Papa Shango, the voodoo spell-casting wrestler from the early 90s, remains a memorable figure in WWF history. Known for his dark persona and infamous curse on The Ultimate Warrior, which caused him to dramatically vomit, Papa Shango was marketed towards a young audience despite his eerie character.
There were plans to bring the character back in 1997 and Vince McMahon’s idea was for a darker, more evil version of Papa Shango. While speaking on the latest “Poddin’ Ain’t Easy” podcast, Charles “The Godfather” Wright discussed how it was pitched to him to bring back the Papa Shango character.
“They had called me and said, ‘Hey, we want to do this Papa Shango thing again.’ And I’m like, ‘I don’t really want to do it.’ And so they said, ‘No, this time, it’s going to be not as cartoonish. It’s going to be a little bit more serious. You won’t be having people throw up…’ So I said okay. I got in really good shape and got fitted for everything. I show up to TV, they put my face paint on, I get dressed, I take some pictures. That’s the picture he’s talking about. Then they said, ‘Hey, take your face paint off. Vince wants to talk to you.’ So I go and they’re like, ‘Hey, what’s up?’ ‘Vince, what’s going on?’ He goes, ‘Charles, change of plans.’ I’m like, ‘Change of plans?’ He goes, ‘Tonight,’ I can remember this like it was yesterday, and he goes, ‘Tonight, we’re going to put you in the Nation of Domination. We’re going to call you Kama Mustafa. You and Farooq are going to wrestle Undertaker in a handicap match, and you’re going to go over clean.’ ‘What?’ He goes, ‘Yes, I thought about it for a while.’ You know what I said? I said, ‘So do I get excited?’ Real good contracts are like, ‘So do I get paid to…’ He goes, ‘Of course, Charles, of course.’ I’m like, ‘Well, cool. I didn’t want to put the face paint on every day anyway.’ Yeah, so that’s what happened to it.”
Wright also sheds light on the behind-the-scenes process of creating his character’s look:
“And then they… back then they used to take Polaroids. They’d take some Polaroids of you. Then they’d look at the artists… we’d look at the picture, and they’d make their changes. Then they’d take more pictures. The one he’s talking about is Polaroid shots. And Jerry Lawler had did the face paint. It was awesome, man. Yeah, see, he had painted my face that day.”
This unexpected turn of events proved beneficial for Wright, as his time in the Nation of Domination ultimately led to the birth of his most iconic character, The Godfather.
If you use any portion of the quotes from this article please credit AdFreeShows.com with a h/t to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription.
