WWE Hall of Famer The Godfather (Charles Wright) recently revealed the unlikely story of how he was discovered and entered the professional wrestling business. Speaking on the No-Contest Wrestling Podcast, he explained that it all started while he was working at a Las Vegas strip club during the filming of the 1987 Sylvester Stallone movie, Over The Top.
“I was working in a strip club in Las Vegas… and they were filming a movie called Over The Top,” he began. “A lot of guys in that were wrestlers… and they come in, they’re like, ‘Dude, you should become a wrestler.’ And I’m like, ‘Man, I don’t want to do that phony s—.'” The wrestlers in the bar were persistent, and a specific financial figure is what ultimately convinced him to give it a shot. “They said, ‘Well, he made a million dollars last year.’ And I went ‘Wrestling? A million dollars?'”
The Soultaker vs. Jerry Lawler
That conversation led to him making a phone call, and less than two years later, he was in a main event without any formal training. “Literally, less than two years from that call, I’m wrestling Jerry Lawler in Memphis, Tennessee, on a Monday night on my very first match ever, not knowing anything about wrestling because I never went to wrestling school,” he revealed. “I beat Jerry Lawler on a Monday night. I was The Soultaker in Memphis, Tennessee, man.”
Meeting The Undertaker
It was in Memphis that he first crossed paths with a “big, tall, red-headed kid” who would later become The Undertaker. “After my program with Lawler, I’m pretty green… So they said we’re going to bring this big, tall, red-headed kid in to work with you,” he recalled. “After the match, it was so bad that they put us together as a tag team.”
He also explained the origin of his “Soultaker” name. When asked what a tattoo on his arm was, he replied, “Oh, that’s the soultaker… all my tattoos are demons taking women’s souls. What I was into back then.” The promoters liked the name, and a gimmick was born.
The Godfather is one of the most recognizable characters from WWE’s Attitude Era. After a long and successful career that saw him portray multiple iconic characters, he was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2016.
If you use any portion of the quotes from this article please credit No Contest Wrestling Podcast with O’Shea Jackson with a h/t to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription.
