There seems to be a direct line between GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump and the world of professional wrestling. At first, I discounted Trump’s connection to World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) and his decades-long friendship with co-founders Linda and Vince McMahon just as I had disregarded Trump Steaks.
Trump's connection to wrestling should not be dismissed. It should be studied. Linda McMahon has given $6,000,000 to a pro-Trump super PAC over the last two months alone. Trump "the politician" and Trump "the wrestler" are one and the same. The angry, pucker-face displayed during the second debate? Same. That jab Trump took at Hillary? The one where he said out the side of his mouth, "You'd be in jail.”? And calling her the devil? It is all reminiscent of the 2007 WWE “Battle of the Billionaires”; in fact, during this segment he belittles Rosie O’Donnell using a similar tone to when during last night’s debate he told Hillary Clinton, “You are a nasty woman”. It's the same Trump. But Trump is no longer in the wrestling ring performing a highly-scripted, pretend performance with his close friend Vince McMahon. He's in a presidential debate, and disturbingly, acting a bit like he's on stage at WrestleMania. Trump’s cries of “The Election is Rigged” and the stance of not conceding if he should lose, is all from the same WWE playbook. Evil “heels” (Hillary and her supporters) oppressing and abusing the good “faces” (Donald and his supporters). It is the classic “good” versus “evil” although the delineations seem completely perverted in this case.
Many WWE "storylines" contain elements of misogyny, sexism, violence, homophobia, and racism. And all contain a “heel” and a “face”. They also align with many of the themes of Trump's current presidential campaign. WWE has been a staple source of entertainment to a fairly large segment of young men in the United States over the last 20 years. According to WWE's 2005 annual report, WWE SmackDown! was a top weekly program “among all key male demographics”. In 2003, an educational film was released raising serious questions regarding the content produced by WWE that was being viewed by millions of Americans. Drawing a connection between professional wrestling and the construction of contemporary masculinity the film showed “how so-called ‘entertainment’ is related to homophobia, sexual assault and relationship violence.” (Trailer below.)
Now, WWE and Donald Trump are using this construction of contemporary masculinity to prop up Vladimir Putin and shame the United States government for being “weak” and “girly”. Russians, Putin and the emasculation of Barack Obama have now literally become part of a WWE theme. The June 2014 WWE clip below is a stunning propaganda precursor and is similar to Trump’s real-world rhetoric on Putin’s “strength” and Obama’s “weakness”.
“The United States is led by a man that oozes weakness. He is what you call a sissy.” A leggy blonde hisses to the crowd. She continues to describe Obama as “a girly man.” (Cue clandestine video of President Obama working out in a hotel gym.) Regarding Putin, the woman yells, “He is strong. He is virile. A man amongst men. President Putin will CRUSH your president Obama.”
This depiction of Obama is not just “entertainment” it is un-American and dangerous, especially considering the state of relations between the United States and Russia and that the WWE also airs in Russia. Some in the wrestling world have noticed McMahon's politicalization of WWE. However, even this analysis, is framed as merely a personal grudge. There are many in government and the media who are bewildered by Trump praising Putin and who can't understand why Trump's most ardent supporters aren't alarmed by Trump's embrace of "strong" Putin. Apparently, they don't watch WWE. (To be clear, I realize this is but one potential cog in the giant, fucked-up gear we know as Donald Trump.)
How many Trump supporters are also WWE fans? According to Itay Hod at The Wrap, "Trumps twitter followers are 2.8 times more likely than the average twitter user to be interested in MMA, boxing or professional wrestling." I do not know the accuracy or reliability of this data. Let's just call it anecdotal, interesting and acknowledge that it seems completely plausible that Trump supporters are more likely to prefer hyper-masculine entertainment. We do know that Trump’s hardcore support base consists of men. (And according to Trump, he has the BEST supporters who would still vote for him if he shot someone on 5th Avenue.) And Trump is popular with men who make up a less-educated segment of the US population. (Trump loves the “poorly educated”.) Who is a typical WWE fan? Almost 63% are male and 66% have a high school education or less.
Many young men who relished WWE over the last couple decades are now old enough to vote. The WWE has been a staple for millions of men growing up in America. Surely, it has had some effect in shaping world views. (Below: Left, 2005 WWE. Right, 2016 Trump.)
And let's talk about women for a moment. Linda McMahon (shown here in one of her own WWE storyline) donated millions of dollars to support Trump although it has been reported that Mrs. McMahon did find some of Trumps mutterings ”deplorable" This is interesting because some of the WWE storylines she played a role in disseminating to the masses are just flat out appalling. Necrophilia. Rape. Bullying. Fat-shaming. Racism. Homophobia. Live sex on stage. Mrs. McMahon has been criticized for promoting "some of the most brutal, violent and hateful depictions of women in all of media culture over the past twenty years."
In many ways, this election has become a contest of the feared “otherness” of the feminine vs. a culture of the hyper-masculine, misogyny symbolized by the the call for men to be “alpha”, trending hashtags like #reapealthe19th and calling for everyone to accept Trump's bragging about sexual assault as “locker room talk”. The meaning and tone of the words Donald Trump carelessly uttered on a bus, showed America who and what Trump really is. Donald Trump does not have is the capacity to understand, that with those words, he singlehandedly ripped the scab off the deep, and collective wounds of American women.
Now, in what appears to be the matchup of the century, we have Donald Trump playing the hyper-masculine misogynist, an outsider-underdog in the role of the ultimate “face” running against the many “heels”: The feminists; the media; the “homos”; the rapist Mexicans; the inner city blacks; the Muslims; the disabled; the POWs; the “betas” and the “cucks”. Hillary Clinton has been cast in the role as the first woman from a major party running for the office of President of the United States and that alone is enough to make her the ultimate “heel”. This “nasty woman” is the supreme leader of the “heels” and Donald Trump’s true fans want nothing less than to see her and her followers taken down and put in their places.
I hope that on November 8th the women of America (along with all the other groups shoveled into the status of “heel”) stand together and deliver the largest and most definitive “stone-cold stunner” the gold-plated, ticky-tacky Donald Trump and the nation has ever seen.
Notes, videos and Further Reading:
"The Mexicools" arrived on the scene in their "Mexican Limo" (a riding lawnmower) in 2005. They were angry Mexican men who declared to a booing audience, "Things are gonna change. We are tired of working for you. Now, you Gringos are going to be working for us. We are gonna take over SmackDown!" Then came the really scary threat, "We are going to take over America."
Muhammad Hussan segments are chilling to watch. Disturbing, really. First aired July 4, 2005, three days before the July 2005 London bombings.