Politicians are Professional Wrestlers and Trump is in the Hall of Fame

By Chris Kelly and Brandon Wetherbee

Monday, April 21, 2008 was the night before the crucial Pennsylvania primary. Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and John McCain were doing last minute campaigning — and they all took time to film remarks that aired on Monday Night Raw, the flagship program of the WWE.

Barack Obama concluded his remarks with, “Do you smell what Barack is cooking?” parodying The Rock.

Hillary Clinton compared the election to the King of the Ring tournament.

John McCain threatened to introduce Osama Bin Laden to wrestler The Undertaker.

Why did three presidential candidates act like pro wrestlers on a pro wrestling show in the middle of an election? Because politicians are professional wrestlers. And the road to the White House goes through Monday Night Raw.

Every presidential election the politics is wrestling analogy is presented. And it’s always apt. But no candidate has been more of a professional wrestler, specifically WWE chairman and former wrestler Vince McMahon, as Donald Trump.

This is Donald Trump shaving Vince McMahon’s head.

It concluded the Battle of the Billionaires hair match at WrestleMania in 2007. The Donald and Mr. McMahon didn’t wrestle — they had representatives do it for them — which means a probably-billionaire hypothetically face another probably-billionaire via minority surrogates. Who won? The guys billed as billionaires.

Before we go any further, there are a handful of terms you’ll need to know to truly appreciate the similarities of the political arena and the wrestling arena. In wrestling terms, the good guy is the face, the bad guy is the heel and the goal is to get a crowd reaction, or heat. In order to catch heat, wrestlers and managers cut promos, speeches and interviews meant to provoke their opponent. Technical wrestling skill and results don’t matter. What matters is storytelling and money.

On April 1, 2007, at WrestleMania 23, The Donald played the role of a face, Mr. McMahon was the heel and the inclusion of guest referee Stone Cold Steve Austin — one of the most popular, money making wrestlers of all time — ensured that the gimmick match would get heat. It worked: WrestleMania 23 grossed more than $5 million in ticket sales and sold over 1.2 million pay-per-view buys, making it one of the most successful WWE events of all time.

The Donald and Mr. McMahon are kinda, sorta self-made billionaires that have benefitted from the passive dismissal of low brow culture. They’re also play the same character.

Trump and McMahon both went into to family businesses and broke rules that their fathers wouldn’t. Fred Trump was content to defraud the government with bad housing loans in Brooklyn and Queens, but Donald wanted to conquer Manhattan. Vince McMahon Sr. controlled wrestling in the Northeast, specifically in Washington DC, but Vince Jr. wanted to conquer the country.

The 1980s were a great decade for both The Donald and Mr. McMahon. Donald had Trump Plaza, a healthy marriage, best selling books, partial ownership of a football league and promoted Mike Tyson fights. Mr. McMahon created WrestleMania and helped usher in Hulkamania and licensed everything from pillows to board games.

The two men worked together for the first time in the late 80s. WrestleMania’s 4 and 5 in 1988 and 1989, were held at Trump Plaza in Atlantic City. The Donald can be seen throughout both events. At WrestleMania 5 Ted “The Millionaire Dollar Man” Dibiase gladhands with Trump before the match. At that same Mania, you can see Marla Maples sitting the row behind The Donald. He was still married to Ivana Trump. At WrestleMania 4, Hulk Hogan dedicated his promo to Trump.

The early 90s weren’t as kind to The Donald and Mr. McMahon. Donald got divorced and remarried and divorced again. Mr. McMahon was sued for steroid use and lost his biggest star in Hulk Hogan.

In 1991, at WrestleMania 7 Trump’s then mistress Marla Maples played the role of special guest timekeeper in the main event match between Hulk Hogan and defending WWF Champion Sgt. Slaughter. Fun fact: Sgt. Slaughter was the heel in this feud. The former GI Joe was playing the role of an Iraqi sympathizer. Iraqi sympathizers get the wrong type of heat.

