What Meltzer said about the Gangstas in the current back issue of the Observer.
Having caught up on the videos the past few weeks, one thing is really obvious. The Gangstas didn't work. Forget politically correct, a phrase that has nothing to do with wrestling, this is a business about making money. Nine times out of ten when a company reaches too far, either out of desperation or inspiration, it turns off more fans than it turns on. When I watch the Gangstas TV matches, all the heat these guys were supposed to be getting is disguised as silence. When I saw the title change match from Knoxville, it looked like Ricky & Robert were leading two independent guys through a watchable, but not heated nor exciting match. Live attendance since they've been on top speaks for itself. Nu Jack can talk really well, but his interviews don't hit you in the gut and aren't going to sell any tickets. Neither he nor his partner can garner anything but basic heat from their ringwork, even working with Ricky Morton who is one of the all-time masters. Although he gets no credit, the one who is doing the good interviews in the feud and almost totally carrying it is Morton, and obviously that isn't close to enough. In the ring it's obvious the two aren't ready for main events. Mustapha isn't even ready for opening matches. The race card didn't work, probably because this gimmick was 100% the race card with no substance backing it up and not two guys who were ready for main events that also happened to be black and played upon that as a gimmick. This situation is going to come up again in wrestling and if there is criticism, people will start screaming about people are trying to make wrestling politically correct and again miss the entire point of the argument. Not always, but in most cases, it just doesn't work because the audience isn't as backwards as it needs to be for race feuding with no substance to be enough to draw money.