Railing: The First One
I have been watching WWE Monday night RAW since its first episode. For years I was excited for each show. These days I tend to be a bit less enthused.
When I heard that Friday night Smackdown Superstar Big E was headed to the September 13, 2021, episode of RAW to cash in his Money In The Bank — a briefcase containing a contract for a world championship match anytime, anywhere — I immediately rolled my eyes.
On Smackdown the arrogant yet dominant “Tribal Chief” Roman Reigns is the Universal Heavyweight Champion, and I was looking forward to Big E taking that title from him. Instead, Roman was scheduled to clash with Brock Lesnar, so Big E wound up going after the WWE Champion “The Almighty” Bobby Lashley on RAW.
Lashley was advertised to defend against 14-time world champion Randy Orton on the 13th, a match I expected The Almighty to win. Which he did. What I also expected, not wanted, was for Big E to be unsuccessful in his attempt.
There was history between Reigns’ advocate Paul Heyman and Big E, enough leading properly to a clash with the Tribal Chief. I hoped that Big E would be the one to end his title reign.
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The Money In The Bank holder, however, had no competitive rapport with Lashley, yet by the end of RAW The Almighty champion found himself defending his WWE title for the second consecutive time.
With Orton dispatched, Lashley quickly turned his attention and aggression to Big E in a short but significant match. The two behemoth men had a quick back and forth squabble that resulted in, to my surprise, Big E pinning Lashley to become the new WWE Champion.
I didn’t roll my eyes. I did something else.
In a flash I thought back to how many times I’ve seen a Black male professional wrestler win a world championship. Since I started watching wrestling at 6 or 7 years old there’s only been, by comparison to other races, very few.
I saw it the first time it ever happened when Ron Simmons pinned Big Van Vader (RIP) to become WCW World Heavyweight Champion. I was blessed to watch Ron Killings, The Rock, Booker T, Jay Lethal, Mark Henry, Kofi Kingston, Rich Swann, and Lashley do it, each of them hoisting world championship gold by defeating a Caucasian male champion. That wasn’t the case at the conclusion of the September 13, 2021, episode of RAW.
Once Big E pinned Lashley, I sprung forward in my chair with historic awareness and excitement. A new Black world champion was crowned by pinning a Black world champion.
I pointed at my television and shouted, “That’s the first one!” |Photo courtesy of WWE
Thank you for reading! Listen to more “Railing” on the Wrestling Heroes and Insiders Podcast AKA The W.H.I.P. Show
