How Real-Life Problems Brought An End To Papa Shango’s WWE Tenure

In 1992, wrestling fans were introduced to the cryptic and creepy Papa Shango, a voodoo practitioner who used hexes to play mind games with his opponents. Less than two years after his introduction, Shango vanished from screens, and it was a very real-life situation that brought an end to the supernatural persona.

Speaking on the Insight podcast, Charles Wright, also known to fans as The Godfather, was asked about the character’s exit and shared that his real-life problems ended Papa Shango.

“Papa Shango went through a very, very ugly divorce. My second wife. I went through an ugly divorce, I was in a very, very bad place.”

Wright added that this ‘bad place’ resulted in him getting into fights which led to WWE ultimately ditching the character.

“I was getting into a lot of fights, real fights and ‘Taker was pulling me off for people, and it was getting ugly. So I went in there with Vince and Mark and we decided it would be best if I went home and got my mind right before somebody got hurt.”

While the Shango character was axed, WWE did plan on bringing the character back in 1997, before giving Wright the persona of ‘Kama Mustafa.’ The Shango character has also been used by Wright outside of WWE, including as recently as April of this year at an event for Australia’s Battle Championship Wrestling. While Papa Shango may not have gone far in WWE, Wright said he is in a far better place now, and the character’s legacy lives on in the minds of the fans.