Kamala passes away
 

We were just talking about him in 100k replies a few days ago but it's now being reported that James Harris aka Kamala has passed away at 70 years old.

He's had a rough go of it the last few years with losing his legs. RIP

RIP

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:( RIP

He was so much fun to much even though he couldn't wrestle a lick. That gimmick was so great. His matches with Hogan are some of my favourite Hogan matches. R.I.P. He suffered so much.

AWWHWWHAHAWAWA OOOOOHUUHJ AWHAHAHAHAAAAAA OOOOOOHAHAHAHOOOOOO

(RIP Kamala)

Seriously though based on some radio interviews I’ve heard from him recently death seems like a better alternative to what he was going through

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Rest In Peace.

How does it get worse than a guy dressed up like an African Savage wielding a spear? I would say... all of this.

Well fuck :(

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Oh fuck I forgot about this.

He had great comedic timing and facial expressions. I remember him being scared of the casket with Taker. No way of getting round how racist the gimmick was, but he provided some great memories as a performer. RIP

Every bit of this. I love the fact that him being terrified of anything to do with Undertaker was established canon, otherwise he was this nigh unstoppable savage beast ignorant to the ways of the world in spite of being in it for however long he was around. That one little thing was far better storytelling than a lot of bullshit now, and it wasn't even much. I remember feeling kinda uncomfortable about the portrayal (but not as much as Saba Simba, who was ironically trying to be something positive but... ugh), but at the same time, he gave off almost "loveable, unpredictable dumbass" George Steele vibes.

Trend on Twitter got people to thinking the next next president was dead

He was diagnosed with Covid this past Wednesday

Steele and Kamala wrestled each other before and it was amazing

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Spoke w/ Kamala’s wife. He tested positive Wednesday for COVID which he likely contracted from one of his numerous weekly visits to the dialysis center. Was hospitalized Wednesday night &amp; seemed fine &amp; in good spirits this morning. Went into cardiac arrest &amp; passed this afternoon</p>&mdash; Jason King (@JasonKingBR) <a href="https://twitter.com/JasonKingBR/status/1292650848288485376?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 10, 2020</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

TIL Kamala once wrestled for the ROH World Title

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Kamala also slammed Andre the Giant.

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Yeah, it was a fantastic feud for the Undertaker, because even though the matches were poor, the theatrics and how well he sold the fear, really made Undertaker seem other worldly and set him apart. It was really great work from Kamala in hindsight.

Kamala was probably the worst wrestler to still be entertaining.

I mean he had absolutely nothing but the look and presentation and he got into the main event off the back of it.
Wash that paint off and he's just a huge, terrible wrestler with bitch tits called Sugar Bear Harris.

Dreadful.

But well done for over achieving.

Yeah you know what, he may be the biggest over achiever in wrestling come to think of it.

There were quite a few back in the day, weren’t there?

Even looking at Ultimate Warrior and Piper. It was charisma above all else.

You can't put Piper in a list like that. He might not have had the body or been an elite wrestler but he was a fucking million miles ahead of most on the mic and in front of a camera.

Warrior looked too good to fail and retrospect has done him no favours, however at the time he looked like a Greek statue and wrestled like one too.

Kamala looked like shit, wrestled like shit to the point where that was partly the inspiration for the gimmick and sounded like shit too.

He did it all with almost nothing. Somehow the face paint and complete lack of skill made him endearing. A safer type of heel.

Piper didn't have "the body" of Hulk. but the guy was in good shape for the majority of his career. Having a bad back prevented him from amassing bulk, but there were times when he had abs at well over 220 pounds.

I was gonna mention Khali because he was worse than Kamala in every way and technically achieved more. But he had the “look”. Then again Kamala at least played his role well even if it didn’t require him cutting promos. I can’t think of anyone who achieved a lot with literally NOTHING going for them.

To be fair, Khali's work quality was very limited because of his heavy accent and health conditions. I think his knees were already in a bad shape by the time he joined WWE or shortly afterwards.

He was like late era Andre the Giant in terms of how limited he was but WWE still gave him like a prime era Andre spotlight because he was a huge star for their Indian market.

Late era Andre was still immense because he understood the little things far more than almost anybody.

Yeah, I just meant from an in ring perspective. If you were talking about the actual craft of wrestling. Warrior was so limited and he got to the very top on his look and charisma. Piper basically did it all because he could talk, but he was pretty limited as an in ring performer.

Kamala definitely had a presence and he was very good at reacting to things and playing his character. Good comedic timing and a decent actor.

Rip kamala. Fucking covid got him

did the biden campaign delay the announcement of his running mate being Kamala Harris out of respect for the passing of James "Kamala" Harris?

Me attempting to fix a fuck up from earlier:

I think the talk about Kamala being a "good" or "bad" wrestler miss the point with him. The dude's gimmick was he was a wild man out of a Jungle. If he came out, looking like that, and started wrestling like Lou Thesz or Jerry Lawler, people would have shit all over it. It would not have been believable that this wildman who likely had never seen a wrestling ring up to that point, who looked like he probably ate people, would be a top notch scientific wrestler. So shitty work and a rough around the edges style worked for him, because it made sense gimmick wise.

It's why the difference between Finn Balor matches and the Demon matches being the amount of time he spends in makeup is so frustrating. Or why Aleister Black looking like he does while wrestling like everyone else is so frustrating.

No I think you've missed the point because you're not acknowledging the lack of alternative.

The reason James Harris was given the gimmick of a cannibal who couldn't wrestle is because he was a big strong black guy who couldn't wrestle...
The elements of the gimmick that worked were all naturally tied to his lack of ability.

They didn't pick a great wrestler and turn him into that. They took what they had and worked with it because wrestling.