Watching John Oliver's segment on the WWE made me think just how interconnected Trump is with the world of wrestling entertainment. The Donald has made several guest appearances on Vince McMahon's big show, including one where he got to shave the wrestling media mogul's head. I'm surprised John didn't show that clip.
The WWE is huge, generating nearly a billion dollars in profits per year. As John pointed out, it got that way by Vince creating a monopoly over the market and treating his stable of wrestlers as independent contractors so that he doesn't have to offer any health care or pension benefits. While the events are almost entirely staged, the wrestlers are expected to perform some incredibly outrageous stunts that put their health at serious risk, not to mention these guys and gals look pumped up on horse steroids.
The string of wrestlers' deaths is a long one. Their mortality rate is 3 times that of the national average for men, which is the highest of any sport, but McMahon refuses to take ownership of the crisis.
A few years ago, The Wrestler pretty much summed up the life of one of these professionals, seamlessly blending fact and fiction. I was never a fan of the sport but the movie is very compelling, as it shows just how difficult a life these guys live both in and out of the ring. The scenes may be choreographed but all the knocks and hard falls are real and have a debilitating affect on these stuntmen over the course of their careers. Many have to go back into the ring well past their prime just to cover expenses, as was the case with Roddy Piper, one of the biggest names in wrestling who died in 2015 at the age of 61, in large part due to the cumulative abuse to his body.
McMahon is a big fan of Trump. So much so that the President repaid all the support Vince and his wife Linda have given him over the years by naming Linda McMahon head of small business administration within his cabinet in 2017. She recently stepped down to assume a lead role in a pro-Trump Super PAC.
The McMahons have lorded over so-called professional wrestling for decades now, turning WWE into a highly profitable entertainment company. John Oliver called attention to many of the entertainment network's shortcomings just a week before Wrestlemania, which forced McMahon to issue a statement. However, Vince's harshest critics are former wrestlers who have suffered horribly from the injuries and lifestyle of the non-stop WWE circuit.
No matter to the Donald, who is a big fan. His rallies often take on the same atmosphere as a WWE match, with all its petty intimidation tactics as he vanquishes imaginary foes. The fact that he often appeared at wrestling events gives him a sort of street cred among his fan base. This is a market he has fully exploited, especially in his infamous takedown of CNN, which didn't play well among the media but was a huge hit among his base.
People enjoy this in-your-face attitude, hurling insults at each other as if there are no repercussions. The funny thing about Trump is that he rarely stands up to his opponents face to face. He uses his rallies and twitter to insult them but then cowers like a little boy when actually having to deal with his political foes in public. The closest he came to attacking his rivals in public was his attempt to take down Chuck and Nancy at the White House last December, only to watch it ingloriously blow up in his face. He's heading toward a similar blow-up over the Mueller report.
What McMahon has that Trump does not is a stable of wrestlers, both men and women, who follow his script. Everything is choreographed to the last detail. McMahon leaves very little to chance. As a result, he is in complete control of his operation.
Trump may have been able to seize control of the GOP, but he has failed to bring the Democratic Party into line, and as a result now finds himself out on a limb offering health care visions and peace deals and border security that everyone knows is a sham. He hasn't delivered on a single major policy position he took on the Campaign Trail 2016, which is why you see formerly ardent backers now questioning his motivations.
For their part, the McMahons are still in Trump's corner. I guess it takes a con man to know a con man and this relationship has proven beneficial to Donald, Vince and Linda. Lavie Margolin has chronicled this triple threat match in a cartoonish book entitled TrumpMania, born out of the early WrestleMania matches Trump hosted at his Taj Mahal in Atlantic City. Who knew it would become the model for his highly successful campaign, or for that matter his presidency?
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