Former WWE pro wrestler James Harris hasn’t had it easy in recent years. At 6’7, 380 pounds, he was once known as “Kamala the Ugandan Giant,” one of the most feared contenders in professional wrestling. Today, he’s a double amputee who struggles to pay his bills.
After losing both limbs to diabetes a few years ago, 64-year-old Harris has made his living building wooden chairs by hand in his garage, then autographing each one with his “Kamala” signature and selling them online for $150 a pop.
“I wish things had worked out better for me,” he said recently. “I believe the reason I got done that way is because I’m just a poor boy from down south in Mississippi. If I had been a better talker — you have to negotiate — that probably would’ve helped me.”
But Harris isn’t looking for pity.
How about we take this to the next level?
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“I don’t want people to feel sorry for me,” he said. “Because I’m still Kamala.”
Now, Harris says he’s hearing up to release his memoir called Kamala Speaks, and he plans on spilling all the dirt about the pro-wrestling industry.
In a recent interview with 1Wrestling radio, Harris gave listeners a taste of what they can expect from his book, talking about behind-the-scenes corruption, failed drug tests that were covered up, and sexual harassment allegations against WWE’s majority owner Vince McMahon.
“If you get along with Vince, do him sexual favors, you’ll get along good with him,” Harris said “But if you just mind your own business [and show up to work], then he doesn’t like you for some reason.”
He added: “There was a lot of men with men in those days, and even men with boys.”
Of course, McMahon has never been shy about pulling down his pants and shoving his ass crack in men’s faces on television.
McMahon has yet to respond to the allegations. Though, honestly, we’re more curious about what his butch wife, failed candidate for U.S. Senate Linda McMahon, has to say about the matter. More specifically, how she responded to her husband when she first heard the story. We imagine it looked a little something like this:
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Graham Gremore is a columnist and contributor for Queerty and Life of the Law. Follow him on Facebook and Twitter.
EricNYCity
To Editor. last paragraph: “Harris has yet to respond to the allegations”?? I think you mean McMahon.
TheBigOne
Can you say “smear campaign from a disgruntled former employee”?
Or better yet:
“salacious sex stories in order to sell more copies of my book”.
McMahon is a pretty handsome man, by the way, I wouldn’t mind going a round or two with him 🙂
Trippy
Well, he runs a business that requires his male employees to be ripped, beefy, and practically naked… so it’s not much of a stretch to wonder why he enjoys it so much.
(Footnote: I dated a guy a while back who used to work for the guy behind the cameras in the business office… he implied that McMahon liked getting head and didn’t much care which gender provided it.)
jason smeds
Let men be men, for Pete’s sakes. If men want to be with each other in a sexual sense, let them be. It doesn’t make them gay. Many men like to be sexual with each other as they share their fantasies about women. I knew a couple of guys who did that on a regular basis.
The word “gay” is a discredited brand word now. It’s run its course. It does not adequately describe male-male sexuality and its intricacies at all. Ditch gay.
tdx3fan
I am not surprised about many of these allegations. I am also not surprised about the sexual ones. These are men that are in love with themselves and they get paid to roll around with other guys, and Vince is just the super ring master of it all.
That being said, some of this is obviously just to sell books. However, I would not be at all surprised if the WWE backed this because even if it false it still is great marketing to the gay crowd for the WWE and if your product is two guys rolling around in their underwear then your target audience is probably mostly gay men rather you want to admit to that or not.
tdx3fan
@jason smeds: Your opinion is just your opinion. If people fail to follow your opinion then most likely your opinion is bogus. I do not think you will get a lot of support regarding your opinion that the gay word is discredited.
Ladbrook
@jason smeds: When the hell did “gay” become discredited? (Aside from in your own self-hating, off-your-medication mind.)
You need some very serious therapy.
Ladbrook
@Trippy: That’s funny AND coincidental. A woman I went to college with used to work for WWE. I asked her if McMahon was hyper-sexed, and did he ever harass the female employees. She raised her eyebrows and said “no, the women are safe.”
money718
Sounds like a poor guy trying to sell a book.
Btw, “Kamala” gimmick was a disgrace.
jason smeds
“Gay” is a brand word, not a real word. It’s like “Cheetos”. It’s a word designed to sell an idea. It sets limits. It is unrealistic. It’s a manufactured and confining term.
