Nearly every WWE fan has one favorite Degeneration X moment. The sophomoric group enchanted Attitude Era fans with their irreverent stance against authority as they crotch chopped their way to becoming wrestling lore.
However, there’s one image of DX that simply has not aged well.
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In the height of their popularity, the DX spoofed the Nation of Domination – WWE’s take on the Black Panthers. DX being who they were, went full board with their impersonations and adorned blackface for the now infamous segment.
At the time, the comedic bit was a hit. But every day that passes makes the footage more taboo. In an interview with Uproxx, Sean ‘X-Pac’ Waltman had this to say about the controversial act:
“Actually the only thing that I can honestly say I really regret now is the blackface thing. I did not understand. Here’s the thing: I consider myself pretty well, for somebody that didn’t go to high school, pretty well educated. I know a lot of things, but I never saw an actual minstrel show, blackface thing. Recently, I saw something about it and I was horrified, horrified at how mean-spirited all that stuff was. I look at it way different now.”
Watching the clip in 2017 offers a much different perspective than when it was actually filmed. There have been rumors that most of the details were worked out between DX and The Nation, Uproxx asked Waltman to clarify:
“No. Not entirely accurate, but they were just fine with it. If you watch Table for 3 with Godfather, Mark Henry, and Ron Simmons, Mark even says, “Oh, you know, X-Pac even came back, didn’t want to do it because he was afraid of backlash and all that.” I did. I was not happy about doing that. Everyone will tell you that.”
While X-Pac was understandably uncomfortable with the situation, former Nation of Domination member, D-Lo Brown remembers having no animosity towards the situation. In fact, he thinks it helped his and his peer’s career. He explained his take on the matter on a recent appearance on Two Man Power Trip of Wrestling podcast:
“We were in the back giving pointers and stuff to those guys but we didn’t know the verbiage per say but I totally knew what he was going to look like and what he was going to do. People think that to this day we were mad that they were shooting on us and they were shooting on The Nation but we were a part of what they did and still to this day I tell people that it is one of the greatest points for my character and it really put heat on The Nation / DX rivalry.”
While it’s all too easy to indict WWE in 2017 for a racially charged segment that aired 20 years ago, it’s hard to call it malicious. WWE found themselves facing extinction via their WCW adversary, so that era of WWE as designed to push the envelope and make headlines. Even further, it seems all parties, both black and white, were aware of how contentious their subject matter would be. In the end, we can call the segment successful, but regrettable. Both X-Pac and D-Lo would likely admit to as much.
