Reverse One Drop Rules, how to fake Racism in a few simple steps

Alright, so upfront if your here to read my lastest rant on politics, this aint it. Today we are talking about something different: Intentionally bad, and misleading "journalism" designed only to make up a story for attention. (and be ye warned, this story has NOTHING to do with politics)

Today's case and point  Dion Berry's column in "the Atlantic" titled "Pro Wrestling is Fake, but it's race problem isn't."

Now in fairness to Mr. Berry that could well be a valid complaint, and a decent case could be made to support it

 (For those who have some trouble seeing, the mic's arnt malfunctioning, they are intentinally being badly dubbed)

Just saying, its not an impossible case.

The problem is, Mr. Berry not only FAILS to make what should be an easy point, he outright lies while doing it.

For example Mr. Berry points to one of WWE's new wrestlers, a storyline russian named "Rusef" who has basically been squashing (a wrestling term for beating an opponent who gets in little or no offense) talent since his debut to make him look like a legit threat. The problem according to Berry, is that the only people Rusef has squashed are ALL black wrestlers

"Rusev has been squashing black wrestlers almost exclusively since his debut back in April. Before Big E, there was R-Truth, who comes down to the ring dancing and rapping; Kofi Kingston, a Jamaican whose accent mysteriously vanished a year or so after his debut; and Xavier Woods, a legitimate Ph.D. candidate when outside the ring, but a funk-loving dancing machine within it.

Fans online remarked in amusement at the coincidence, at first. Kingston, Truth, and Woods are perpetual losers called “jobbers,” meant to get beaten by whoever the WWE brass have decided to push that month. Before Payback, even Big E joked in a tweet that stopping Rusev might involve putting back together the Nation of Domination, a controversial black-power faction formed in WWE in the mid-‘90s. That tweet was quickly deleted, and perhaps in response, the next guy Rusev beat had a lot less melanin in his skin, a Jersey Shore-inspired jobber named Zack Ryder."

The problem is, its not true.

Here's Rusev's DEBUT match

The guy he's beating the crap out of, is the same Zack Ryder who Mr. Berry would have you believe he only fought after the allegations surfaced on-line of racism.

In fairness it should be pointed out, those guys have had at least a dozen "matches" albeit all with the same result since Rusef's debut.

Nor is Ryder the only non-black person Rusef has crushed, as Mr. Berry would have you believe.

For those keeping score at home, that would be Mr. Rusef destroying 3 not black guys at the same time.

And again, those are hardly the only examples.......examples Mr. Berry intentionally left out in order to infuriate you.

And thats not his only lie and distortion.  For example, a bit later Mr. Berry is talking about a guy named Mark Henry, who's black, and gives this description. 

"He’s an Olympian who has been with WWE for over a decade and has enjoyed two reigns as “world champion.”

Those scare quotes need an explanation. Mark Henry has held world titles before, but never the world title, the WWE Championship. From March of 2002 until December of 2013, there were two world championships in the company, one for each brand of WWE programming, the flagship Monday Night Raw and the B-show Friday Night Smackdown. For a brief period, WWE operated a third brand, a relaunch of ‘90s grunge federation ECW, and there were three world championships in the company. However, not even in WWE’s nonsensical universe can there be three different people who are supposedly champion of the world, so a hierarchy of titles formed. Fans recognized that since Raw was the flagship show, whatever championship was defended on Raw was the real world championship.

Mark Henry held ECW’s world championship, and then Smackdown’s world championship. But despite having one of the most impressive resumes in WWE history, he has never won the top prize in WWE."

Now, as a wrestling fan myself, I do have to fairly point out a lot of people DID see the smackdown brand as the B brand.....but not for any lack of trying on the part of WWE. When they first split the show in half, WWE put Hulk Hogan and The Rock on smackdown.....and if your not a wrestling fan, those are probably the ONLY two wrestling names you could list. And Smackdown and Raw wrestlers often went head to head to see who the better show was (they even had a yearly pay per view devoted to this concept)to my memory, Smackdown NEVER lost one of these matches.

They also [evenually] gave Smackdown "the big gold belt" considered by many to be THE definitive world championship, despite not originating as a WWE title, as its design has unchanged since 1985, due to the fact it was immediately seen as most "legitimate looking". No other title comes close to this "run" with the same design.

Ric Flair with Big Gold Belt in 1986 and Randy Orton in 2013

By comparison, the WWE title (which is the other belt Randy Orton is holding in the second photo) is in its 6th design since 2001. 

Also it should be pointed out, their is a reason Randy Orton is holding two belts in that picture....WWE unified their titles (so they only have one champion) but is making the champ lug two different belts around cause they want the legitimacy so many attach to the Big Gold Belt. 

So basically point is, WWE did everything in its power to make Smackdown, the show where Mark Henry was champion, look like the A-show. So the idea they intentionally never gave him the top title is bullshit. 

