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Wrestling isn't a physical contest as much as it's a clash of personalities. The biggest Superstars in the industry have always been those wrestlers with dynamic characterization giving them back-stories and unique personalities instead of just being generic "wrestlers."

During the New Generation, an influx of previously laid off workers from a Hulk Hogan dominated era that had left the business and gotten real jobs finally returned to the ring. "Professional" wrestlers like IRS, Duke "the Dumpster" Droese , Isaac Yankem DDS, The Repo man, etcetera, found gainful employment in WWF yet couldn't put their careers on hold. While they had technical talent, they were all rejected for being just a bunch of white and blue collared stuffed shirts, exhibiting poor social skills and behavior devoid of personality.

They weren't there to make fans; they were just ordinary members of society's workforce, wrestling as a side job to make ends meet.

The Attitude Era put these professional wrestlers out of business as fans finally got to know the performers better, outside of their occupation. After all, the life of the party isn't the workaholic, it's the alcoholic!

Stone Cold Steve Austin was the answer to fans starving for more personality from their wrestlers. His rapport with the audience was strengthened by the beer he drank, the truck he drove, the clothes he wore, and the words he spoke. With Austin's detailed redneck character, collective audiences connected with a man whose persona was true to life.

They didn't cheer Stone Cold necessarily because he was a good 'ole boy from the south or because he liked to go hunting, but his character was beneficial because it based Austin in a realistic relatable context, a character that was easily recognizable in modern society. From this back-story, Austin was able to turn up the excitement with the most basic and captivating persona in wrestling, the outlaw.

For an audience of law abiding citizens running the rat races day in and day out, the outlaw is viewed as a hero of the working class. What made Stone Cold Steve Austin the biggest icon of the wrestling industry was his refusal to tow the line and his insistence to buck the system much to the appreciation of wrestling fans that could only vicariously live the fantasy that he provided.

Throughout wrestling's history many different character models have been used to varying success, catapulting some to superstardom. But none have been able to match Stone Cold Steve Austin's dominance because they haven't found another character as adored as an outlaw. Until now…

The gangster is America's most endearing cultural icon. The modern day urban cowboy galloping through city streets on superior horsepower with guns blazing, living the American Dream with a vengeance through organized crime and in the process amassing fortunes.

Though outlaws, real gangsters became worldwide celebrities in the 1920's as their true and brutal lifestyles were glorified through cinema, turning kingpins like Al Capone, Lucky Luciano, and Bumpy Johnson into living legends feared on the streets and revered on the screens. The gangster became the new hero.

While the days of the classic gangster are long gone, the character itself has evolved and still lives on in modern society. Today's gangster has traded in the fedora for the fitted cap, suit pants for baggy jeans, and dress shoes for expensive sneakers. However, The American Gangster is still born out of the inner city and is still a sensation among popular culture.

Art imitated life with the debut of the classic gangster during Hollywood's Golden Age. Today, the gangster character has become so commercialized that life imitates art. Through avenues like movies and rap music, the American gangster has become the mainstream's hottest commodity.

It's not just a fad; children crank the music so high it makes their clothes loud. Millions and millions of youth, from the ghetto to the meadow, emulate the new gangster image becoming carbon copies all wearing the same clothes, talking the same jive, and even engaging in crime in an effort to live out their fantasies of the alluring gangster.

The gangster has become a cultural phenomenon transcending every realm of entertainment. But strangely, to this day, the WWF has been unsuccessful in cashing in on this niche market and crossing it over to wrestling.

Wrestling has had its fair share of gangsters come and go over time yet none were able to make the kind of mega impact on the industry as in other entertainment vehicles. Try as they might, for the last few decades, WWF has repeatedly failed in their efforts to successfully cash in on the gangster gimmick. Let's take a stroll down memory alley…

Bad News Brown was wrestling's first mainstream gangster. An ashy black hardened street thug from Harlem, terrifying to family audiences and equally devastating to opponents with his feared "Ghetto Blaster" enziguri finisher.

