“The Godfather” Charles Wright was on this week’s episode of “Insight with Chris Van Vliet” to talk about his pro wrestling career including a lengthy stint in WWE. Here are the highlights:
Who came up with the Godfather gimmick:
“It was not pitched to me. My wife came up with it,” he laughed. “It wasn’t that I should be a pimp, but she said, ‘If you can make people see you for who you really are. You’re not a voodoo man, you’re not an Ultimate Fighter, you’re not a Nation member. Just be who you are.’”
“I didn’t want to be a pimp. I hated pimps, but everything she asked me to do that I didn’t want to do, it worked,” Godfather said. “At the time, I was in the Nation of Domination and they were building The Rock. Me and D’Lo Brown are just walking to the ring with The Rock, and when it was time for Undertaker or Steve Austin to do the finish, we were feeding into it. That’s all we were doing. My contract was coming up, and I’ve got to come up with something different. I’m still under contract with WWE to this day. We grew out my hair, built this character, it kind of just took off.”
Whether he thought it would be a Hall of Fame character:
“It depends how you look at it. Money wise, yes. Even though it was a mid-card character, it was over like a top character. It sold a lot of merchandise, still sells merchandise, and when I go to these signings, there are still people who want to see The Godfather, which is so cool.”
