Jonathan Gresham On Stereotyping A Black Wrestler And Discourse Around Height And Physique

In a recent interview with WrestlePurists on Youtube, Jonathan Gresham was asked abut being a black technical wrestler and not following the stereotypes for a black wrestler and the discourse around height and physique. 

Gresham was asked about expectations and being a black technical wrestler.

“It bothers me that you can have white guy number 1 with no character be great, but then you’ve got black guy, same ‘oh he needs a character’ but why? Why can’t he just be a good wrestler? You’ve gotta be so much more than the other guy that’s World Champion, doesn’t have a character, he’s good on the mic, sure, but he doesn’t do anything other than wrist locks, hammerlocks, and some kicks. But black guy that does the same thing, I need a fucking character, I need all this extra stuff, like that’s just the thing.” 

He was then asked about the discourse around height and physique in wrestling. 

“It really is interesting, I got out of really interacting with the fans a few years back because I realized that they just want to spew whatever they believe as the Gospel and they don’t understand that you go on Wikipedia right? The stats on Wikipedia they take as the Gospel. But the thing is, that Wikipedia could’ve been made seven years ago. Since then, of course the person probably didn’t grow in height but his weight has changed. Also, me, I have never been embarrassed of my size. So when wrestling promoters are like ‘what’s your height?’, I was like ‘5’4″‘, and they’re like ‘you want me to say like 5’7″‘ I’m just like ‘No. 5’4″.’ People are going to stand next to me, they’re going to freaking know.” 

He continued on about height and used Rey Mysterio as a comparison. 

“I hear this thing a lot, I’m smaller than Rey Mysterio. I can assure you, I’ve met the man on three occasions, we are the exact same height. But for some reason, I’m 4’9″ or whatever the fuck. My mom is 4’10”, I can see on top of her head, so it’s just ridiculous what people wanna believe. You know what I mean? My Wikipedia might say I weigh like 160 something, but I literally, I almost weighed 200 pounds a few mounts back. I’ve dropped, I’m literally like 180 something right now.”

Should you use any portion of the quotes above, transcription credit should go to Fightful with a H/T linking back to this article.