As of this writing, former Vice President Joe Biden is the projected winner in the US Presidential election, defeating incumbent Donald Trump by securing over 270 Electoral College votes to win.
Trump becomes the first sitting president in 28 years to lose reelection and Biden, who at 30 was once the youngest senator elected, will now be the oldest president-elect to ever take office. And oh yes, Kamala Harris becomes the first black female vice president ever.
But despite the win by Biden, a massive improvement from Hillary Clinton’s performance in 2016, Trump actually won more votes this year than he did four years ago, outperforming himself by around 4 million votes. The Republicans actually did better than he did in the legislative results, even as Trump expanded his own base.
Why am I talking about American politics in a wrestling blog? Let’s not forget, Donald Trump is still a member of the WWE Hall of Fame. Most of us remember his celebrity stemming from The Apprentice, but he also made several appearances over the course of WWE history.
“The Donald’s” entire four year presidency has been run like the storyline he had with Vince McMahon during the mid 2000s, but with even more ferocity and with real life consequences. But considering this wasn’t the landslide loss we all anticipated, does this mean the staying power of celebrity politics is here to stay?
Trump is not a wrestler himself, but he knew how to play his ‘audience’ the way wrestlers play the reactions of the fans. Almost all of Trump’s actions as president has resulted in overreactions at times by liberals and progressives, triggering them the same way wrestling marks get triggered by story lines…or bad booking.
So as we watch one of the most real life “wrestling storylines” come to a close, we should consider going forward how much politics is driven not so much by policy, which piques the interests of wonks and media talking heads, but by personality. Say what you will about Trump’s abhorrent personality, 70 million or more people voted for that personality.
Can you wonder what will happen if Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson actually does pull the trigger on a 2024 presidential bid? Unlike Trump, The Rock is almost universally liked, despite his endorsement of the Biden / Harris ticket, and one of the most famous people on this planet. He may actually be able to remake whichever party he would run for…and we see that happening with the Republicans under Trump.
Maybe we will see more wrestling culture permeate politics at a more local level in the future. We already have a Glenn “Kane” Jacobs as a mayor in Tennessee, Matt Morgan as an elected official in Florida and other wrestlers having run for public office. It’s not so far fetched anymore.
Recently Cody Rhodes, the current AEW Executive Vice President, become very specific about his future plans after the squared circle.
The Rhodes family has a long history in Georgia, and Cody’s own behaviour has shown, without mentioning politics, that he is more of an inclusive and open person. You combine that level of normalcy and celebrity, and I definitely can see Cody becoming Georgia’s Senator in a few years.
Like it or not, wrestling culture’s infiltration into the mainstream body politic, is here to stay.
An average professional doing the 9-5 grind who really loves wrestling across all platforms. Here's hoping wrestlers finally get some basic workers rights in 2021.
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