The late 90s brought wrestling back thanks to characters like Stone Cold Steve Austin, Mankind and future United States presidential candidate The Rock. The Attitude Era ushered in the company’s biggest ratings and most inappropriate storylines. Mr. McMahon brought in Mike Tyson to guest referee a WrestleMania. Mr. McMahon also decided to start a football league.

The 2000s were an interesting decade for The Donald and Mr. McMahon. The end of the Attitude Era brought WrestleMania 20 back to its original home, Madison Square Garden, in 2004. At that Mania, The Donald was interview by former Minnesota governor and former professional wrestler Jesse Ventura — he was Jesse the Body when he was a wrestler and Jesse the Mind when he was governor — who said it was time for there to be “a wrestler in the White House.” A few years later, Donald had the biggest reality show on television with The Apprentice. Piggybacking of each other’s success, Trump and McMahon teamed up for that Battle of the Billionaires match that we started this with.

The Donald and Mr. McMahon worked together a few times since the spring of 2007. In June of 2009 Trump, in storyline, bought Monday Night Raw from Mr. McMahon.

In real life, no transaction occurred. The WWE and the USA network apologized for the confusion via press release. Because the WWE is a publicly traded company and it’s a bad idea to do fake business on a show billed as real. The SEC declined to comment.

In 2013 Trump was the celebrity inductee to the WWE Hall of Fame. That year’s Mania was held in New Jersey at the Meadowlands. Governor and Trump BFF Chris Christie introduced the show. As of today, it’s the last time Trump has been prominently featured on WWE programming.

The 2011 Correspondents Dinner might be the reason Donald Trump is the Republican nominee for president of the United States. Earlier that year, Trump challenged the birthplace of President Obama. Trump was the heel. Rather than give credence to absurdity, President Obama made a joke out of the issue and its proponent. His opening remarks confronted the issue of his long form birth certificate. A few minutes into the speech, Obama targeted Trump directly.

The Correspondents Dinner address by Obama was essentially a promo mocking Trump. Obama was a face, Trump was a heel and the feud continues 5 years later.

When Trump announced his presidential run in 2015 at Trump Plaza, he was mocked. Mocked by every mainstream news outlet and comedy program. He was considered a joke. He said crazy things about Mexicans.

“I’ve made a fortune in this country that we call America, so I know what these type of people do to our economy. They take advantage of our healthcare system, our welfare system, and they send all their money back to Mexico and look to people like me to support them… They’re lazy, they look to government like it’s Big Brother and say, “please give me a handout.” It’s why people like me that have made their own money have such outrageous taxes.”

Oh, wait, that wasn’t what Trump said. That’s wrestler John Bradshaw Layfield, right before attacking a quote-unquote “herd of Mexicans” at the Texas-Mexico border. Fun fact: JBL is a real life Fox Business pundit. Here’s what Trump said.

“The U.S. has become a dumping ground for everybody else’s problems… When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending their best… They’re sending people that have lots of problems, and they’re bringing those problems with us. They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists.”

Trump also said crazy things about women: “Get on your hands and knees like a dog, okay? I used to have a female dog and that bitch did everything I told her to do.”

Oh, wait, that wasn’t what Trump said. That’s Mr. McMahon demeaning probably the greatest female wrestler of all-time, Trish Stratus. Here’s what Trump said about women: “You have to treat ’em like shit.”

Trump said racist things against Muslims. Trump says that “Islam hates us” and that the US needs “a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States until our country’s representatives can figure out what is going on.”

The WWE is just as bad. In 2004, an Italian-American portrayed an Arab American named Muhammad Hassan, a wrestler best known for praying in Arabic and claiming to be the victim of prejudice, disrespect and discrimination by Americans. After one match, he dropped to his knees and raised his arms in prayer as 5 men in cargo pants, black sweaters and black ski masks attacked his opponent The Undertaker. Then they imitated a suicide bomber’s funeral. Not great, especially since the episode aired on tape-delay on the same day that terrorists suicide-bombed London.

