Racism and Wrestling | WrestleZone Forums

Publish date: 2024-05-06
While the Col DeBeers character may seem a little over the top by todays standards it fit into the landscape of wrestling at the time. Do whatever it took to get heat for the heel and then have the big face beat him. This is why there was never a German or Japanese face over here after WW2, never a Russian face during the Cold War and to the best of my knowledge there has never been a big face from the Middle East.

By todays PC standards it may be bad, but in the 70s/80s crowds ate this type of stuff up.

By the time Ed Wiskoski( DeBeers ) got to the AWA after wrestling for years in the territories he probably figured a big time heel was worth it to his career. At the time South Africa was in the news so by wrestling standards it was logical to create this character. And if we are honest it was a success. After he left the AWA he continued the character in the UWF( California ) so I doubt he minded to much.

In the AWA he engaged in a major feud with Jimmy Snuka, refusing to wrestle him because he was not white. DeBeers attacked Snuka after a match and piledrove him several times on the concrete, blooding him. The feud was a hot one for the AWA.

He also cost Scott Hall and Curt Henning their tag titles by attacking Hall and ramming him into the ring post during a defense. The Dukes feud happened near the end of the AWAs existence.

In the UWF he started feuding with a African American referee who 'happened' to be the cousin of Ice Man King Parsens, which led to a feud.

All told I think Wiskoski embraced the character.

David Schultz wrestled as David von Schultz in Grand Prix Wrestling in Eastern Canada alongside Randy Savage. My guess is that it is a character gimmick.

No other wrestlers but some events at the 1996 Olympics were held in Stone Mountain, so I think you are reading to much into that one.

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