Because of the political climate in wrestling during the 80's, no matter how popular a heel became he would never get a chance to break through and become WWF Champion. In hindsight, stellar past heels like "Ravishing" Rick Rude, Mr. Perfect, and The Million Dollar Man would have made for exceptional heel WWF Champions, even if only for transitional reigns. And while today they are still remembered as legends of wrestling regardless, unfortunately Bad News Brown is a forgotten Superstar of the 80's. But that's only because his character was ahead of its time.

Bad News Brown's persona was cutting edge. While all of the other heels at the time would usually band together when necessary, Bad News was his own man, only out for himself. By eliminating a heel Bret Hart in the battle royale at Mania 4, he proved there was no honor among thieves.

Bad News Brown's revolutionary gimmick of a rebellious untrusting outlaw was copied to unprecedented success by Stone Cold Steve Austin a decade later, right down to the trademark bald head, black boots and tights. Since Austin was a redneck hick from the South, he wasn't marketed as an urban "gangster", but was referred to as an "outlaw" instead to better fit with his character's geographical location. But regardless, the essence of the outlaw character was based on Bad News Brown's gangster image. While Austin imitated Brown, even he could not duplicate him.

It is often been said that the reason Austin and The Rock became such successful icons is because they drew from their own personalities and turned the volume way up to create their captivating characters.

Bad News Brown laid the foundation for the modern gangster and was the only man that could have pulled it off, because for a gangster to be truly effective, you can't just be some perpetrator dressing the part, it is of utmost importance to have actual street credibility. This was good news for Bad News…

Bad News Brown wasn't just a performer playing a part, he was such a real gangster that he is known as the only man to ever punk Andre The Giant in real life. As the story goes, on a bus trip with the rest of the WWF roster, Bad News overheard Andre making racist jokes about African Americans and ordered the bus driver to stop and challenged the 7 foot 4 inch, 540 pound, 8th Wonder of the World, the most feared wrestler at the time, to a real fight. Andre declined.

You want street credibility?!

New Jack never came to the ring without his gun.

When it comes to a gangster in wrestling, New Jack had it all. His promos weren't rehearsed lines, hearing him speak was hearing a real life gangster talking trash. His stiff shoot style wasn't a wrestling match; it was a real life street fight. New Jack personified street credibility. The problem with New Jack was that he had too much credibility. He wasn't a wrestler, he was an employed criminal assaulting wrestlers and wowing audiences with his insane death-defying bumps, legitimately hurting his opponents and himself.

New Jack was so gangster that the NAACP would actually picket outside of venues in futile attempts to stop his display of racial violence.

While there are many memorably horrific moments in wrestling courtesy of New Jack, the best example of his ultra violent gangster character was showcased during the infamous Mass Transit Incident.

Mass Transit was an underage seventeen year old wrestler who falsified documents that stated he was 19 and tricked Paul Heyman into letting him substitute for the no-showing Axl Rotten in a wrestling match. During the course of the match, New Jack attempted to blade Transit but accidentally cut him too deep, resulting in two severed arteries in Transit's forehead. At the end of the match as paramedics rushed to assist the unconscious Transit laying in the ring bleeding to death, New Jack grabbed the mic and with one foot on the chest of Mass Transit the heartless thug cut a promo, "McMahon, Bischoff, look at this motherfucker…..As far as I'm concerned, that fat piece of shit can bleed to fucking death, because I don't give a fuck!"

New Jack was instrumental in ECW's early success with his ultra violent wrestling style and his gangster persona. Unfortunately, he was too gangster for WWF to hire. On October 10, 2004, New Jack was arrested after he, supposedly, stabbed William 'Hunter' Lane 14 times with a knife. A fan in the crowd who was an off-duty police officer, called the police during the match because he thought it was real.

Its clear New Jack had more street cred than any other wrestler, to his own detriment. Had New Jack toned down his thuggish ruggish demeanor a few degrees, he could have gone on to become a great gangster wrestler in WWF. He probably would not have become the WWF Champion but at the very least, he could have made a great addition to the now defunct Hardcore division.

