Appearing on the latest episode of Broken Skull Sessions with Stone Cold Steve Austin, Charles Wright revealed that he “hated” playing ‘The Goodfather.’
After The Nation of Domination imploded in 1998, Wright who had been performing as Kama Mustafa transformed into The Godfather. A pimp, famous for appearing alongside his ‘ho’s.’ Wright later turned his back on his fan-favourite character joining the Right To Censor as ‘The Goodfather.’
While the group later fell apart, Wright triumphantly returned at the 2002 Royal Rumble complete with a lengthy line of female companions. However, The Godfather left WWE once again at the end of the year.
Reflecting on this period of his career, Wright explained that he “hated” playing ‘The Goodfather’ describing it as the only time that he didn’t like what he was doing in wrestling. He continued, explaining that Vince McMahon would have kept his original ‘Godfather’ gimmick going if it wasn’t for external pressure.
“Hated it [working as The Goodfather], absolutely,” The Godfather said. “This is the only time in wrestling where I did not like what I was doing. It was so hard. First of all, Vince fought for me hard. He used to tell me, ‘Charles.. I’m trying, man, but they’re coming after you hard. I’m trying.’ If it was up to Vince, he would have kept that gimmick going forever, but he was taking a lot of heat for what I was doing. So he’s like, ‘Well, we’re gonna poke fun at this group for a minute and then try to get back to The Godfather.’”
During his time in Right To Censor, Wright said that he considered leaving the company. However, Vince McMahon heard of his plans and decided to put the Tag Team Titles on Wright and Bull Buchanan.
“I think it got to Vince, and you know how Vince is,” The Godfather added. “Me being a loyal person to the company, I’ve always been a loyal person, he dropped the straps [tag titles] on us, so I’m not gonna leave when he dropped the straps on us. So it kept me there longer.”
After brief stints in the USWA and a tour of Japan with New Japan Pro Wrestling, Wight joined WWE in 1991. Following a series of minor appearances, Wright debuted as Papa Shango in early 1992. While Wright enjoyed a high profile feud with the Ultimate Warrior, the character was dropped in 1993.
The Las Vegas native returned to WWE in 1994 and continued to appear sporadically under the guise of Kama “The Supreme Fighting Machine.” However, it wasn’t until he joined the Nation of Domination in 1997 that Wright landed another high-profile role.
Elsewhere in the conversation, Wright recalled Steve Austin refusing to lose to him early on in his career. ‘The Godfather’ explained that the incident was purely business and came down to how Austin wanted to be presented.
H/t to Sportskeeda for the transcription.