But we still have the two most egregious intentional "oversights" left to go. 

The first involves a wrestler (now WWE hall of famer) Booker T.  Mr. Berry devotes the entire middle third of his article to talking about a Wrestlemania match (WWE's version of the superbowl) between Booker T, and the defending champion, HHH, that Booker lost, and in the minds of most fans (myself included) that was totally the wrong call for that storyline and match. And to be fair the storyline was even a bit racist in ways it wouldnt have been as troublesome if Booker T won. 

Now I will spare you copy pasting the entire 4 paragraphs (you can read the whole article at the link near the top) and only really hit the relevant sentence.

"Booker T was, as he would put it, a five time, five time, five time, five time, five time world champion in WCW, a company that surpassed WWE in ratings for a significant chunk of the time he was champion there."

Now the idea here is that Booker T was a major draw who WWE held down because he was black. Small problem....its not true

WCW (WWE's former competition)had a monday show that ran head to head with WWE, and WCW DID beat the WWE in rating's 84 weeks in a row, from mid 1996-mid 1998. And with a couple of single week exceptions, they never won again. Booker T won his first world title in 2000. So no, WCW didnt surpass WWE for any chunk of time was champion. (which in all fairness to Booker T is not at all his fault) 

Oh and a second point, just minutes after winning his FOURTH WCW championship, WCW went out of business.

So how did he wind up being a  " five time, five time, five time, five time, five time WCW Champion"?

Well WWE bought WCW, and brought the name and the title over to their show, where Booker would both lose his forth title, and win his fifth. So yea, he wasnt exactly a "5 time champion in a different company"

And a final point. Several years after that wrestlemaina match, and several years before this article was written, Booker T became a 6 time World Champion.....there's only about a 16 or so wrestlers in history who've had that many.  And it should be noted, when Booker T had this last world title, it was when WWE had 3 world titles, and all 3 champions were put into a match to see who would win the title "Champion of Champions".....and Booker T won.

But again none of that actually counts according to Mr. Berry, because it wasnt the title HE decided mattered. 

But then we get to BY FAR the biggest and least professional justification of the entire piece. 

Early on (when discussing Mark Henry) Mr. Berry throws out this line 

"In its 62 year history, WWE has never chosen a black wrestler to hold its world championship. "

Now even if we limit ourselves ONLY to the specific title Mr. Berry wants to consider, their is a small problem:

The Rock. 8 time WWF/WWE World Champion (and 2 time WCW/World Champion)

Yea thats right, a small problem, also known as only one of the most popular wrestlers of all time, especially outside the wrestling world, and probably one of the only wrestlers most people can name. 

So how does Mr. Berry get around that "small" problem? buckle up boys and girls....its about to get bumpy

"The only person of African descent ever named world champion was Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, a special case. Half Samoan and half African-Canadian, Johnson identifies as Samoan and comes from a line of famous wrestlers."

Yea that's right. Mr. Berry REVERSE "One Drop Rule"'s that motherfucker and declares him NOT BLACK because he has a drop or two of not black blood.

Also not American either. 

Which by the way, while it is true Rock's Father, WWE Hall of Famer Rocky Johnson, is black and was born in Canada, and his mother is Samoan.

BUT, guess where the Rock's mother was born......the far off island nation of.......Hawaii.

That's right, in order to avoid being forced to call the Rock "African American" Mr. Berry didnt just hit him with a Reverse One Drop,  he followed it up with a full on Birther. 

Oh, by the way, one last point, as far as I know the Rock has never identified as "only Samoan" in fact, you remember the part from earlier about "Big E joked in a tweet that stopping Rusev might involve putting back together the Nation of Domination, a controversial black-power faction formed in WWE in the mid-‘90s."
Yea, here's a picture of the Nation of Domination (minus Mark Henry who joined later)

  

Notice anyone familiar? like say the "Not Black" Rock over on the left? The same "Not Black" Rock who would later go on to LEAD the "Black Power Group" the Nation of Domination?

Certainly looks to me like the Rock is in no way at all identifying himself as Black........

There is one other excuse Mr. Berry gives for why the "not really black or american" Rock got to win the world title 8 times....

"As WWE's first third-generation fighter, he was allowed a narrative that reflected his specific family history, not the mere fact of his race."

And I guess here, he has a point. WWE ALWAYS treats their "multi generational" talent better, and give them the best most likely characters to be world champions.

And unlike the Rock's dad, who never won a world title, their dad, the American Dream Dusty Rhodes, won 3. So I guess so much for that "Multi Generational" preference theory. 

But I guess that's what happens when you take what could have a been a legitimate point, get lazy and substitute easy outrage for legit research.....you wind up getting made a fool of by two grown men in gold face paint and glitter..........