However, when it comes to being a gangster, reputation is everything. Having too much street credibility is better than having none at all. Take Rikishi for example…

After shedding his savage Samoan islander heritage, Rikishi decided to cash in on the ever growing popularity of the inner city culture. But Rikishi's problem was his lack of street credibility. Even though he was from the ghetto, he wasn't a gangster. Instead, he set out to 'make a difference' by speaking out against gang violence, recounting his own tale of being a victim of a drive-by shooting.

Sadly, Rikishi's attempt to be a positive role model left him ostracized by his community, which perceived him as an Uncle Tom for sticking to his morals and "selling out." He quickly lost support and fled to Saudi Arabia living as The Sultan as part of the Wrestler Protection Program. After still not being able to succeed in wrestling, eventually Rikishi also gave in to the seducing lure of fame and fortune from a life of crime and reluctantly became a real gangster.

He made it the only way you can make it out of the ghetto...

As WWF's gangster, Rikishi would become infamous when he was revealed to be the driver that ran down Stone Cold Steve Austin. During his heel run, he wasn't a player but he crushed a lot. Yet ultimately, the big punisher was unable to leave a lasting impression as a gangster. After all, a grown man wearing a thong is never gangster. He eventually would revert back to a face and resumed as a hip hopping rumpshaker until he was mercifully canned.


With each passing decade, the gangster gimmick just didn't work in WWF for various reasons. During the post-Attitude Era they tried again, this time coming closer than they had ever been before in making a gangster superstar.

Ironically, the most successful gangster in wrestling to date has been the white bread John Cena. His rise to superstardom was unquestionably linked to his gangster image that propelled him to become the industry's newest icon. With his ability to deliver amusing freestyle raps and his requisite hood gear, John Cena became the latest superstar to enthrall wrestling fans by being this generation's answer to a gangster.

John Cena's gangster routine was very successful, despite also being controversial because, right or wrong, a white guy is never taken seriously for being a gangster. John Cena was just a manufactured prototype. Hailing from West Bubblefuck, Massachusetts he was merely a suburban thug possessing no street credibility, which was painfully evident when he spray painted "JBL is poopy" on JBL's limousine. For aspiring gangsters, "poopy" is not a word that you should include in your slang vernacular. Calling somebody "poopy" on the street won't intimidate people and earn you respect, it will earn you an open handed bitchslap.

Regardless, John Cena was undoubtedly over big on Smackdown, a network show marketed more towards the urban demographic. And why not? He was very entertaining with his battle raps which slightly made up for the fact that he was a "wigger." At the height of his popularity, when John Cena was drafted over to RAW, many fans were expecting to see the Chain Gang leader to become more gangster, anxiously waiting for him to let loose on cable television with even more incendiary freestyles and a possible heel gangster gimmick which would have been gold, shit, it would have been platinum! But alas, he didn't. He would increasingly move away from the gangster persona to a Marine hybrid.

While he still dresses like a street hooligan, he is no longer marketed as a gangster. While many fans still hold out hope for an improbable return to his former gimmick, at this very moment there is a wrestler on RAW that can be the gangster that the WWF Universe so desperately wants.

John Cena reached iconic status as a gangster and just like Steve Austin, he also customized The WWF Championship to better suite his personality. The result is the diamond encrusted gold spinner Championship bling custom made for an urban gangster, just waiting to be stolen off whoever is bold enough to be wearing it out and exposing all of its flashiness. No gangster can resist shiny jewelry, and its spinnin' nigga, its spinnin'!

Today, WWE stands on the verge of cashing in on the gangster craze at the height of its popularity. Its time for a cryme spree in WWF but there is only one man currently on the roster capable enough to take it to the streets.

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the next big thing in WWF, Shad Gaspard!

