Kamala

[Exposer]

I've read the Kamala talk in here. I enjoy some of his stuff. I don't enjoy other stuff. JvK doesn't like him so shit on him here. Let's discuss the Ugandan Giant here.

[flyonthewall2983]

I remember when I first saw him in '92, and was scared to see him take the mask off. Between him and Papa Shango, WWF knew how to freak out little kids good that year.

[El-P]

Never saw a match that I thought was good or interesting (from either WWF or Mid-South, haven't seen him elsewhere yet). The gimmick was racist as all hell. The guy had cool looking back kicks and singular maneurisms. Gimmick was racist as hell. I dunno. The guy played his role right. I guess. I'd rather watch Kimala II.

[JerryvonKramer]

Someone get together a list of representative matches then.

 

My charge is that he never seemed threatening enough to be a monster heel and that he came across more like a scared animal than a savage beast. My charge is that his offense was lame and you never, ever buy him as a legitimate threat to any top babyface.

 

Post the matches, later on I'll watch them and give an honest assessment. Maybe others can watch them too with the above criticisms in mind to see if they agree or not.

 

And yes, I think savage gimmicks are wildly offensive ("wildly" offensive, get it ) and it's one set of gimmicks I don't give a pass to for the usual reasons ("it was the 80s", "crazy Americans", "it's pro wrestling"), no real excuse for something as horrible as the Kamala gimmick to still be around in the 80s.

[BrickHithouse]

I'd definitely be willing to give the guy a chance to win me over. It's going to be very hard to get past the gimmick but would be interested to see his stuff outside of WWF.

[Dooley]

The gimmick doesn't bother me because it's so over-the-top and ridiculous that it's hard for me to be genuinely offended by it. I like a lot of his work minus his 93 babyface run (although Kamala learning to bowl is hilarious), the Andre cage match was fun and the Hogan matches were really good. Ol' Sugar Bear is ok by me.

[Bix]

My favorite Kamala match, vs Lawler 12/91 USWA TV

[PeteF3]

Kamala vs. Hogan, MSG 1/19/87. No-DQ match. Probably his best WWF effort. Different time period and all but the '87 Kamala was a bit closer to the territory Kamala--an outsider not quite comprehending of our society rather than the '92 version who even as a heel is portrayed as retarded in the literal sense of the term.

 

This is not a match but a good look at how Watts was able to use him as an actual force and not a comedy gimmick.

[JerryvonKramer]

My favorite Kamala match, vs Lawler 12/91 USWA TV

Bix, I'm not trying to be an asshole here, but what the hell man? What do you like about this match?

 

I thought it was terrible. The first five or six minutes are ridiculously slow and plodding. Chop. Chop. Chop. Belly slap. Chop. Chop. Lamest, weakest stomps I've ever seen. Then the action goes outside and Kamala uses a chair and a table. Not very viciously, I might add.

 

Was this a no DQ match by the way? Why wasn't he DQed for that? Or when he blatantly pushed the ref 3 or 4 times? Speaking of the ref, he was so bad here that he actively detracted from this -- slow, sloooowwwww counts. Generally being fat and getting in the way.

 

Then come Kamala's awful looking splashes. I've been watching Jerry Blackwell on the AWA set recently, so these look *really* bad to me in comparison. Then we get a comedy missed splash with comedy facials. And Lawler takes a leaf out of Mowgli's book and scares the savage with MAN'S FIRE. I didn't hear the call, but either Lawler was DQ'd (illogical) or he won on a count out (illogical, since Kamala hadn't been gone 2 seconds when I rang the bell).

 

I pretty much hated this. Woeful stuff.

[El-P]

I watched the Lawler match. This is about as good a Kamala match I've seen. And it still pretty much sucked. I'm sorry but Kamala brings about as much to the table as Brian Adams does weekly on Thunder in 1999. And I should know. Terrible looking and boring offense, despite having Jerry freaking Lawler selling for him. Comedy selling. He takes one good bump at one time. The gimmick is embarrasing at best and offensive at worst. Yeah. Not good. One Man Gang or John Tenta he isn't. Haku is isn't either. Bad and Boring. (and as much as I enjoy Lawler on multiple levels, 97% of punches as offense still does get on my nerves. His flying punch from the second rope still looks awesome though)

 

(the referre was quite awful too btw)

[BrickHithouse]

My favorite Kamala match, vs Lawler 12/91 USWA TV

Watched this at work with the sound off (and more than a few quizzical looks from co-workers).

 

Eh, it's okay. They kept things moving at least. I ended up distracted by the ref - his build, his glacial 2-counts, and overall ineptness. Was this a no-DQ? He lets Kamala manhandle him repeatedly without a DQ. Is he a regular ref?

