When Jinder Mahal made ethnic jokes at Shinsuke Nakamura’s expense in a scripted promo on “SmackDown Live” Tuesday night, the crowd in Oakland, Calif., chanted “that’s too far” and some fans on social media took umbrage with what they deemed racist material.
The next day, WWE issued the following statement to The Washington Post in regard to the controversial promo:
“Just like many other TV shows or movies, WWE creates programming with fictional personalities that incorporates real world issues and sensitive subjects. As a producer of such TV shows, WWE Corporate is committed to embracing and celebrating individuals from all backgrounds as demonstrated by the diversity of our employees, performers and fans worldwide.”
Before I weigh in on the subject, I want to make it abundantly clear that I have zero tolerance for racism. Anyone who knows me personally or follows me on social media knows that I lean left and often have been critical of Donald Trump when it comes issues of race.
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With that said, I did not find Mahal’s promo particularly offensive. As WWE alluded to in its statement, racism exists in the real world, and if other forms of scripted entertainment can deal with the subject, why should it be off limits to sports entertainment?
Sure, one can argue that Mahal’s promo — in which he said Nakamura’s facial expressions “always ‘rook’ the same” and that fans refer to Nakamura as Mr. Miyagi from the movie “The Karate Kid” — was an example of cheap heat and not particularly creative nor entertaining, but that doesn’t mean it was offensive.
In instances such as this, context is everything. Mahal is a heel character who has accused American fans of being prejudiced against him because he’s Indian. Now, in an attempt to get into Nakamura’s head before their match at the Hell in a Cell pay-per-view on Oct. 8, Mahal is trying to convince Nakamura that while the fans may cheer him, deep down they are prejudiced against him as well because of his ethnicity.
To drive home his point, Mahal made intentionally bad racist jokes about Nakamura and put the blame on the audience, saying that’s how they truly feel, not necessarily how he feels. It’s not like Mahal is out there angrily spouting racial epithets in an effort to convey that his character is truly racist.
If that were the case, I agree it would be uncomfortable to the point it would not generate the right kind of heat. Then again, the Zeb Colter character from a several years ago was clearly racist, yet crowds routinely chanted “We, the people” along with him.
If a babyface character was cutting racially charged promos at the expense of a heel, I absolutely would condemn WWE for it. After all, those characters are supposed to be the good guys, the larger-than-life characters the kids look up to and adults identify with.
Remember in 2005 when the one of the biggest babyfaces in pro wrestling history, "Stone Cold" Steve Austin, said, “I see sand people,” in a promo segment with Middle Eastern heels Muhammad Hassan and Daivari? That was far more offensive than the Mahal promo on “SmackDown Live.”
Ironically, Hassan and Daivari — much like Mahal now — always accused American fans of being prejudiced against them because of their ethnicity, and Austin proved them right.
Mahal is a bad guy who says and does bad things. His promo was true to his character, and despite what the crowd chanted, I don’t think it went too far.
