WWE Hall of Fame 2016: 5 Things you should know about The Godfather

This Godfather also made offers a lot of wrestlers couldn’t refuseThe announcing of the 2016 class of the WWE Hall of Fame was something that everyone looked forward to. Ever since Sting was announced as the first inductee of the class, the remaining spots became pretty valuable. WWE soon announced some interesting names that would join Sting and one among them is The Godfather.The real life Charles Wright, who is still not fully retired from the wrestling, will be inducted into the Hall of Fame on April 2 and considering the gimmick he portrayed, the induction ceremony could be something worth looking forward to. Let’s keep that apart for the time being and take a look at some of the things that we should know about The Godfather.

#5 A strip club manager

He manages Cheetah’s

The Godfather could be classified into the category of semi-retired professional wrestlers. He makes random appearances here and there and is used by WWE on occasions where they want to give the fans a nostalgic spark. While he is not making such appearances for WWE and not working in the independent circuit, he manages a strip club in Las Vegas.

The strip club he manages is called the Cheetah’s and is a topless bar best known for featuring in the movie ‘Showgirls’. The club, which was established back in 1991, has a solid reputation, both admirable and notorious due to the incidents surrounding it.

#4 The endless gimmicks

Papa Shango bombed big time

Charles Wright will be inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame for the Godfather gimmick. But the fact is, it isn’t the only gimmick that he played during his career. Wright had a long resume when it came to gimmicks and it all started with a gimmick called The Soultaker. Wright then played a character called Sir Charles before becoming Rocky Las Vegas.

A character that brought Wright into the limelight was Papa Shango. He got the chance to feud with the Ultimate Warrior during this time but the character bombed big time and was voted as the worst gimmick by the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.

Then came the Kama gimmick and a stint with the Nation of Domination. The Godfather gimmick followed and it landed him a spot in the Hall of fame. But considering the career graph, it would be safe to say that Wright was inducted due to his overall resume.

#3 How a Sylvester Stallone movie changed his life

A still from Over the Top

Charles Wright was a bartender before he made the jump to the wrestling business. During the filming of the 1987 Sylvester Stallone sports drama ‘Over the Top’, Wright was noticed by a few wrestlers that worked in the film. They wasted no time in giving him advice that changed his life forever.

They suggested that his large body and his tattooed look would help him break into the wrestling business and recommended Larry Sharpe’s Monster Factory. Wright also thought that it was the right move for him and started training in the Monster factory under Larry Sharpe.

#2 A product of the Monster factory

He did his training in the Monster Factory

As mentioned in the previous slide, Charles Wright did his wrestling training in the Monster Factory under Larry Sharpe. The Monster factory, which also produced stars like the Big Show, Bam Bam Bigelow, Raven, D’Lo Brown, Sonjay Dutt and some other notable names, turned Charles into a star as well.

This helped him to land a job with United States Wrestling Association under Jerry ‘The King’ Lawler. Although Wright was pretty green during his time in the USWA, he was crowned as the USWA Heavyweight champion and he held the title for nearly two weeks. He jumped ships to WWE later after brief stints in Japan and other independent promotions.

#1 The legend that recommended him to WWE

The BSK

Wright wrestled in Japan and some American promotions before making it to the WWE. And he got into the company thanks to the recommendation of none other than The Undertaker. Undertaker, who joined the WWE in 1990, recommended Wright in 1991 and managed to land him a job. Wright was a close friend of Taker and the addition of Wright to the WWE roster helped Taker to strengthen his backstage gang.

The Bone Street Krew, which was considered as a parallel backstage stable to the Kliq, consisted of names like The Undertaker, Yokozuna, Savio Vega, Rikishi, The Godwinns and of course, Charles Wright. Each member had BSK tattoos on their body and it was a cult backstage stable, to say the least.