Professional wrestling, everyone knows, is theater. Its finishes are predetermined, its storylines are scripted, and its characters are a product of a team of creative writers. But fake remains a dirty word in professional wrestling fandom. This is because professional wrestling, in many ways, isnt fake. The performers are real people and wrestling is their job, and WWE is a real company that makes a lot of real money. No, Rusev and Lana arent actually out to prove Mother Russias dominance over the United States, but what they do is real in the same way that the individual plot of a film might not exist, but the film itself exists.
Because of this, to many fans, its the stories that play out backstagein really real lifethat are the true draw of professional wrestling. Although Rusevs victory over Big E in a little more than three-and-a-half minutes at the June special event Payback may read as Russia defeating America in the fictional universe of WWE stories, the real-world narrative playing out is much more insidious.
Fake remains a dirty word in professional wrestling fandom. This is because professional wrestling, in many ways, isnt fake.
Rusev has been squashing black wrestlers almost exclusively since his debut back in April. Before Big E, there was R-Truth, who comes down to the ring dancing and rapping; Kofi Kingston, a Jamaican whose accent mysteriously vanished a year or so after his debut; and Xavier Woods, a legitimate Ph.D. candidate when outside the ring, but a funk-loving dancing machine within it.
Fans online remarked in amusement at the coincidence, at first. Kingston, Truth, and Woods are perpetual losers called jobbers, meant to get beaten by whoever the WWE brass have decided to push that month. Before Payback, even Big E joked in a tweet that stopping Rusev might involve putting back together the Nation of Domination, a controversial black-power faction formed in WWE in the mid-90s. That tweet was quickly deleted, and perhaps in response, the next guy Rusev beat had a lot less melanin in his skin, a Jersey Shore-inspired jobber named Zack Ryder.
But Rusev quickly returned to form, beating Big E at Payback. Rumors recently surfaced online that Rusevs next major opponent will be another black wrestler, the Worlds Strongest Man, Mark Henry. But Big E and Mark Henry arent jobbers like Kingston, Truth, and Woods. Big E had his own heavy push in recent months, enjoying a lengthy run with WWEs Intercontinental Championship, the second most prestigious belt in the company at the moment, and Mark Henry was at one point legitimately considered the strongest man in the world. Hes an Olympian who has been with WWE for over a decade and has enjoyed two reigns as world champion.
Those scare quotes need an explanation. Mark Henry has held world titles before, but never the world title, the WWE Championship. From March of 2002 until December of 2013, there were two world championships in the company, one for each brand of WWE programming, the flagship Monday Night Raw and the B-show Friday Night Smackdown. For a brief period, WWE operated a third brand, a relaunch of 90s grunge federation ECW, and there were three world championships in the company. However, not even in WWEs nonsensical universe can there be three different people who are supposedly champion of the world, so a hierarchy of titles formed. Fans recognized that since Raw was the flagship show, whatever championship was defended on Raw was the real world championship.
Mark Henry held ECWs world championship, and then Smackdowns world championship. But despite having one of the most impressive resumes in WWE history, he has never won the top prize in WWE.
In the fictional WWE storylines, being the world champion means you are the best wrestler. But in real life, it means you are the best performer. The decision of who gets to be the titleholder simply comes from a team of creative writers with the final call going to WWE owner Vince McMahon himself: Who do we want to be the face of our company? Who do we think is good enough?
In its 62 year history, WWE has never chosen a black wrestler to hold its world championship.
Thats not Rusevs fault, of course. He just showed up a few months ago, and the black wrestlers hes effortlessly demolished during his short tenure are just a small fraction of all the talented black wrestlers whove never been entrusted to hold WWEs most important big shiny belt. Rusev is just the flavor of the moment until proven otherwise, a guy in which WWE officials see potential, so theyre having him beat the rogues gallery of jobbers in order to bolster his credentials. Fans who jokingly ask why Rusev is beating up all the black dudes are missing the more pressing question: Why are so many of the black dudes jobbers?
