The Godfather explains why the Papa Shango character didn’t last as long in WWE as many expected it to.
WWE Hall of Famer The Godfather was a recent guest on INSIGHT with Chris Van Vliet. When asked about the process that turned him into Papa Shango, The Godfather said Vince McMahon told him after his tryout that he had the body of a monster, but he had a baby face.
“The WWE hired me. I had a tryout, I was in Germany for a year, when I got back from Germany they gave me a call and were like we want to give you a tryout. So I go for a tryout. Vince hires me and he says, You got a body of a monster, but you have a baby face,” The Godfather said. “He goes, so we want you to just go home keep training because at that point, I had lost like 70 pounds trying to get in shape. He goes, go home, relax.
“Then he called me one day and says Charles, I want you to go rent the movie Live and Let Die, there’s a voodoo character in there. It’s a James Bond film. And I already knew the film and the character. I was already familiar with everything. And he goes most importantly, I want you to get this guy’s laugh down. When you address the people you [laugh]. Yeah, but that’s where it came from. They wanted to hide my face because they thought I had a baby face.”
The Godfather on Papa Shango’s early exit
When asked why the Papa Shango character didn’t last very long, The Godfather said an ugly divorce with his second wife left him in a very bad place.
“Papa Shango went through a very, very ugly divorce. My second wife. I went through an ugly divorce, I was in a very, very bad place,” The Godfather revealed. “Biker Bear came out. Back then mind you, there’s no social media, there’s no laptops. I don’t even think there was ESPN. So there’s nobody taking pictures of you on your phone.
“But I was getting into a lot of fights, real fights, and Taker was pulling me off for people, and it was getting ugly. So I went in there with Vince and Mark and we decided it would be best if I went home and got my mind right before somebody got hurt. I know that’s wild, but I was a different person back then.”
Wright would later return to WWE in 1995 as Kama Mustafa, aka Kama ‘The Supreme Fighting Machine.” He played that character (and a variation of it in the Nation Of Domination) until he debuted The Godfather in 1998.
READ MORE: The Godfather Says His Wife Came Up With His Attitude Era Character
What do you make of The Godfather’s comments? Did you enjoy his Papa Shango character? Let us know your thoughts by sounding off in the comments section below.
