DRemember World Wrestling Entertainment? For many, the show, which featured muscled wrestlers in tight tights throwing each other in staged fights, was a short-lived show on Channel 4 in the early 2000s. It’s a nostalgic memory. Nowadays, it is a mix of melodrama and theater. And the sporting spectacle still attracts millions of viewers every week. For some, it’s a guilty pleasure. Bringing timeless entertainment to others. Still, few would associate it with the world of serious politics.
But for Donald Trump, professional wrestling is a lifelong passion. The announcement in November that former WWE chief executive Linda McMahon would become education secretary in a curious Cabinet sparked shock and disbelief. It’s impossible to fully understand American politics today without understanding the importance of professional wrestling.
Long before McMahon was nominated, Trump was the first WWE Hall of Fame inductee to sit in the Oval Office, an honor that marked his decades-long business relationship with the company. Trump has hosted WrestleMania, WWE’s signature annual event, twice, appeared on WWE programming more than a dozen times, played a leading role in two storylines, and appeared in the ring (very exclusively). It also got physical (albeit to the point where it was awkward). It’s now widely known that professional wrestling is key to Trump as a political phenomenon. But his influence is greater than Trump’s. Professional wrestling has become an important element in understanding American politics itself, particularly the realignment of the right wing of the Republican Party.
Let’s take a look at the 2024 presidential election campaign. Jesse “The Body” Ventura was nominated by Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s campaign as his running mate for vice president. Hulk Hogan took off his shirt at the Republican National Convention, rallied “Trumpaholics” at Madison Square Garden and hinted at a possible future role in the Trump administration on Fox News. Donald Trump appeared on a Fox News segment with former WWE superstar Tyrus, who called him “the people’s champion” and presented him with a replica title belt. He joined professional wrestling icon Mark “The Undertaker” Callaway and current WWE Superstar Logan Paul on their podcast, and also appeared in a TikTok video with Callaway and Glenn Jacobs (WWE’s Kane, Undertaker). (better known as Taker’s storyline brother).
One explanation for such behavior is simply that it is strategic. Trump, a former boxing promoter, has become a fixture on martial arts in general and the Ultimate Fighting Championship in particular (which merged with WWE in 2023 to form media conglomerate TKO), whose CEO Dana White In his victory speech, he was one of the first to take the stage. By embodying a form of entertainment widely disdained in polite society, Mr. Trump has cultivated an anti-establishment tone while reaching out to young, politically apathetic male voters, many of whom have a large fan base. I’m reaching out. But his home is professional wrestling. The idea that Trump’s background as a professional wrestler is being used strategically also relates to his infamous campaign rallies. From fireworks and blaring entrance music to carefully choreographed on-stage feuds and spectacle, the atmosphere at these gatherings is often compared to a professional wrestling show.
President Trump frequently uses call-and-response chants and indulges in “name-calling” against “losers and haters,” giving them derogatory nicknames such as “Liar Ted,” “Crooked Hillary,” and “Sleepy Joe.” is attached. Like attending a Trump rally, being part of a professional wrestling audience allows spectators to experience emotions that are normally forbidden. They may shout, scream, or express anger in the rare public places where society allows them to do so. Trump’s rallies are safe spaces where emotional expression is allowed, where people can shout out their hatred for their political opponents while also shouting and cheering for the country and candidate. In 2016, these similarities could be considered coincidental. The influence of professional wrestling is now inevitable. Just look at the post-election footage of Donald Trump appearing amidst a raucous crowd at a recent UFC event, riding to the suspense of Kid Rock’s American Badass (The Undertaker’s previous entrance song). I can’t help but think of it.
As the U.S. political realm becomes one giant professional wrestling arena, traditional theories and frameworks are insufficient to understand events. So we have to look to professional wrestling, specifically the industry-specific concept of “kayfabe”, for the answer. Originally a label for the illusion that professional wrestling’s predetermined performances were “authentic,” kayfabe now describes a unique way in which fans engage with professional wrestling as a recognized performance form. Author and author Abraham Josephine Riesman, in her insightful book on professional wrestling and politics, intentionally blurs truth and fiction so that producers and consumers cannot distinguish between what is real and what is real. has proposed “neo-K fave” as a label for Republican strategies influenced by President Trump. And what isn’t.
The idea of politics as kayfabe can be developed further. In my opinion, the relationship between professional wrestling fans and the box office is similar to how voters engage in modern politics more generally. Trump and his supporters are an extreme example of a broader phenomenon. Enjoying professional wrestling requires a deliberate suspension of disbelief, which allows fans to become emotionally invested in the performance while acknowledging its theatricality. The audience cooperates with the performers as “believing fans,” customarily cheering or booing, recognizing the pretense but accepting the spectacle. In professional wrestling terms, this is called “Kayfabe Keep.”
This reflects people’s engagement with the artefacts surrounding contemporary professionalized politics. For example, we all know that politicians’ statements are written by speechwriters based on the results of focus groups targeting specific voter demographics identified by pollsters and strategists. . But even as supporters know, accept, and even discuss in detail the calculations behind its construction, they suspend disbelief, cheer the conference speeches, and become emotionally invested in the sentiments they express. Invest. In other words, they keep kayfabe. Politics increasingly looks like this: In other words, voters maintain a knowing cynicism about the overall performance while acting as “believing supporters.”
What makes Trump special, then, is not that he embodies “wrestled” politics, but that his supporters, even though the fabrication is so blatant, , are willing to suspend their disbelief and support his campaign. If the best option our political system offers to understandably fed up voters is to “suspend disbelief” and “kai fei” in a political campaign they essentially see as simulated, We should not be shocked that many people choose something with an anti-establishment stance. and chaotic performance styles (each a product of pro wrestling pedigree). Sure, it might be a performance, but at least it’s entertaining.
