wrestlingscout's video: Black History in Pro Wrestling 3 - The Highs and Lows

This Black History Month, I chose to produce a series of videos highlighting black pro-wrestlers of note. This production recognizes not only the black stars of pro-wrestling in the United States, but internationally as well. Black wrestlers from the United States are not the exclusive focus of this video as it seems appropriate to include the work of those from other countries including Canada, Britain, Japan and the Caribbean. The decision to include biracial stars was important as they experienced challenges based on their race. The Highs and Lows (1980s) Music is “Slide” by Silent Partner (CC BY 4.0) The 1980s saw some harsh racial divisions come about in the United States as the country swung back towards a mainstream conservativism. The meteoric rise of the Junkyard Dog proved to be a game-changer as he headlined in several markets and it opened opportunities for other black babyfaces. There was also an increase in racially charged angles involving blatant racism, same-race racism, miscegenation and allusions to lynching as well as an increase in characters that portrayed stereotypes such as savages and servants, pimps and angry black men. PYTs (Koko Ware & Norvell Austin*); Iceman King Parsons*; Brickhouse Brown* gets whipped by the Stud Stable; Pez Whatley turns on Jimmy Valiant*; Rufus R. Jones*; Tony Atlas one-ups Ken Patera; Roddy Piper* and Rocky Johnson in the Pit; Dark Journey slaps Michael Hayes; Leroy Brown smacks Sweet Brown Sugar (Skip Young); Porkchop Cash* calls out Rufus; Junkyard Dog* confront Butch Reed; Shaska Whatley decks Nighthawk; Zambuie Express (Kareem Muhammad* and Elijah Akeem) double-team Blackjack Mulligan; Abdullah the Butcher sends Gerry Morrow through a table; Kamala’s debut against Jerry Lawler; Snowman* confronts Dutch Mantel & Tom Prichard; Parsons with the hair cream; Slick*; Koko B. Ware; JYD* and Bill Watts take out the Freebirds; Ric Flair challenges Bad Bad Leroy Brown; Butch Reed calls out Dark Journey for being with Dick Slater; Bad News Allen