You have to be careful of brand words. They are a form of propaganda. Unfortunately, many Americans don’t think about it. They get sucked in by propaganda all the time.
pscheck2
Being a gay man myself, I am amazed what some other gay men say in regard to Str8 guys having sex with men! They brush it off as being meaningless as far as they are concerned, and a little sex with another guy is, poof, nothing, it’s part of their emotional coinage and not to be construed as being gay , bi, or whatever! Maybe I live in the wrong universe but I can’t imagine any str8 person I know dallying in homo sex and still claim to be str8. According to them (who dismiss homo sex=gay) I could claim to be str8, if I only occasionally had sex with a guy, right? So, when does their definition of being gay start: one, two, ten 100 times, what is their threshold of having same sex to determine when you can be labeled gay? To my way of thinking, they hate the term ‘gay’ and find it pejorative
and don’t want so-called str8 guys being labeled as such.
Alan down in Florida
@jason smeds: “Many men like to be sexual with each other as they share their fantasies about women.”
Congrats Jason you’ve just won the award for most ridiculous comment of 2014.
Ladbrook
@jason smeds: A “brand word?” Dude, you are all kinds of loony. The only person who thinks that is you (and maybe Pat Robertson, also a loon.)
So how do you define yourself? Gay? bi? pansexual? I’m going to guess that “self-loathing homosexual with borderline personality disorder” just about sums it up.
How about you let US decide how to define OURSELVES for a change. You can call yourself whatever you like, but I’m sticking with gay for myself.
jason smeds
Alan down in Florida,
You must have a very limited view of male sexuality. You need to get out more.
I’ve met tons of straight-identifying guys who like to masturbate each other while lying in bed as they talk about women’s naked bodies. I even knew of a straight-identifying guy who wanted ass play using blades of grass.
There is plenty of guy-guy action amongst straight-identifying guys. There is no scene for it in the way there is for the gay brand. It’s common and it exists amongst the mainstream, and not hidden away in some gay club in a dark corner.
jason smeds
Ladbrook,
You can call yourself whatever you want. However, you should not try to call “us” whatever it is you want to call us. There is no us.
Gay is an invented brand term. It’s as much a brand as is McDonalds and Starbucks. It doesn’t mean anything in the real world sense and is designed merely as a selling point these days.
kevininbuffalo
@pscheck2: I’m not Gay, but the 200 guys I had sex with are! 🙂
Jamie
I’ve known a few people in the business who have had dealings with Vince McMahon. I’ve never heard anybody imply that he’s gay, but most have agreed that he’s an egomaniac and narcissist who enjoys displaying power over everybody around him. In my opinion, that just makes him an arrogant millionaire on a power trip, and sexuality would make up just a part of that.
Ladbrook
@jason smeds: Wait… I think I just figured it out. are you that guy… the “conversion therapist” married to Congresswoman Bachmann? I’m right, aren’t I?? You’re LadyBird Bachmann!! It makes a lot more sense now, actually.
So who are these men you speak of… the ones who want you to rub blades of grass along their cracks while the two of you giggle about the beauty of the female breast? Other Republican Congressmen perhaps? Other therapists? Priests, maybe? Do tell! Are there video of you tickling them? I’d to see the clips of you and Lindsey Graham getting sweaty on a bed of daisies.
odawg
Please do not feed the troll because engaging with him only gives him a sense that his moronic comments are relevant.
Cagnazzo82
Wrestlers end up so, so bad when they’re time in the ring is done? Double-amputee? Awful.
But at least he’s still alive.
All the greats I remember from wrestlemania back when I was a kid in the early 90s are all dropping like flies.
Also these salacious details are mostly to sell books. Not that I wouldn’t mind the imagery of McMahon getting it on with some of his more hotter employees… but it’s sad that someone has to fall this far to release a book like this just to make money.
It likely won’t even make money. Anyway, moving on now…
money718
@Cagnazzo82: Very sad.
james_in_cambridge
@jason smeds: You are one fucked up bore.
hotshot70
the “Kiss My Ass” club. I have a feeling it wasn’t the ass the wrestlers had to put their mouths on! And why is it the wrestlers that come out seem to vanish from the shows? I am waiting for a full-scale disclosure and how many wrestlers were forced to stroke VInce’s “ego”
papaT23
I agree with @jason smeds!! There, I said it.
