In a career spanning the height of the “Attitude Era,” Charles Wright underwent several transformations, portraying characters ranging from the voodoo practitioner Papa Shango to the MMA fighter Kama Mustafa. However, he is most widely recognized for his tenure as The Godfather, a controversial and popular persona that became a staple of WWE television in the late 1990s. In a recent interview on The Velvet Ropes with SoCal Val, Wright revealed that his career trajectory almost took a vastly different path during the Monday Night Wars.
Wright detailed a contract negotiation with World Championship Wrestling (WCW) where he was poised to join the New World Order (nWo) faction. According to Wright, the deal was all but finalized before financial disagreements led to the role being given to another former WWE talent.
“The only time that I was going to… we had the deal was, is the nWo… I was supposed to join the nWo,” Wright said. “I was re-signing as The Godfather. We’re working out deals. And so they gave me a call, and we worked out a three-year deal. Alright? So now I’m waiting for the contract to come. And I’m like calling the people that I need to talk to call. They’re not calling me back. Then I look up and I see Virgil. Well, I was supposed to be a bodyguard for the first year. In the last two years, I was going to wrestle on this contract, and so they decided to go with Virgil instead of me.”
Wright speculated that the decision came down purely to economics rather than creative fit.
“My price was way higher than Virgil’s,” Wright explained. “I think they just didn’t want to pay me that much money to do what I was going to do. I don’t know, but Virgil took it. So that’s the only time that I even came close to going anywhere.”
Had the deal gone through, Wright would have left the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) just as “The Godfather” character was beginning to take shape. During the interview, Wright clarified the origins of that character, debunking the assumption that it was the creation of Vince McMahon. He credited his wife with the concept, fashion, and overall direction of the persona.
“Believe it or not, the whole Godfather character was my wife’s idea,” Wright stated. “All of it, not Vince. It was, you know, Vince had heard what we were doing on the road with it, and, you know, he’s like, ‘hey, I want to see a little bit more about this character.’ But it was all my wife’s idea, and she was basically, ‘if we could find a way for these people to see the real you. You’re not a voodoo man. You’re not that militant, just your old crazy, high ass self. We got something.’ So she came up with the character. She had all the outfits made, all the jewelry had. She had it made. She had a hat company sending us hats, all her ideas. I just went out there and did the silliness.”
Wright explained that the character began to develop during untelevised house shows while he was teaming with Bradshaw (John Layfield).
“Me and Bradshaw were on the road, and I was Kama Mustafa at the time… And so I’m like, ‘Hey, John, let’s try something this time.’ And so we went to Jack Lanza, the agent at the time, God rest his soul. And we’re like, ‘hey, we want to try something.’ So we went out there and tried a little thing with no girls or anything. And it got over so much that by the time we got to TV, Vince came to me. He’s like, ‘Hey, Charles, this thing you’re doing might have a little bit of legs to it, you know.’ And so he’s like, ‘do you think you can get some girls… Maybe we can get some girls to go with it.’ And I’m like, ‘Come on, man, you know me, Vince.'”
The official debut of the character involving the “Ho Train” occurred shortly after, utilizing local talent.
“It was me, Undertaker and the Harris twins, Ron and Don Harris,” Wright recalled. “And so we went to a strip club, picked up some girls, put this on TV. I mean, we literally went there and got him to, got some girls to go back, put him on TV. And from that moment that that Raw Godfather with some girls on TV went on stage, it was over, like rover, like just, it was excitement. And it took off from that one night.”
Wright emphasized that the character allowed him to enjoy his work in a way previous gimmicks had not. He noted that the environment at live events changed noticeably when he arrived with the entourage.
“I told Vince one time. Vince is like, ‘Charles, you ought to…’ he goes, ‘you should be paying me.’ I’m like, ‘if you let me keep doing this, maybe I will,’ because I was having the time of my life,” Wright said. “When we went to Vince with the character, we were more like ‘Vince. They see enough wrestling. Let me go out there and just entertain him.’ I was like, ‘just, let me just, let me be go out there and entertain him.’ So the Godfather was really for the people. Man. He was win or lose or that really didn’t matter… And I always used to tell the girls, ‘this will be the only good only time. It’ll be fun being a hoe.'”
This interview is exclusive to WrestlingNews.co. If you use these quotes, please include a link back to this page.