At a towering 6'7 and a massive 285 lbs, one glance at Da Beast is all it takes to realize you are witnessing a man with the vital statistics to become the next mega superstar in WWF. Back when Batista debuted alongside Reverend Devon as the Deacon, with his ridiculously humongous steroid injected arms flanked out of his sleeveless shirt, it was clear to see that the monster of a man could be a potential Champion based on his size alone. Shad Gaspard also possesses incredible stature that could also make him a future WWF Champion.

Of course, physical prowess is only half of the equation, characterization is just as important.

With his bandana's, baggy jeans, and his "bling"(jewelry, probably stolen), and most credibly, his black skin, Shad effortlessly portrays a true to life character representation of an urban gangster. The man wears Timberland boots in the ring for fucks sake! He seemingly walked right off the corner.

Shad Gaspard is the American Gangster that WWF and wrestling audiences have been waiting on to rally behind as a future icon for so long. Cryme Tyme came on the wrestling scene like gangbusters, becoming popular with their humorous vignettes even before debuting live. The duo was received as a breath of fresh air with their gangster chicanery, stealing TV moniters, Royal Rumble entry numbers, Championships, and anything else the thugs could get their filthy hands on.

Perhaps noting the success of LAX in TNA, WWF finally saw the opportunity to push its own street gangsters in Cryme Tyme to much fanfare.

Cryme Tyme has also helped to reinvigorate the long stagnant Tag Team Division on RAW as they work well together in the ring performing well timed tag moves and a punishing combo finisher. With their uniformed look they have also brought back the old school tag team tradition complete with a Team name. For far too long, tag teams in WWF have been slapdash pairings of So & So which come off as time killers for eventual singles runs.

But as much fun as this tag team is to watch, Shad Gaspard alone can take it to the next level as a singles wrestler right now.

But the first thing Shad Gaspard needs to do is break away from his little buddy, the junior thug, JTG. Realistically, JTG is nothing special. The very sight of him coming out with Shad, and you see a gangster odd couple. JTG is a strapping young man, but he looks like a ghetto munchkin when standing next to big Shad. Like the Deacon Batista was just being held down by the Reverand Dvon, so too is Shad being held back by JTG. In the ring JTG is Dvon Dudley 2.0 with twirling elbows being the only notable part of his offense also. JTG is just slowing up Shad's hustle. JTG's gotta go.

The urban gangster is a complex personality living among modern society, admired on the screen while feared on the street. This makes it the perfect gimmick to connect with wrestling audiences because with subtle tweaks it can be enhanced as a heel or face playing on the fear and/or admiration of an audience without it being completely loyal to one side or the other.

It makes perfect sense.

Wrestling needs another outlaw to run roughshod through the WWF in the same rebellious way as Stone Cold Steve Austin. The white man already stole the outlaw/gangster gimmick from the black man, now this brotha Shad has the chance to get reparations! You've already met the Texas redneck, now meet the Brooklyn blackass!

The possibilities are endless.

Of course, the WWF is now reverting back to a more family based program where a gangster probably wouldn't fit as the company's Champion. But if pushed in the right way, perhaps half lampooning and half serious, it can not only make for a fun show but gritty television as well.

The face gangster Shad could throw money in the crowd or steal a heel's belongings and get cheered for it. As the company's Champion he could go to inner cities and speak to ghetto kids about improving their lives. And because he'd already have the WWF Championship gold around his waist when speaking to them, unlike Rikishi, he could actually reach the youth more effectively with his message by showing them what they can accomplish. And its spinnin' nigga, its spinnin'!

On the flipside, a heel gangster Shad could rob a face wrestler at gunpoint, kidnap and force a Diva into prostitution, and even sell dope to Jeff Hardy to become vilified and at the end punished for his actions. As long as the heel gangster Shad is eventually brought to justice, his persona could be gripping but also helpful in steering the youngins away from a life of crime by showing the downside of being a gangster.

For a show filled with many strong and true to life personalities like the wealthy businessman, JBL; the British nobleman, Regal; the lazy Puerto Rican, Carlito, etc, there is still one character from modern society that is not given equal representation for its large constituency.

It is time for WWF to pull the trigger on the American Gangster!

.............................................................NOC!