Saint Law
@jason smeds: I saw this thread and – ding ding – I knew you would be all over it.
I’m sure you would like to pull a McMahon and pressure hunky heterosexual men in to having sex with you.
If you weren’t a powerless, timid, lying little fantasist with erectile dysfunction that is.
Saint Law
@papaT23: You’re a shitwit!! There, I said it.
papaT23
@ Saint Law. I’ve been mulling over my opinion of his ideology, given his commentary, and have concluded that it’s fundamentally sound. IMO
james_in_cambridge
@Saint Law: Agreed, he is. Now I’ve said it too!
Bob LaBlah
Sorry folks, but McMahon NEVER has nor ever will strike me as being gay. He is what he is, a modern day P.T. Barnum. Look at the people (include this circus act of a man) he has placed on display. Considering the amounts of money they all made I find it hard to take anything any of them have to say seriously.
If it was THAT bad then why the hell did you hang around? Money, perhaps?
jason smeds
The problem with a lot of gay guys is that you spend too much time on the gay scene. It distorts your perceptions of the world and of male sexuality in general. You become narrow-minded, exclusionary, arrogant and petulant, not to mention narcissistic.
Male homosexuality is too important an issue to be dictated by the “let’s go to the club and dance” crowd.
Dev.C
@jason smeds
You have a very narrow minded and arrogant view of homosexuality if you think that we are all narcissistic club kids who are afraid to have sex with women. I plus the rest of the gay population have been raised and conditioned in a strict heterosexual existence, where even what you are proclaiming about circle jerking with str8 boys is dismissed to have no homosexual conscience. People like you propitiate that homosexuality is a bad thing because of it’s exclusive sexual nature. Straight people may be able to fluctuate up and down the scale of sexuality and never call a thing a thing, but being gay is not about denying possible past straight relationships or encounters, but recognizing and being confident in your primary desire and emotional interest for someone of the same sex.
Sexually entertaining heterosexual men as a gay man, is immature and promotes unrealistic expectations of that kind of relationship or lack there of. If you believe in being sexually fluid with whatever gender, fine but you can’t push those unrealistic expectations on the entire gay population; that’s your own forced agenda to stand behind.
NoCagada
@jason smeds: Odd…no matter the article, your response is always:
“I knew a couple of guys who did that on a regular basis.”
You always seem to know somebody who…
Paco
@Dev.C: I really liked your response to the sock puppet’s comment. His thinking also feeds the dangerous belief that homosexuality is a choice that can easily be dismissed or turned off and on as one chooses. A belief our community has had to combat for years. The straight chasers never seem to make that connection in their heads though.
Chris-MI
Gay is a word that evolved to express the idea that there are some people who for whatever reason have their brain set to same-sex attraction instead of opposite sex attraction. Until fairly recently it was assumed that people who have same sex relations did it because for some reason they couldn’t get partners of the opposite sex, or because they had some deep emotional scarring that kept them away from the opposite sex. That said there are plenty of people who don’t consider their brain set to be gay that are having gay sex.
Dev.C
@Chris-MI
Using the word Gay, is homosexual people taking affirmation for something that they understand is natural in themselves.
People with undefined sexual identities don’t hold themselves to any standard or accountability for having to affirm any particular sexual attraction, with that being said homosexuals are made this way because like all other things living, natural selection deems it so. Rhetoric like yours to demean gay identity to reaffirm that sexuality should be meaningless but heterosexuality is the standard/constant, is irresponsible and damaging. No one questions people who are sexually fluid but implying that being gay is irrational because society use to think it so, is wrong. Black people would still be in chains if we continued to think like that.
jason smeds
The gay word is a brand word. It served a purpose at the beginning of the homosexual rights movement but now it’s lost its purpose. It does not describe male sexuality. It describes bars and dance clubs that are designed to make money from a cornered market.
I'm Black, and HIV-Positive.
First of all Kamala is a closet case homosexual his damn self. The down low doesn’t equivocate heterosexuality to me in the least. And I see you (Kamala) decided to “tell all” only after you fell on hard times, so you must not have been too annoyed by it you two-faced snitch! You said you saw it, but didn’t interact? Likely story, but next time: if you know how to play the game, then play it player, because now you look like a dumb-ass… without a leg to stand on (ahem).
