The Godfather says there can never be another Attitude Era.
The Attitude Era was a magical time in wrestling. It was also a part of the zeitgeist of the mid to late 1990s as Jerry Springer, Beavis and Butthead, Austin Powers, and other popular media franchises that no longer fit into modern society because as society has evolved, the content of these programs no longer appeals to the masses.
The Attitude Era featured many outlandish characters including a pornstar, an incestuous parody of Leave It to Beaver, a sex-addicted Olympian that would impregnate a senior citizen, and a pot-smoking pimp. The latter was known as The Godfather and portrayed by Charles Wright.
Before his time as "The Godfather," Charles Wright was also in WWE as" Papa Shango" and "Kama, the Supreme Fighting Machine." However, it was The Godfather that most closely resembled who Charles was and how he liked to have fun.
Appearing on the Midnight Hustle podcast, Charles Wright would say that there is no way an Attitude Era can be done today and would even say that the WrestleMania weekend signings he makes his part of his Legends of contracts are no longer fun to him because of how much the business has changed.
"In the last 12 years, I've been to WrestleMania 10 times because I'm still under contract with Vince, called a legends contract. They still keep you relevant, but they bring you to WrestleMania every year, and you're just doing signings and stuff. But I told my wife, I'm like, I don't even want to go anymore. It's not fun. It's a job. It used to be a chance to hang out with the boys. We had something called the witching hour at 12 o'clock, everybody would meet at the bar. Everybody get drunk and have fun.
"Nobody does that anymore because they're too afraid. Somebody's going to take a picture of them. Take a picture of them in a conversation, show them taking shots, showing them on some girl they ain't supposed to be, right? Nobody does that anymore and when I was in wrestling, not everybody was friends, but you're family and you know, if something was -- I'm just gonna say just say Dustin Rhodes, and he is a friend of mine, let's say Dustin Rhodes is getting into a fight, even though I might not like Dustin Rhodes, I'd be over there helping him in that fight. It's not like that anymore. It's more of a business now and it's more about how many followers you have and how many likes you get, and it's just a different business now."
He concluded, "You know, I'm not hating on nobody. Wrestling changed. The wrestling business has changed just because people wanted to change and the promoters are just keeping up with the times. I just say, 'I'm very proud and lucky to have been part of The Attitude Era."
During a recent appearance on the Broken Skull Sessions with Steve Austin, The Godfather opened up about how he met The Undertaker and how he helped form some of the qualities that have come to be associated with the man behind the character. Learn more here.
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