 

Kicking myself I didn't put the sound on yet don't want to go back and watch this a second time. Maybe it's better with commentary.

 

Overall - Liked this more than I expected to, but no desire to ever see it again.

 

(EDIT) - looks like JVK already posted the same ref questions I have.

[Tim Evans]

The ref was Frank Morell who was a ref for years after retiring from being a wrestler.

 

My favorite Kamala match is this:

vs Invader 1 from 1986 Puerto Rico. Nothing but chops and biting from Kamala and Invader hits a gusher.

[Badlittlekitten]

There was that cage match with Andre which was really fun.

 

After that, well . . . brilliant entrance music.

[goc]

I can't find the 82 match with Lawler on youtube. I might rip that off my dvd later and put it up for this thread. It's the best Kamala match I've seen because he doesn't do the "scared animal" thing that is Jerry's main criticism of him. Which I find to be a very valid criticism of a monster heel.

 

EDIT: This isn't the early match with Lawler I was thinking of that ends with fire. It is however a good brawl between early pre-"scared animal" Kamala and Jerry Lawler.

 

[BRobb123]

I can't find the 82 match with Lawler on youtube. I might rip that off my dvd later and put it up for this thread. It's the best Kamala match I've seen because he doesn't do the "scared animal" thing that is Jerry's main criticism of him. Which I find to be a very valid criticism of a monster heel.

 

EDIT: This isn't the early match with Lawler I was thinking of that ends with fire. It is however a good brawl between early pre-"scared animal" Kamala and Jerry Lawler.

 

That's a pretty cool find. Honestly, if you trade out being a savage for being a deadman, he's basically working like early Undertaker. He sold for Lawler lowering the strap, which is mandatory, but otherwise he worked invincible until the end.

 

Where was this, the Louisville Gardens?

[Childs]

What's wrong with the scared animal thing? Many animals are most dangerous when they're scared and cornered. I'm not commenting on the social acceptability of casting a human in that role. I'm just saying it seems logical from a performance standpoint.

[Matt D]

I can't find the 82 match with Lawler on youtube. I might rip that off my dvd later and put it up for this thread. It's the best Kamala match I've seen because he doesn't do the "scared animal" thing that is Jerry's main criticism of him. Which I find to be a very valid criticism of a monster heel.

 

EDIT: This isn't the early match with Lawler I was thinking of that ends with fire. It is however a good brawl between early pre-"scared animal" Kamala and Jerry Lawler.

 

That's a pretty cool find. Honestly, if you trade out being a savage for being a deadman, he's basically working like early Undertaker. He sold for Lawler lowering the strap, which is mandatory, but otherwise he worked invincible until the end.

 

Where was this, the Louisville Gardens?

 

Early undertaker was fine and completely effective. I think the two Hogan matches in 91 are pretty fascinating to see how they put them together. You can fit an entire match formula around choking and it can still be pretty good. Honestly Calloway does pretty well for himself until after the face turn and the Nord feud when he gets stuck with Gonzales and then Hughes in 93.

[goc]

I can't find the 82 match with Lawler on youtube. I might rip that off my dvd later and put it up for this thread. It's the best Kamala match I've seen because he doesn't do the "scared animal" thing that is Jerry's main criticism of him. Which I find to be a very valid criticism of a monster heel.

 

EDIT: This isn't the early match with Lawler I was thinking of that ends with fire. It is however a good brawl between early pre-"scared animal" Kamala and Jerry Lawler.

 

That's a pretty cool find. Honestly, if you trade out being a savage for being a deadman, he's basically working like early Undertaker. He sold for Lawler lowering the strap, which is mandatory, but otherwise he worked invincible until the end.

 

Where was this, the Louisville Gardens?

 

Looks like the Mid-South Coliseum to me.

[S.L.L.]

Here's something I wrote about Kamala a few years back when Segunda Caida was doing a Black History Month special:

 

For a guy traditionally booked as a scary monster heel, Kamala did a lot of of cautious, backpedaling heel stuff. Rolling out of the ring to catch his breath, keeping his distance from Reed back in the ring. Kind of imagine a hypothetical wrestling promotion based out of a stereotypical African village, where Kamala is working as stereotypical African Tully Blanchard, who lives in the nice part of the village next to the lake, and holds it over everyone else. Gets all of the food without doing any of the hunting or gathering, that sort of thing.

Here's the thing about Kamala's gimmick.