During the primary campaign, Trump took on the candidates one by one like a heel would take on his opponents. He began with the man “Low Energy” Jeb Bush: “Jeb is having some kind of a breakdown. He’s an embarrassment to his family… Frankly, he’s a stiff. He’s not a guy who can be president. He doesn’t have what it takes to be president.”

Then he went after Carly Fiorina: “Look at that face! Would anyone vote for that? Can you imagine that, the face of our next president?!”

Then he went after Lil’ Marco Rubio.: “I think he’s a highly overrated person. I’ve called him a lightweight.”

Then he took on Ted Cruz: “Lyin’ Ted Cruz just used a picture of Melania from a GQ shoot in his ad. Be careful, Lyin’ Ted, or I will spill the beans on your wife!”

Oh and he also said Cruz’s father was connected to the Kennedy assassination. And in case you’ve been under a rock, Cruz just endorsed Trump.

And Trump didn’t just attack candidates. He also attacked the Pope: “For a religious leader to question a person’s faith is disgraceful.”

That’s like when Vince McMahon and his son Shane wrestled Shawn Michaels and his tag-team partner, God.

In wrestling, sometimes a heel will become so popular that he eventually becomes a face — it’s called a face turn — and it’s what happened with someone like The Rock, who used to get “die Rocky die” chants before becoming the biggest star wrestling has ever produced.

As we’ve watched the campaign, we’ve been expecting a face turn from Donald Trump. Once he secured the nomination, most thought he’d have to “pivot” to compete in the general. But on the day after becoming the presumptive nominee, he wished Twitter a Happy Cinco De Mayo and said “I love Hispanics” while eating a taco bowl and reading a People magazine profile about his ex-wife, Marla Maples. Obviously, Trump hasn’t had a face turn.

It’s impossible for us to say what will happen in November, but, at least in wrestling, heels get their comeuppance. It’s what’s best for business. Bad guys don’t sell the most merch, and, at least until now, they haven’t won elections.

While it’s easy to dismiss low culture, it’s a mistake. Nothing in the Republican race for the presidential nomination was shocking if you paid attention to low culture.

The biggest court case of 2016 revolved around professional wrestler Hulk Hogan. His sex tape, or whatever you want to call if when your friend films you having sex with his wife but it’s not exactly clear if the recording was consensual, brought down Gawker Media. One of the biggest reasons Hogan won was because of the blurring of lines between professional wrestler Hulk Hogan and actual human being Terry Bollea. Terry Bollea had to testify that Hulk Hogan — not Terry Bollea — had a 10 inch penis during the same week that Donald Trump guaranteed the American people that he doesn’t have small hands and is well-endowed. It’s impossible to draw the line between character and reality. It’s becoming impossible to draw the line between Donald Trump the businessman and Donald Trump the nominee for the Republican party for president.

Politics is wrestling — but so is everything else. Here’s another example. This year we lost the most important athlete of the 20th century: Muhammad Ali. Ali’s taunts and persona were lifted from pro wrestler Gorgeous George. And Ali wrestled legendary Japanese wrestler Antonio Inoki, which was inspiration for the Thunderlips/Rocky match in Rocky 3. And Rocky 3 helped introduce professional wrestler Hulk Hogan to the mainstream. And two years after Rocky 3, Hulk Hogan headlined the first WrestleMania. And Muhammed Ali was the guest referee. Yes, we know we sound like conspiracy theorists, but it really is all connected.

This year has been plagued by senseless mass shootings. The horrible tragedy at Pulse in Orlando dominated the news cycle. Lives were lost and the media did their job, shining a light on sadness. But not everything that weekend was sad. 2012 Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney participated in a wrestling match between boxer Oscar de la Hoya and whatever Mario Lopez considers himself.

Because even though Mitt Romney might say “Never Trump,” he hasn’t said “Never Wrestling.”

Chris Kelly and Brandon Wetherbee are the authors of the ebook The Donald: How Trump Turned Presidential Politics into Pro Wrestling. This was originally presented at The Smithsonian National Museum of American History.