There will be ho train coming to Dallas as WWE today announced that The Godfather will be inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame class of 2016.
The 54 year old behind the gimmick is Charles Wright, a California native who made his pro wrestling debut in 1989 for the USWA as The Soultaker. After a couple of years with USWA, Wright received a call to head up to New York after his friend, The Undertaker, put his name forward. In 1992, he was repackaged as Papa Shango, and his arrival at WrestleMania VIII is still talked about this day..due to the wrong reasons.
Papa Shango was supposed to interfere in the Sid vs Hulk Hogan match, breaking the three count after Hogan dropped the leg drop. Papa Shango however was miles away when the move happened, and Sid kicked out of the leg drop and then the referee called for the bell after his manager, Harvey Wippleman jumped in the ring.
After leaving the WWE in 1993, he went back to the USWA however he returned in 1994 as Kama the supreme fighting machine. His return was also short-lived and left in 1996 but then returned again in 1997 under the same name as part of the Nation of Domination group. With the Attitude Era kicking off, Kama was repackaged as The Godfather, a pimp who was usually accompanied by a “ho train” – girls hired from local strip clubs.
In 2000 he joined the Right to Censor group after the Parents Television Council started objecting to several WWE gimmicks, one of which was The Godfather. Since then he appeared sporadically on WWE television and in 2013 was one of the mystery entrants in the Royal Rumble. A year later he appeared on the Old School Raw, joining other WWE Legends.
Today, Charles Wright is a manager at the Cheetah’s gentleman club in Las Vegas, Nevada.
