WWE, and the wrestling business in general a lot of the time, is often accused of being behind the rest of society, particularly when it comes to treating certain groups of people equally. There's a reason the company has made such a fuss about its women and labeled it the women's revolution. While the progression of the female roster in WWE has been terrific, it's really something that should have happened years before it did.
The Oppressed Matt Hardy
The way WWE has treated black wrestlers and other minority groups has also been called into question over the years. It's one of many reasons why Peacock has been combing through WWE's back catalog and removing anything that might be considered offensive before adding it to its own streaming service. Vince McMahon greeting John Cena with a racial slur on TV still feels like it couldn't possibly have happened, but it did.
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While not that extreme, Matt Hardy recently shared an idea McMahon had for him in 2003 that made him feel very uncomfortable. Teaming with Mark Henry on the basis that both of them had been oppressed. Henry because he's black, and Hardy on account of his Mattitude. “I was going to Mark Henry, and him being black, he had a lot in common with me having Mattitude because we were both oppressed,” Hardy explained as he relayed the idea given to him by WWE creative on The Extreme Life Of Matt Hardy.
"Talk Like A Black Person"
Wait, it gets worse. “There would be a point where I would start talking with more black slang and tell Mark Henry, ‘Mattitude is suppressed too man. We have that in common.’,” Hardy went on to say. Yes, McMahon even wanted Hardy to speak like a black person, or at least how the chairman thinks all black people speak, while teaming with Henry.
Henry would pick up an injury as the pieces for the idea were put in place, something Hardy must thank the wrestling gods for to this day. Not only might it have derailed his career, which continues to this day, but it would have almost definitely been dug up years later if by some miracle it wasn't deemed offensive at the time like so much in wrestling. Henry would go on to be dubbed The Silverback after all, something else that should have never even been floated as an idea, let alone executed and used on television.
