The Question of Representation

[Leon TrotSky]

Haven't seen a thread on this

It was pointed out that Bad Blood is the third PPV on the trot with no black male talent booked (and this one has no black talent wrestling at all; Bianca and Jade are set to "host", whatever that means).



WWE's noticed this

Report: WWE Aware Of Issues With Lack Of Black Male Wrestlers Being Booked On PPVs

WWE have been made aware of issues with the company's booking of black male talents on the main roster, notably that black male wrestlers have been rarely featured on the company's pay-per-views/premium live events. That is according to Sean Ross Sapp, who said on the Fightful...

cultaholic.com

And Jinder Mahal is now very concerned about South Asian representation



So... I guess this will be the thread for all these things?

 

[Leon TrotSky]

If you ask me this is due to a perfect storm of problems. HHH's style of long-term (ponderous, drawn-out) booking means that talent become entrenched "on PPV" and "not on PPV". The same thing means no one's getting the rocket strapped to them, so there won't be any sudden change in who the featured players are. And the five-match format required to squeeze all those ads in means there's no space for wrestlers not at the tippy top of the main event (and then again there was no space for GUNTHER so there's clearly a problem here).

But there's also the issue that he's just not pushing black men, especially in singles. Montez Ford was the best shot for that in recent years, and he kneecapped his own career by saying he didn't ever want to break up the SPs so now he's just lost

 

[Chris]

I find almost all of these arguments are made in bad faith by haters so it makes it next to impossible to actually have a real discussion with anyone.

Case in point, this dude annoyed that people are talking about WWE like this when he was pushing the same narrative against AEW



Like with AEW years ago and WWE now, there doesn't seem to be any actual effort to hold anyone down. Notice, hispanic representation isn't brought up (bc it's good). The representation should be applauded when done, especially successfully such as how HBK has on NXT, but I generally can't take many of the people using it as a point against a company seriously

 

[Leon TrotSky]

Notice, hispanic representation isn't brought up (bc it's good).

I find the opposite is true, I see more than enough criticism of HHH's funnelling of Hispanic talent into Legado or LWO depending on their alignment. "Here's the face Latino faction, here's the heel Latino faction"

 

[Dale]

Shit is dumb if you ask me. These people who are pushing this agenda are gonna be the first to scream from the rooftops that someone is only getting pushed now because they're black.

 

[Chris]

I find the opposite is true, I see more than enough criticism of HHH's funnelling of Hispanic talent into Legado or LWO depending on their alignment. "Here's the face Latino faction, here's the heel Latino faction"

These are actual criticisms I entertain.

What I mean is no one has their spreadsheets of "here's how few Latino talent have been on PLEs the last year." Bc they couldn't use that as an argument

 

[Chris]

Shit is dumb if you ask me. These people who are pushing this agenda are gonna be the first to scream from the rooftops that someone is only getting pushed now because they're black.

Half the AEW ones a few years ago were exposed as white guys pretending to be minorities too

 

[JakeYourBooty]

God I hate these fuckin narratives

 

[JakeYourBooty]

God forbid companies book without using a race representation checklist

 

[Lady Redfield]

This shit is the dumbest stuff ever. When it comes to the “representation” argument, I just don’t even bother, it’s really not worth getting in to it because no one will ever be happy.

 

[Sabretooth]

If black people aren’t represented it’s automatically due to racism. That’s the narrative that’s been pitched for years and always will.

(Now of course sometimes that is the case but I highly doubt that Triple H is purposely not booking black talent)

 

[ETE]

There's enough smoke for there to be at least the illusion of a fire with HHH's booking. Black wrestlers haven't had it good under his reign. Whether that's nefarious or just the way it is, is hard to say without being there.

This was touched on by others, but I think this speaks to a wider issue within HHH's WWE. That is that despite the claim or narrative that people are rotated in and out of PPV's and the top spots, in reality it is largely just the exact same core group of people that are pushed endlessly. McIntyre is on every PPV. Rhodes is on every PPV (understandably). Judgement Day are on every PPV. The Bloodline are on every PPV. CM Punk is on every PPV. Gunther, Nia Jax, Bayley are on most PPV's. The rotation is minimal because overall HHH has handpicked his core group of guys and gals and puts everything behind them. And there isn't a single black wrestler that has been picked to be one of his pushes, and in this day and age that means you're a racist no matter what the reasoning is.

 

[Storm Trooper]

They say Triple H is racist because there's no black men on PLEs...

Yes there's been no black MEN on PLEs but Bianca Belair and Jade Cargill have been on just about all the PLEs. They're black. So clearly it isn't a racist thing.

 

[Death By Looch]

Just took a look at MITB, SummerSlam, Bash and the upcoming Bad Blood PLEs. Of the 63 spots there were (or are) over these 4 shows (Naomi and Carmelo at MITB, Bianca and Jade at Bash), only 4 were filled by black Wrestlers. That isn't a lot. ...also SummerSlam this year was the first SummerSlam since 2024 that didn't feature a single black talent in a Match.

Of course, there has been a good chunk of non-White talent on those show regardless, mostly thanks to the Bloodline.

 

[Y2Jayne]

I wonder if this played any part in the decision to give back the belt to Trick.