Celebrating Black Excellence at WrestleMania!!!!
By Brittnee’ Jones
WrestleMania 37 was held on April 10th & 11th in Tampa, Florida and I watched along with my goddaughter. Now I’ve been a fan of wrestling for almost 30 years and for the first time ever, I saw something special…..the BLACKEST WrestleMania EV-ER!!! I’ve never seen anything like this before in my life! Sooooo much melanin was poured into that Mania and my entire weekend was made!!! Usually you get maybe a couple of black wrestlers on the main card but there were Nine African Americans on the card….NINE! To make it even better, four walked out of WrestleMania as Champions! You don’t see this often and for the first time in a while, I was extremely proud to be a fan of wrestling! Why?? I’ll tell you….
We saw a black man by the name of Bobby Lashley walk into Mania as the WWE Champion and he walked out of Mania as the WWE Champion. He, along with Drew McIntyre, were involved in the first match to be held in front of a live crowd in over a year! What better way to start the show!
We saw a newcomer Toluope “Jordan” Omogbehin, known in the WWE Universe as Omos, win his first title in the WWE (the Raw Tag Team Championships along with AJ Styles.
Big E and Apollo Crews wrestled for the Intercontinental Championship (the IC title is considered the “workhorse” title in the WWE) and the match marked the first championship singles match between two black men in WrestleMania history.
The thing that warmed my heart the most was the main event of night #1 of WrestleMania. Let me give you some wrestling knowledge: people remember the beginning and the end of a wrestling show. The Main Event is your hot ticket. If you are placed in the Main Event of WrestleMania, then they see you on a higher pedestal and you’re pretty much a star in the company. Night #1 concluded with Sasha Banks and Bianca Belair going one on one for the Smackdown Women’s Championship and just like that, history was made. Sasha and Bianca became the first two African American women to main event WrestleMania. The highlight was not included Bianca winning the Championship but the moment that we witnessed when the bell rang. Bianca & Sasha broke kayfabe (breaking character) and they started crying; taking in the moment and what was getting ready to take place. Not only was that moment amazing, the match exceeded the hype in every way!! All the props and kudos to Sasha but this was Bianca’s moment! We wanted this for her and they pulled the trigger! She deserved it!
I was also in tears. This was Black Girl Magic in its purest form. My goddaughter started crying as well which was such a moment for me. My goddaughter is getting a real treat as a younger wrestling fan. She’s getting all of the moments that I wanted to see in the company when I was a teenager: African American wrestlers getting that shine that they deserve. In 2019, I made it my goal to have Jayel meet Bianca. I wanted to show her that there are girls that look like her in the WWE & if this is something that she wants to pursue when she gets older, then here is someone that that she can look back on as inspiration!
I knew that the WWE had sparked a flame when we witnessed Kofi Kingston finally win the WWE Championship at WrestleMania 35. I made the statement then that this is a start, but there’s so much more that can be done. Never in a million years did I think that the WWE would deliver in a way that they did as far as MelaninMania! Giving us the BLACKEST WrestleMania ever shows us that Vince is listening to us! We want African American wrestlers to have that same shine as the other wrestlers! A statement was made!! We may not get a moment like this ever again so with that being said, this is in time that I will never forget and that I will cherish forever as a wrestling fan!! I’m excited to see what’s next for “us” in this company! It’s only up from here!!!
Shout out to the black wrestlers who were also on the card but were not mentioned earlier (Naomi, Xavier Woods & Kofi Kingston)!! It’s Blackity-Black!! (All Photos are Courtesy of WWE).
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