 

When you become a wrestling fan, you kind of have to accept the overwhelming social backwardness inherent in it. That said, unless you're just an unfettered bigot, you're gonna have to draw the line somewhere. I never had a problem with Kamala as an African savage, the likes of which haven't existed in the real world (at least not in any meaningful numbers) for over a century or more. But if that crosses Jerry or Jerome's line, or anybody else's line for that matter, who am I to tell them that they're wrong and shouldn't be offended? If that's a stopping point for them, I don't think I have the right to say it shouldn't be.

 

Having said that, I think that the "scared animal" thing is part of what makes the gimmick awesome to me. Yes, African savage Kamala often works as cautious backpedaling heel...but lots of heels are cautious and backpedaling. If I really felt like being an asshole, I could ask Jerry why, say, Ric Flair is praised for work as a cautious backpedaling heel, but when a black man does it, he sees a "scared animal", but I'm trying to dial back the needless douchery these days, so I'm not going there. Besides, I already know the probable answer to the question - it's because there's also that "I dun seed a ghost/feets don't fail me know" stereotype of black cowardice, and once we've already applied one old-timey black stereotype to a character, it becomes very easy to see others.

 

Here's the problem: those stereotypes cancel each other out. Think about it. You've seen African savages in media. You've seen cowardly blacks in media. How many cowardly African savages have you seen in media? Any? And no, them getting scared by a white dude with a flashlight or some other piece of modern technology doesn't count. They've encountered something they've never seen before that, for all they know, makes the white guy a god. Them reacting to the white guy the way you would if confronted by aliens is not cowardice.

 

Look, Kamala is supposed to be from Uganda. He's also really fat. What I'm trying to say here is that you don't get to be a really fat Ugandan by being stupid. So where Jerry sees "scared animal", I tend to see "smart African savage". Watching all the Kamala vs. Von Erich matches for the 80's Texas set, I never thought he was wary of the claw because he was scared. I thought he was wary of the claw because he knew from having it locked on him a few times that it was a dangerous hold that could take him out if he wasn't careful. He probably didn't blindly charge lions in the African wilderness, either. That doesn't make him a coward. That makes him smart, at least by the standards of a stereotypical African savage. It's also why, in hindsight, the whole "trying to pin the guy when they're on their stomach" bit from his WWF face run was really bad - it was the first time they portrayed Kamala as actually dumb (he never had this problem before, why does he have it now?) and as someone who had difficulty learning from his experiences.

 

I'm sure that at least some of this is me reading too much into his matches, but probably not as much as it sounds like. Kamala was a savage, yes, but he definitely played it as someone who would actually succeed as a savage.

[JerryvonKramer]

SLL, this is actually some really interesting analysis and it has made me think twice about Kamala, so when I watch some more stuff in the coming week I'll keep this line of thought in mind.

 

The simple answer to the question of why Flair can be a "backpeddling" heel, but Kamala shouldn't be, is because Kamala is positioned and talked up by any promotion he works for as a monster heel. Not a cowardly heel, not a Tully Blanchard, but a big, fat, savage beast who you should be scared of.

 

All that is undermined when he goes in there and behaves like he's basically Blanchard or Flair. There's an argument to say that this aspect of his performance makes him unique among the big men: you don't get Vader or Blackwell or One Man Gang or Bundy or anyone else in that sort of weight bracket working in that way. So you could say that this is a good thing. But I am not convinced that it works.

 

As I've looked into Kamala more and more, the more I see, the more I get disturbed by the gimmick and by what must be going through Jim Harris's head. Take a look at this from 2008. It's a promo with Bill Apter for some indy reunion show.

 

 

Now MOST people might look at that and laugh. I look at it and am truly disturbed by it.

 

See, a part of me thinks "he's taking it to such lengths that he's playing the role well". But another part of me can't help but wonder about what this character is trying to do. He's not just a savage, he's not just from Africa, he's totally fucking retarded. I mean by that point he's been in America on and off screen for over 30 years and he still hasn't learned a word of English. In a way, the character is absolutely terrifying.

 

I'll give him this too: in the sporadic 00s appearances on WWE TV (vs. Orton, vs. Umaga), he doesn't look like he's aged a day from the 80s. And since he always worked slow with a limited moveset, his age doesn't show at all.

 

Still though -- for me, the jury is very much out on him. I'm not saying that it's impossible for me to turn around on him, but the gimmick is more troubling -- deeply troubling -- to me than any other that I can think of.

[ohtani's jacket]

Kamala's aged well? Hasn't he had a double leg amputation?

 

It might be worth taking a look at his work as Mississippi Mauler to judge what his work might have been like if he hadn't adopted the Kamala gimmick.

