The Godfather

Charles Wright (born May 16, 1961), better known under his ring name The Godfather, is an American retired professional wrestler.

Even with his admitted limited skill set, he was given the USWA Unified World Heavyweight Championship on October 23, 1989, and held it for about two weeks.

He is best known for his tenure with the World Wrestling Federation throughout the 1990s and early 2000s, and underwent several gimmick changes; the most notable were Papa Shango, Kama, Kama Mustafa, The Godfather and The Goodfather.

Among other accolades, Wright is a two-time USWA Unified World Heavyweight Champion, a one-time WWF Intercontinental Champion, and a one-time WWF World Tag Team Champion (with Bull Buchanan).

He headlined Saturday Night's Main Event XXXI against Bret Hart for the WWF Championship.

In February and March 1990, Wright wrestled for the South Carolina-based promotion South Atlantic Pro Wrestling as "Baron Samedi".

Throughout 1990, Wright made appearances in Japan with New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) as "The Soultaker".

During his appearances with NJPW, he often teamed with Crusher Bam Bam Bigelow.

His opponents during his time in NJPW included Masahiro Chono, Masa Saito, and Riki Choshu.

In November 1990, Wright wrestled for the Catch Wrestling Association in Germany as "Rocky Las Vegas".

In August 1991, he appeared with the Dallas, Texas-based Global Wrestling Federation as "The Soultaker".

In 1991, Wright was brought in to the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) at the suggestion of his friend The Undertaker.

He made his first appearance on May 28, 1991, at a WWF Superstars of Wrestling taping in Tucson, Arizona.

Wright competed there and briefly at house shows as "Sir Charles", a play on both his real name and the nickname of National Basketball Association player Charles Barkley.

The character was hardly used and never developed, and even when talking about it later Wright only remembers wearing robes he purchased from another wrestler to the ring.

In January 1992, he was repackaged as a heel by the name of "Papa Shango", a horror-themed voodoo practitioner with an appearance reminiscent of the loa, Baron Samedi, as depicted in the 1973 film Live and Let Die.

Full of cryptic rituals and an occult, culturally exotic presence, the supernatural character carried a skull to the ring billowing smoke and could control arena lights (supernatural arena lighting control heavily associated with The Undertaker gimmick, according to Wright had its origins with the Papa Shango gimmick), allowing for strange goings-on in the ring, and later could "cast spells" to cause opponents pain and to make them vomit from afar.

The Shango character debuted on the February 8, 1992, edition of Superstars, defeating enhancement talent Dale Wolfe.

Shango was then thrust into the spotlight almost immediately, running in on the Hulk Hogan vs. Sid Justice main event at WrestleMania VIII.

Shango actually missed his cue to run in, hitting the ring late.

The finish was supposed to be Sid getting disqualified because of Shango breaking up the pinfall attempt by Hogan after he hit the big leg drop.

Because Shango was late, Sid kicked out of the legdrop to save the angle.

Sid's manager, Harvey Wippleman then jumped on the apron, and the referee signaled for the disqualification at that point as Shango was just getting to the ring.

The Ultimate Warrior then returned to the WWF by running to the ring and helping Hogan against Sid and Shango.

After WrestleMania, Sid and the Warrior were scheduled to begin a feud.

Sid had previously failed a drug test and was let go by the WWF.

The feud was then re-written with Shango instead of Sid, where he would cast voodoo spells on his opponent.

The angle went nowhere, as Warrior challenged Randy Savage for the WWF World Heavyweight Championship at SummerSlam, with the rivalry never culminating.

Meanwhile, Shango defeated Tito Santana in a dark match at the event.

When Shango was finally set to have a match with Warrior in November 1992, Warrior was released from WWF.

Shango received a WWF World Heavyweight Championship shot against Bret Hart on Saturday Night's Main Event XXXI, but was unsuccessful.

Wright's Papa Shango character was pilloried by fans, being voted the Worst Gimmick and the Most Embarrassing Wrestler in the Wrestling Observer Newsletter awards for 1992.

Wright's final PPV appearance as the Papa Shango character was at the 1993 Royal Rumble (where he was eliminated in under 30 seconds).

He would appear in another pay-per-view dark match against Tito Santana at WrestleMania IX, with Santana getting the victory.

Shango was seen infrequently on WWF television afterwards, and following a loss to Jim Duggan in a 1993 King of the Ring qualifying match, he made two final televised appearances against enhancement talent in June and July 1993.

Fin Martin of professional wrestling magazine Power Slam, in a 2013 article, wrote: "Shango and his curses were a total embarrassment. Fans exhaled loudly each time he appeared on screen. Shango bombed, and deservedly so."

Wright was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame on April 2, 2016, under the Godfather gimmick.

Wright first entered professional wrestling after being noticed tending to a bar by wrestlers during the filming of the movie Over the Top.

The wrestlers involved gave him the advice that, with his large body type and unique (tattooed) look, he should try seeking out Larry Sharpe and his Monster Factory to get into the business.

Eventually Wright parlayed his training into a job with Jerry Lawler in the United States Wrestling Association (USWA) with the gimmick the wrestlers from the bar had given him and took the name "The Soultaker", taken from one of the tattoos on his arm.