The Godfather had the freedom to be himself, even around Vince McMahon.
Joining Generation of Wrestling, The Godfather (real name Charles Wright) shared a story in which he and his friend were smoking in an elevator and the reaction of Vince McMahon after he, Linda, Shane, and Stephanie appeared before them when the door opened.
"I love Vince McMahon to death, man, because he has let me be me. Believe me, bro, that's saying a lot. There's been a lot of incidents like that with Vince, but Vince was always cool with me. To this day, maybe not going to be after today, but he's always been cool with me and that's a true story. What happened is me and a friend of mine named Big Worm, who taught me how -- In fact, the first time I smoked was with Big Worm. He got me smoking. Big Worm would smoke no matter where you were, man, he didn't care, he'd smoke. Elevator, he didn't care. So he's in the elevator just puffin', chiefin', the elevator opens up and those four are standing there and Vince is just looking at me and the smoke coming out of the elevator and Vince says, 'Charles, I think we'll take the next one.' A lot, man. A lot. Like I said, I've been smoking strong since Papa Shango, so anytime you see me after Papa Shango, I was medicated," Wright said.
Wright would perform as Papa Shango for two years (1992-1993) before returning to the USWA. He would come back to WWE in 1995 as Kama, but perhaps had his most memorable run upon his second return in 1997 when he joined the Nation of Domination and eventually transitioned into The Godfather.
In 2016, Charles Wright was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame.
During a recent discussion with Stone Cold Steve Austin, Wright revealed what Vince McMahon said to him that led to him becoming Papa Shango. You can find those comments here.
If you use the quote above, please credit the original source with a h/t and link back to Fightful for the transcription.