[JerryvonKramer]

Well I guess he aged well up until the moment he lost his legs. Point being, you can take Kamala from 85, 95 or 2005 and he more or less looks and works exactly the same.

 

I am interested to see some Mississippi Mauler.

[JerryvonKramer]

Mississippi Mauler "Big Jim Harris" vs Honeyboy Zimba from World Of Sport 6/24/81:

 

 

So the gimmick is completely different. He's playing a Bad-News-Allen-type mean-looking asskicker here. And yet, the worker is the same. Super slow around the ring, in no hurry to do anything. He trades the Kamala chops in for clubbing forearms, kicks and headlocks. Some of the forearms looked quite good, but the offense was nothing at all to write home about. We still get the ultra lame big splash as the finish and the weak stomps. He does chest beating instead of belly slaps. But on this evidence, Mississippi Mauler if anything highlights Jim Harris's limitations even more when he doesn't have the OTT gimmick to fall back on.

 

Incidentally, when the middle portion of this match slows down and there's not a lot going on, there's an awkward bit on commentary when he assumes that the viewer at home wont be able to tell the difference between Harris and Zimba if we can't see the height difference. He points out who is wearing which attire and then says "on the closer shots, The Mauler's hairstyle will come into view". Nice bit of genuine, inadvertent and "innocent" early 80s racism there.

 

----------

 

I also watched the angle from Mid South that PeteF3 posted.

 

I enjoyed that for what it was -- quite an effective build for the monster heel -- but the most notable thing about that segment is that *holy shit* Terry Taylor gives Kim Chee a piledriver on the concrete as if it was an every day occurrence. That spot SOooo rarely hits, I was expecting an ambulance to come out.

 

As for Kamala himself in that segment, his splash off the top rope is absolutely horrible. His slams look sloppy. Shawn sells his chops really well. I'd say Watts/Ross booked that segment pretty well.

[JerryvonKramer]

Kamala vs. Hogan, MSG 1/19/87. No-DQ match. Probably his best WWF effort. Different time period and all but the '87 Kamala was a bit closer to the territory Kamala--an outsider not quite comprehending of our society rather than the '92 version who even as a heel is portrayed as retarded in the literal sense of the term.

This was definitely one of the better Kamala matches I've seen (which isn't saying a lot). Some of his belt shots at the start were quite good and he was also good taking the belt shot from Hogan, but in terms of his performance it was all down hill from there for me.

 

Kamala is quite a convenient gimmick for someone who just *has nothing* to do when he's on top. He had three tricks in this match:

 

1. Stall by patting stomach

 

2. Go over to Kim Chee for "advice"

 

3. Set up for a move that is going to fail -- at one point he awkwardly goes over to the turnbuckle and starts to go up top but decides against it. Then he goes for a splash which is going to miss.

 

Because of the fact that Kamala just has nothing to give Hogan at all when he's in control, the match is stuck. It can't go anywhere -- not even into the Hogan formula. So what happens after the shine is that we get a rinse-repeat of the same scenario three times:

 

- Kamala gains advantage, does something stupid, loses it back to Hogan who seems to be going for the finish when:

 

- Kamala gains advantage, does something stupid, loses it back to Hogan who seems to be going for the finish when:

 

- Kamala gains advantage, does something stupid, loses it back to Hogan who seems to be going for the finish and hits it for 1, 2, 3.

 

That's not really the makings of a great match.

 

Then we have another problem. Kamala's epileptic selling. It's ok to do the shaky-leg sell once in a while. But here we see Hogan hit an atomic drop - SHAKY LEG SELL. Then Hogan hits a slam. SHAKY SHAKY. Then when the legdrop comes, Kamala is having a full-on mental seizure in the middle of the ring.

 

It's just ridiculous. I'm not willing to praise that level of craptastic as "playing his role well". Where do you draw the line with that? This guy is a savage, so anything goes? It's open season and everything makes sense?

 

The two things feed off each other: Harris is a bad worker who doesn't really know what he's doing, Kamala is a ridiculous gimmick. Bad times bad equals worse. You could argue that in understanding the character really well, Harris can use Kamala to mask his shortcomings, but I think it has the opposite effect: it HIGHLIGHTS what a bad worker he is.

[Laney]

For what it's worth, I really enjoyed the gimmick as a child, but I would quickly get bored with his matches. Kamala was a horrible worker, but I don't see anything wrong with his gimmick as I personally don't see how it is offensive. In fact, I would rate Kamala near the top as far as over the top gimmicks go. He was memorable and he was able to make a career out of it, I can't deny the success of that. Still, he's a horrible worker.