The Godfather (wrestler)

Charles Wright
Charles Wright
Born	May 16, 1961; Las Vegas, Nevada
Professional wrestling career
Ring name(s)	The Soultaker; Papa Shango; Kama; Kama Mustafa; The Godfather; The Goodfather
Billed height	6 ft 4 in (193 cm)
Billed weight	265 lb (120 kg)
Billed from	Red-Light District
Trained by	Larry Sharpe
Debut	September 16, 1989

Charles Wright (born May 16, 1961 in Las Vegas, Nevada) is a semi-retired American professional wrestler, best known for his appearances with the World Wrestling Federation as The Godfather.

Career

Wright first gained attention in the wrestling world as part of the Memphis based United States Wrestling Association, where he won the USWA Unified World Heavyweight Title by defeating Jerry "The King" Lawler on October 23, 1989. He was then known as The Soultaker, a voodoo man.

Not long after, Wright became part of the WWF, where he portrayed Papa Shango, a voodoo priest whose gimmick involved carrying a smoking skull to the ring and causing his opponents to "vomit", "go into convulsions", etc., after he cast a spell on them. Wright was later repackaged as shoot-style wrestler "The Supreme Fighting Machine" Kama as part of Ted DiBiase's Million Dollar Corporation and still later as Kama Mustafa, a member of the Nation of Domination.

After Faarooq was kicked out of the Nation, Wright was repackaged as The Godfather. This would prove to be Wright's most popular character, as he portrayed a wrestling pimp that was often accompanied to the ring by several of his "hos" (typically played by local strippers hired by the WWF for one-night appearances). Several female wrestlers played his "hos" before they became famous; among them Ivory, Lita, Victoria and ECW's Elektra. As the Godfather, Wright would win the WWF Intercontinental Championship as well as forming tag teams with Val Venis, Mark Henry, and D'Lo Brown.

In late 1998, Wright replaced an injured Dan Severn in the quarterfinals of the WWF's Brawl For All tournament, but lost to Bart Gunn in the semifinals.

On May 23, 1999, Wright was booked to wrestle The Blue Blazer (Owen Hart) at the Over the Edge pay-per-view for the Intercontinental Title. The match, however, never occurred due to an ultimately fatal injury that Hart had substained while performing an elaborate stunt. Two nights later, Wright would lose the Intercontinental Championship to Owen's close friend and tag team partner, Jeff Jarrett.

In 2000, Wright turned heel and joined the Right to Censor, a group of wrestlers lead by Steven Richards. While part of this group, his character was known as The Goodfather, and he won the WWF Tag Team Titles with his partner Bull Buchanan. When the Right to Censor group disbanded, Wright was not used on WWF TV until the 2002 Royal Rumble, where he reverted to the Godfather character with no explanation. The character was altered slightly, as the Godfather claimed to have gone "legitimate" and formed a legal escort service. Wright would not be used in any major capacity in the WWF until being released from the company later that year. Wright has generally not wrestled since his release and is now the General Manager of Cheetahs Gentleman's Club in Las Vegas.

At Vengeance 2005 in Las Vegas, Wright made a surprise return as The Godfather, accompanied by five hos, during a segment in which Lilian Garcia proposed to Viscera. Just after the proposal Wright interrupted and asked Viscera to climb aboard the "ho train" Viscera replied "all aboard the ho train!" and left with Wright and the hos, leaving a crying Lilian Garcia behind in the ring. However he has not appeared on WWE TV since.