And really Queerty? But the real point of this article should only be to focused our attentions on Linda McMahon’s reaction though? According to who again? I guess gay news can be reported on by straight men after all.
I'm Black, and HIV-Positive.
@TheBigOne: I agree. And sex with men, and boys? I wish I’d a known that sooner. Do you know how long I’ve been a fan of professional wrestling? Shit… And I bet I’d still be working there today if I’d known that’s all it took. I know how to play the game very well.
I'm Black, and HIV-Positive.
@jason smeds: Why don’t you just shut the fuck up already you homophobic agitator? You clearly are only talking out of your ass! And furthermore, you’re either talking about bi-sexuality, or closeted homosexuality (ie, the down low) which we actually do understand very well you self-loathing doofus, so stop acting like there isn’t/aren’t words for it.
And “The problem with a lot of gay guys is that you spend too much time on the gay scene. It distorts your perceptions of the world and of male sexuality in general. You become narrow-minded, exclusionary, arrogant and petulant, not to mention narcissistic.” Oh gee. And pardon me, but that will never be the problem with your quasi-straight crowd either though would it then, huh?
You want to be a friend to the gay community: Return the favor, and stay in the closet around us too then asshole. You’re just party crashing. And on that note we’re all gonna go to the club, and dance now!
I'm Black, and HIV-Positive.
@papaT23: Then, come out of the closet already homo. Ha ha ha! There I said it.
I'm Black, and HIV-Positive.
@Bob LaBlah: Truth be told I don’t think he’s gay either, (not that gay men can’t father children). But I sure would like to fool around with him, and his stable of men all the same.
I'm Black, and HIV-Positive.
@hotshot70: Please be quiet.
papaT23
I’m out of the closet, in a same-sex relationship and happy (and this will be as much as I ever speak of my personal life on this site). I support @ jason smeds opinion. I find his comments extremely thought provoking and insightful.
james_in_cambridge
@papaT23: That’s because YOU are Jason. Moron.
Bob LaBlah
@I’m Black, and HIV-Positive.:Though I worked in a variety of industries throughout my life, I consider myself a retired trucker more than anything. What I knew from day ONE when I took that job was no matter how much I loved doing it, there was NO retirement plan for me nor any other driver who drove for that company.
However, the amounts of money we made more than made up for our OWN retirement, which is exactly how I looked at it and acted accordingly. I ain’t rich but I can pay the cable bill and eat, so to speak. I knew the day would come when I would get tired or simply could no longer work due to whatever and would be on my own as far as income and the future. This man used to HEADLINE main events in the WWE. It seems VERY hard to believe he didn’t make at LEAST one and a half million considering he was around for over ten years and could pack an auditorium or stadium. He was around during the days when the wrestlers were paid good, did the nightly talk show…you name it. No one has a crystal ball to predict disaster but in THAT particular field the possibility of SERIOUS, crippling injury should have always stayed close on their minds. Wrestlers have been paralyzed from the neck down for years due to shit going wrong. (yes, I know about his diabetes and I do have some sympathy for him and hope he gets thru this OK).
Abdullah the Butcher is another one who was recently reported to be on bad times but still owns his bar-b-que restraunt in the south, which I am to understand does do good, but he ended up in debt.
I'm Black, and HIV-Positive.
@Bob LaBlah: I remember Kamala’s feud with Hulk Hogan back when I was a kid. I later read that he was another popular wrestler too out of make up before the whole Kamala thing, but I can’t remember who that was. It is a shame. But man, what I wouldn’t have done to work there, and be there to experience all the excitement! It was good speaking with you!
1EqualityUSA
I’m wheezing, I laughed so hard. Ladrook, regarding smeds, “Wait… I think I just figured it out. are you that guy… the “conversion therapist” married to Congresswoman Bachmann? I’m right, aren’t I?? You’re LadyBird Bachmann!! It makes a lot more sense now, actually.
So who are these men you speak of… the ones who want you to rub blades of grass along their cracks while the two of you giggle about the beauty of the female breast? Other Republican Congressmen perhaps? Other therapists? Priests, maybe? Do tell! Are there video of you tickling them? I’d to see the clips of you and Lindsey Graham getting sweaty on a bed of daisies.”
Priceless.