Clarence Mason On Using Race In WWE Storylines

Former WWE personality Clarence Mason recently spoke with IYH Wrestling Radio. You can read some highlights below.

* Looking back at your experience in professional wrestling, is there anything you would change?

“I was extremely thankful to have started out where I started out. Having started out there, in the big leagues, the learning curve was extremely steep. I didn’t have time to pick up the ropes and everything…A lot of things I learned, I picked up and I see things now after the fact,… but trust you me, if things were done all over again, or even if I could go back or even if I could just do it right now, things would be done different. But listen; those are just some small things. All in all, my experience was second to none. I’ll tell anybody; there’s this thing they used to do on the Disney Channel: If you wish upon a star, it makes no difference who you are, anything your heart’s desire it can come true. My dream came true, not once but twice. So whatever problems I may have had, whatever issues how minor they were, paled in comparison to the fact that I actually had a chance to live a dream. I was paid to do something I would have done absolutely for free, and for that I am extremely and eternally grateful.”

* You were there for the early days of the Nation of Domination. Do you think that the Nation of Domination became a racial angle?

“I wasn’t a part of the creative aspect of that…but as far as race was concerned, clearly (Vince) McMahon is an opportunist. There were some racial aspects of it. Clearly if you look at what happened between Faarooq and Ahmed Johnson, they played that step-it-and-fetch-it Uncle Tom routine and that was what they did at the time. Looking back now, even how I played a part in that, if I had to go back and do things all over again I surely would have played that role of Mason a little differently with regard to how that dynamic was. I often think, to be honest with you, you cheapen athletes and you cheapen talent by always going the easy route. I think that if you’re creative with your storylines I think that anyone and everyone can be promoted. There are times that I saw storylines being written and I looked at the way they were written and the grammar and the syntax and the manner in which words and phrases came out and I’m like “Who the hell writes this crap?”…I felt bad that somebody somewhere along the way felt that this was the way they needed to go. I also felt bad that there are some people who were asked to do those things or say those things in the manner in which they were said didn’t have enough to be able to say “No, I’m not going to speak in this manner; I’m not going to do this.”…You could still be a good talent who just happened to be a minority; not a minority talent…It looks like things have changed, I see talent there right now…some of them seem to have good mic skills, it just takes a bit of cultivating, and they’re good.”