This Project Doughboy article continues the discussion of Tatanka, the Native American wrestling super-star, profiled last week…
A rampaging, tomahawk-wielding hero bounds on to the WWF scene
And leaves dozens of battered Doughboy rumps in his wake…
Prior to his WWF debut in 1992, Native American wrestler Chris Chavis appeared in numerous spots (such as the one from 2/22/92, quoted, word for word, above) to promote the arrival of his new persona, Tatanka (the Lakota word for “male buffalo”). In one clip, he is seen, deep in thought, walking along the Lumbee River of his native people in North Carolina. In another, set around a blazing campfire, Tantanka seems to come to an epiphany—it’s as though he discovers his divine purpose and mission in life through the drumming and dancing of his people (again, all of the words are quoted directly from the WWF promo spot)…
There is something vaguely ominous, almost cult-like, in the mythic figure of the Native American vowing to be the new leader to his people, in anyone, for that matter, vowing to build a “new nation;” or, as in the quote referenced at the top of this entry, in a lone renegade invoking the spirits of Sitting Bull, Geronimo and Crazy Horse (all oppressed by the white man) to ascend to the top of the WWF. Doesn’t it stand to reason that Tatanka, in his mission to bring “the sacred wisdom of the Indian nation back to its rightful place on earth” might have a couple of centuries of scores to settle on his path to that championship belt?
Taking a cue from this promo and the notion that the Great Chiefs above are guiding Tatanka and his wrestling career, the imagined scenarios which follow, pitting Tatanka in matches against various past oppressors, are done with a sense of fun and employ liberal doses of the lofty, somewhat quaint, language spoken by Tatanka in these weekly promo clips. (No offense is intended to Native American culture or to any of the specific grapplers featured in these matches.) The focus here, clearly, is on the Doughboys (some of my favorites being featured in these bouts) and on the implied scenarios that these squash matches suggest: the tomahawk-wielding “noble savage” embarks on a war-path of whoop-ass, intent on righting the wrongs of the past by bringing down comeuppance upon the evil white man and his conspirators—and, in the process, jobber-suffering is raised to a whole new level.
