Another WWE post-show press conference, another chance for Paul "Triple H" Levesque to put his foot in his mouth.
Following WWE Bad Blood, WWE's COO was asked about the lack of Black wrestlers on premium live event (PLEs) cards. On the last three PLEs, a Black man has not competed in a match. According to Daily DDT, Carmelo Hayes is the only Black male to wrestle on a PLE since WrestleMania 40 when he was part of Money in the Bank.
Since WrestleMania 40, Carmelo Hayes is the only Black man who has been on a #WWE PLE when he took part in #MITB.
— Daily DDT (@FanSidedDDT) August 30, 2024
Other than the Royal Rumble. Mania and MITB are the only shows to have a Black man on the card. https://t.co/w7KK48XXfv
Bad Blood was hosted by Jade Cargill, Bianca Belair, and Naomi. Cody Rhodes was played down to ringside by a HBCU band.
But the question from T.J. Legacy-Cole from The Soapboxx Podcast regarded Black male wrestlers on PLEs.
He said, "...regarding Black male wrestlers in WWE, they haven't been on a PLE in the last three cards. There was no Black female wrestlers on the Bad Blood card. How do you gauge between making sure that there's representation and making sure that there are wrestlers that get opportunities that they deserve?"
Levesque's answer was predictable, but still disappointing.
I see everybody gets the opportunity like if...I don't see the difference in anybody. I don't see the color, I don't see the nationality, I don't see any of it. I just see talent. I don't see the difference between men and women. I see talent. We tell stories with those talents, how they can tell stories and they can represent those stories and can bring those stories forward. So you know I don't keep track of any of that. I do what's relevant and what's best in storytelling and what's being delivered the best. And then that's what goes. No different than you know, the men and the women who main events or whatever. Whatever the biggest stories are, that's where we go.
Paul Levesque was asked about representation of Black wrestlers in WWE. pic.twitter.com/iaiNyPwepJ
— Brandon Thurston (@BrandonThurston) October 6, 2024
That is coming from someone who once wore Blackface to mock The Rock and competed in a story with Booker T where he uttered the line "people like you don't deserve to be World Champion." Maybe that line wasn't written by him, but he's been in WWE long enough that he knows how WWE has portrayed racial stereotypes in the past. In the Mr. McMahon docuseries, Vince himself claims to not see color. For a company that doesn't see color, they do group wrestlers into factions based on race and ethnicity.
These comments also come on the heels of a report that WWE claims AEW paid Swerve Strickland above market value. Strickland, a former WWE talent, pointed out in an interview that paying talent big money in a market determined by two wrestling companies, is only a problem when it comes to Black wrestlers. MVP has also pointed out the way Levesque and WWE book Black talent, but later had to clarify that he never said Levesque was racist.
For Levesque to say he doesn't see color in 2024 is to say he doesn't see the lived experiences of his talent or other employees. To say he doesn't see the difference between men and women is to also ignore the experiences of women in a male-dominated space. The company he works for, along with McMahon who is also his father-in-law and John Laurinaitis, are all named in a lawsuit in which a former female employee claims she was sexually abused and trafficked. Other women who had worked for WWE in the past had to allegedly sign NDAs due to things they saw and endured while working for McMahon. But previously, Levesque said he didn't read the lawsuit. I guess he also didn't see Tony Atlas say in the docuseries that they, meaning male wrestlers, all treated women like toys.
Levesque is the COO, but he's also former wrestler. He was one of the biggest wrestling stars of the late 90s and 2000s. Fans associate him with WWE. He is the public face of the brand in the press conferences and puts himself on TV and in front of the crowd on PLEs. He's just as much a face of WWE as Cody Rhodes or Randy Orton. It's beyond frustrating to see him continue to play the "dumb babyface" during public events.
