11:28
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Smackdown 8/11/05: Tazz wonders if the Mexicools can help him find a yard guy because he is having issues with his guy. ----- ROH Redemption 8/12/05: The face of a man wearing multiple confederate flags, at the unintentionally aptly titled Redemption show: 
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Feb 20, 2022 11:13
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Context: In sort of a trial run version of the NOD/HF/DX plot in which DX framed the Hart Foundation for racist graffiti (iirc), Lawler has been saying that Bret Hart is racist towards Japanese people for a couple weeks. This week he gave an alleged (but obviously fake) example. WWF Superstars 2/4/95: "Just the other day someone told me that he said, this was one of this little comments, he said did you know that 75% of all Japanese men have cataracts?" - Lawler "Cataracts?" - Vince "Yeah, he said the other 25% have Rincolns and Chevorets. Now see he thinks that's funny." - Lawler "Alright." - Vince "That not humorous" - Lawler "You're right and we apolori...apologize for your comments as well as...<comments on match>. I can tell you Japan bashing has no place in the World Wrestling Federation and if there is and prejudicial activity going on with Bret Hart, you can bet <WWF> officials will stop it for sure." - Vince Vince then expresses some possible doubts about the accuracy of Lawler's statements.
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Feb 23, 2022 12:23
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Japan bashing has no place in the WWF. Now let's see what Mr Fuji's up to! Also, coming up, Kaientai are going to choppy choppy Val Venis's pee pee. Was this the setup for Bret feuding with Hakushi? Which should've been great, because they're both great, but if this was the feud... 
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Feb 23, 2022 14:52
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Hedgehog Pie posted:Was this the setup for Bret feuding with Hakushi? Yup. Hakushi had just debuted around that time.
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Feb 24, 2022 00:27
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B/V 8/1/05: "He looked like Buff Bagwell with Rick Rude's body and uhm whose tights. Some gay worker." - Bryan Alvarez on Rob Conway
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Feb 26, 2022 11:15
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B/V 8/6/05: "Testes, testes, Vince is gay- Bryan Alvarez "I'm not gay." - Vinny
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Mar 1, 2022 21:55
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B/V 8/12/05: They talk about how passionate Brent Kremen is about being Jewish. Vinny says that, despite having nothing against Jewish people, he spent a car ride trying to convince Kremen to eat pork.
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Mar 4, 2022 01:03
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