Views From The Turnbuckle: The New Day And Ethnic Stereotypes In WWE

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For years WWE has struggled with tackling the issue of racial stereotypes in wrestling. For a company that has a large contingent of black fans, WWE has largely remained ignorant towards the issue. Black wrestlers have been mostly sparingly used, and some wrestlers, both in and out of the company have spoken about WWE's need to increase the opportunities given to black wrestlers.

In an industry that relies on over-the-top characterization of different individuals to create characters, shoe-horning wrestlers into ethnic stereotypes is obviously going to be very frequent. It is not only black wrestlers who get lumped into this role, almost any wrestler on the roster that has some form of ethnic value is given this treatment. Enzo and Cass rely on Italian-American stereotypes, Sheamus on Irish stereotypes, The Usos on Samoan stereotypes, etc. When part of the job is to create a boisterous, almost cartoonish character, some of the more remedial aspects of a wrestler's personality are bound to come out.

With that being said, WWE has done itself a disservice by consistently booking black wrestlers into archaic roles that never really scrape the surface of any of their wrestler's true personality. Brodus Clay is a dancer that comes out to a funky beat, Cryme Tyme is a pair of inner-city thugs who appeared in vignettes committing felonies, MVP is a prima-donna wearing gold chains, R-Truth is about ten different black stereotypes rolled into one. The list goes on and on. Very few black wrestlers escape the direct casting of stereotypical rolls onto themselves, and if they do it is usually only because they have a more desirable trait to market, such as Mark Henry being a champion powerlifter.

When the New Day first debuted, they also appeared to be overtly characterized into a stereotypical black role. In their vignettes they were seen clapping along with a church choir (who of course were all black) and Xavier Woods danced around doing a James Brown impersonation. After the very first vignette aired, most fans knew what to expect when the New Day was actually ready to debut in the ring, more of the same low-class role playing that WWE often gives its black wrestlers.

Unsurprisingly, the gimmick didn't catch on at all. Despite the fact that the group was supposed to be babyfaces, fans didn't react favorably at all to the clapping and dancing of the New Day. Instead they showered them with boos, eventually forcing WWE to turn the stable heel so at least the boos would be appropriate.

Upon turning heel, something funny began to happen. Perhaps it was because the New Day were no longer handicapped by having to pander to the audience for cheers that would never come, but the group suddenly began to shake off many of the original stereotypes the gimmick implored. Instead, the New Day began to become more sarcastic in their interviews and more intimidating in the ring. On paper the New Day has a lot of talent in the ring, Kofi Kingston is a veteran worker and a terrific athlete and Big E is a big man that can really move in the ring.

Of course it was Xavier Woods who was the real driving force behind the New Day's ascension. Woods is a good athlete in his own right, but his real talent in his charisma and his ability to sell himself and his teammates. While Big E and Kofi worked in the ring, Woods was tirelessly selling his team on the outside, constantly shouting and interfering and eventually introducing a trombone to ringside. Woods worked physically harder on the outside of the ring than any other manager in company history and he was rewarded as a his team began to get over as babyfaces, ironically because they were turned heel because they couldn't get over as babyfaces. On the microphone Woods was both loud and charismatic, but he also came across as intelligent and serious in his promos. He wasn't dancing like James Brown anymore, instead he was focused on his team and its significance in the WWE World Tag Team Championship picture.

While WWE has swung and missed on a lot of ethnic stereotypes, a wrestler's ethnicity can still play a role in their character. Plenty of top wrestlers, from Bruno Sammartino to The Sheik to Eddie Guerrero have used their ethnicity to get over and become top names in the business. WWE's problem was that they were going so over-the-top with their gimmicks that the wrestlers behind them were often times reduced to sideshow spectacles. The New Day still relies on being African-American in a lot of ways, it is unlikely that a group of white wrestlers given the same role would have developed in the same fashion, but they are presented in a serious and frequent enough manner that fans accept them. For the first time in recent company history, with the exception of maybe Booker T, WWE has a wrestler(s) that are identifiably black, without being cartoonishly so.

Since their debut The New Day have come a long way, and for more than six months now WWE has been relying on the group heavily due to injuries to many of their top stars. Even with WrestleMania set to take place in a couple weeks, WWE is still letting The New Day cut long promos on RAW and wrestle lengthy matches. Over the last several months The New Day have become a pillar of the company, being asked to come up with creative promos week-in and week-out while also wrestling in important matches. All too frequently they can be counted on to be one of the few entertaining parts of the show.

The only missing right now from the New Day is a true opponent that can match their charisma. The New Day have had plenty of feuds with the likes of the Dudley Boys, the Usos and now the League of Nations, but they haven't really found their match. Even as heels, the New Day still got tons of fan support, mainly because their babyface opponents have been so bland. The best likely opponents for the group looks to be Enzo and Cass, a tag team with a gimmick not all that different from the New Day. The duo has their own catchphrases and cult following and can stand toe-to-toe with the New Day on the microphone. The New Day deserves an opponent that can match them tit-for-tat and take them to the next level, which would be impressive considering how far they have already come.