How WWE helped lay the groundwork for Donald Trump's presidency

Before he was president, Donald Trump was the winner of the Battle of the Billionaires at WrestleMania 23.

The 2007 match saw his representative, Bobby Lashley, besting Intercontinental Champion Umaga, who represented none other than Vince McMahon. The match led to Mr. McMahon's head getting shaved — but did it also inadvertently lead to Trump's ascendency?

Today on Commotion, podcasters and culture critics Damian Abraham and Pablo The Don join host Elamin Abdelmahmoud to talk about the new Netflix docuseries Mr. McMahon, and how it tackles the legacy of World Wrestling Entertainment.

We've included some highlights below, edited for length and clarity. For the full discussion, listen and follow Commotion with Elamin Abdelmahmoud on your favourite podcast player.

Elamin: I want to talk a little bit about how wrestling is tied to politics and pop culture. In the very first episode, you see how wrestling went global, and it was because of Hulk Hogan. There was this moment where Hulk Hogan fights The Iron Sheik during the height of tensions with Iran. Hulk Hogan represents the all-American boy, and The Iron Sheik represents the Republic of Iran, I guess, in this particular universe. But he shows us the way that wrestling becomes a reflection of the real world. How would you describe the way that wrestling is connected to politics and what that meant for the success of the WWE?

Damian: Well first of all, I feel him taking it global is one of the myths that's kind of perpetuated by this documentary a little bit, because it is a global art form. It's existed in every country I've ever been to, more than anything else I've ever seen. Maybe Coca-Cola was the only other thing I saw everywhere I went to. And it's always kind of been tied to politics, because it really is the opera of the people. This is the most-watched TV show each and every week. We see storylines play out that people want to see play out.

But what WWE globalization did was, it's almost like the McDonald's-ification of the hamburger — like, there's hamburgers all around the world, but now we only know McDonald's burgers. And I think it speaks to politics because it admits it's fake in the way that we all want politics to admit it's fake. Like, we know these people are playing characters up there. And I think that's why Trump found such success playing this sort of character that he really formulated in front of our eyes during that WWE run.

There was a Vince McMahon-Donald Trump feud which allowed Donald Trump to become Stone Cold Steve Austin. There he is in the middle of the ring, shaving this man's head for everyone cheering, elated to watch this happen. I've got friends that worked backstage at that time as writers and they said that Trump was super quiet, very respectful, just soaking it all up, taking it all in. And if you look at his fan base prior to — like, the people that watched The Apprentice, the people that read about him being made fun of in Spy magazine — it definitely wasn't necessarily the people that now make up the MAGA base. And I think that's WWE we have to thank/blame for that introduction.

Elamin: I do think it's a very under-talked about part of Trump's rise, that he not only found an audience, he found an audience as, like, the good guy. He was sort of cast as the anti-Vince McMahon character. What do you remember about that time, Pablo?

Pablo: Honestly, looking back on it now, you can see why he ended up going into politics. There's nothing more intoxicating than having 50 to 100,000 people screaming your name. And of course you would want to build that character because, as you see, wrestlers don't know how to retire. It's because that feeling of coming through the curtain one more time is just amazing.

So I can see when Trump goes to a rally or anything like that, there it is. There's that intoxicating feeling of, everybody is looking at me, everyone's paying attention to what I'm doing. And in that time, of course McMahon was the bad guy, so we're all rooting for Donald Trump and Bobby Lashley, and not Umaga. But it's one of those things where it's like, wow, this thing really laid the foundation for him to build this entire character and personality to win his way into presidency. It's crazy.

You can listen to the full discussion from today's show on CBC Listen or on our podcast, Commotion with Elamin Abdelmahmoud, available wherever you get your podcasts.

Panel produced by Danielle Grogan.