In professional wrestling, the most supernatural has always been accepted, a genre in which characters defy the laws of physics. Papa Shango stood out among them as the only wrestler ever recorded to make his contestants bleed black bile. In an episode of “Poddin’ Ain’t Easy” that recently aired, WWE Hall of Famer The Godfather, who played Papa Shango, discussed how this character was created.
Charles Wright the real name of Godfather, disclosed that Vince McMahon came up with the idea for Papa Shango. As Godfather remembered, “So, Vince says, ‘I want you to work as a heel.’ I’m like, Vince, you do understand what a babyface body is, right? I said okay, what do you want me to do? He goes ”Godfather added that he was told by Mr McMahon that he should go and rent the movie Live and Let Die. There’s a voodoo guy in there. We are going to take off from this guy, and most importantly, I want you to learn how to laugh.”
Embracing the Role
This marked a huge shift from his own personality as Charles saw himself as more like a Las Vegas biker than any kind of voodoo priest. However, he took it on as a challenge and went all in with it. WWE even sent him down to New Orleans so he could get into some Voodoo Culture and understand better how Voodoo worked.
“And then I went to New Orleans for a while and met up with buncha voodoo guys,” Wright said. “All the tattoos were real symbols. Everything I said was real.”
Papa Shago’s run with WWE lasted less than two years, though. Although the character had an unforgettable rivalry with The Ultimate Warrior, it never materialized fully into something big. Despite that, many fans still think there is unfinished business regarding Papa Shango. Even for Vince McMahon, resurrecting the character seemed possible until Wright joined the Nation of Domination.
Papa Shango is still an interesting footnote in WWE history. He was the epitome of the supernatural elements that have long been a part of their storytelling.