Did the WrestleMania VIII botch kill Papa Shango?

[Deleted]

Considering that there was a chance of a wrestling voodoo priest having a high ceiling...

It is well documented that Charles Wright botched his timing at the end of the Hogan/Sid match, forcing them to call and audible, and looking at the character's results after that... Papa Shango became a heel jobber. It wasn't immediate, as Shango was able to defeat Jim Duggan during the European Rampage Tour... and Virgil throughout April, but then they started that infamous Papa Shango/Ultimate Warrior program where Shango would haunt Warrior and hex him (where I don't need to remind anyone what Shango did), and Warrior would stomp him at every house show they faced off at. I guess this was intended, as I don't think anyone would want to be at the town where the evil voodoo guy got one over on the Warrior, but Shango wouldn't defeat a jobber or Virgil until a house show in May 1993 against Tito Santana, who was on his way out of the company.

Shango would also win the USWA Unified Heavyweight Championship that year, but that was Jerry Lawler's Ego Belt so he could beat a monster of that week. So, ultimately, this scary dude was nothing more than an entrance, and it had me wonder if the botch killed the WWF's plans for the character, or if it was the intent all along for Shango to just be a scary-looking guy who simply lost all the time?

[cjh]

Wright has said he went to the ring when he was cued, and it was the person in charge of giving him that cue who messed up.

[DASH 243✅]

Maybe he wasn't that good at voodoo and cursed himself.

[Mozenrath]

It didn't help, no, but I think he already was a little late to the party for this sort of a gimmick, so the gimmick changes, etc, were going to happen sooner than later, anyhow.

[Aceorton]

Let's say the cue wasn't screwed up. What really changes? Warrior still charges down and clears the ring, and Hogan still leaves for a year.

I never got a sense that Shango was meant for anything other than feuding with the Warrior (and losing). The only difference might have been if Sid had stuck around and Warrior feuded with Sid first, or if Warrior feuded with Sid and Shango together in tag team main events on house shows with Undertaker or Savage as his partner.

[petef3]

Even if it did, Sid walking out ended up saving him at least temporarily.

[ThankGodForSidJustice]

Sid leaving probably hurt him more. They then needed someone else to feud with Warrior and Shango was really the only the other monster heel that had any cred as since he was so new he hadn't lost yet. Berzerker I guess would've been another option but I think he was already looked at as midcard even at that point. Shango never really had a chance to get built up and ended up getting jobbed out right away since obviously Warrior wasn't losing. Then again if Sid hadn't left Shango was going to feud with Undertaker, another guy who never jobbed, so I guess he was kind of screwed either way. I guess he was more of a victim of the roster being too small if anything. If he debuted in the mid-late 80's when they had a much stronger heel roster he would've at least got built up for several months before they fed him to Hogan or Warrior. However in 92 they had pretty much nobody and got rushed into the main event picture before he had a chance.

[jking1979]

Sept 20, 2019 0:15:17 GMT -5 ThankGodForSidJustice said:

Sid leaving probably hurt him more. They then needed someone else to feud with Warrior and Shango was really the only the other monster heel that had any cred as since he was so new he hadn't lost yet. Berzerker I guess would've been another option but I think he was already looked at as midcard even at that point. Shango never really had a chance to get built up and ended up getting jobbed out right away since obviously Warrior wasn't losing. Then again if Sid hadn't left Shango was going to feud with Undertaker, another guy who never jobbed, so I guess he was kind of screwed either way. I guess he was more of a victim of the roster being too small if anything. If he debuted in the mid-late 80's when they had a much stronger heel roster he would've at least got built up for several months before they fed him to Hogan or Warrior. However in 92 they had pretty much nobody and got rushed into the main event picture before he had a chance.

Charles Wright would have liked that because Undertaker is one of his close friends.

[Deleted]

it was hard since Undertaker checked all the paranormal boxes

[auph10imitated]

I genuinely never understood this at all, and what I mean is putting Shango in this spot to begin with. He was sooo new, yes he was built well in promos and had one or two squashes but it was quite unheard of to put someone so new in such a big spot, even if they did have big plans for him. Why not just build him follwoing Mania.

Also if Warrior was programmed with Justice, and Hogan was going, who was Shango programmed with? Undertaker? He wasnt even in the match? It just didnt seem to make much sense. I mean it made for a good replacement as soon as Justice was gone, but had Justice stayed I would have imagined Justice vs Warrior being built to Summerslam.

I remember watching him wander down the aisle and just thinking, huh? why?

As for killing him off, I dont think it killed him fully as they started building him with the wacky voodoo, I think what hurt him was the change of venue in Summerslam and taking Warrior out of the program and leaving him in limbo, after SS they gave him Bret Hart but by then it was a failed experiment and he jobbed his way out over the next 6 months.

[Milkman Norm]

I think what killed the gimmick was a combination of:

1. There was no televised payoff to the Warrior program. He did the job at all the house shows though. Granted this wasn't mentioned in Superstars but if you were a fan who saw him lose in person only to see him doing his voodoo schtick tapped tho months prior you probably wouldn't be that impressed.


2. He worked like a big wrestler instead a monster. He was a voodoo priest who for reasons would work a body part before ending the match with the shoulder breaker. None of it matched the gimmick. Say what you will about The Undertaker everything he did to the smallest detail was done to enhance the gimmick.


3. WWF had plans to push Warrior back to the top of the card and it was clear in retrospect that the Papa Shango program was just something for him to do in the meantime. Once the Flair/Warrior/Savage angle started he had nothing to do. Once Bret was champion he was an even bigger fish out of water. The voodoo stuff was pretty much dropped, he did a clean job on SNME & then pretty much jobbed out for the rest of his run.

[The 1Watcher Experience]

I don’t think anything changes. The Papa Shango character wasn’t really going anywhere.

[Aceorton]

Sept 20, 2019 6:01:55 GMT -5 auph10imitated said:

I genuinely never understood this at all, and what I mean is putting Shango in this spot to begin with. He was sooo new, yes he was built well in promos and had one or two squashes but it was quite unheard of to put someone so new in such a big spot, even if they did have big plans for him. Why not just build him follwoing Mania.

Also if Warrior was programmed with Justice, and Hogan was going, who was Shango programmed with? Undertaker? He wasnt even in the match? It just didnt seem to make much sense. I mean it made for a good replacement as soon as Justice was gone, but had Justice stayed I would have imagined Justice vs Warrior being built to Summerslam.

Isn't the story that Sid failed a drug test before WM8 and was supposed to serve a suspension at some point later? Maybe they suspected (correctly) that he might just quit instead, so Shango got the weird WrestleMania cameo as insurance in case they had to call on someone else to main-event.

[johnnyk9]

I never thought it did but not having an on air blow off with Warrior I felt did