Less than a decade before getting square with Hillary Clinton in three presidential debates and 18 years before sitting in the oval office for the second time, Donald Trump watched Vince McMahon cynically and the possibility of losing his hair.
President Trump put his sad locks at stake in a professional fighting scenario against the owner of the world’s entertainment of the time, called “ Battle of the Billionaires ”, in Wrestlemania 23 in 2007.
The plan was set in motion inside the square circle, because McMahon did not like any other rich person, in particular a foreigner, attracting positive attention in his ring. A segment with false versions of Trump and Rosie O’Donnell recreating their real quarrel inside a WWE ring was the unpretentious catalyst for the Trump-McMahon shock.
The melee of sports entertainment with high issues came with some rare quirks – neither of the two men really fought, with the title holder Ecw Bobby Lashley representing Trump and Umaga, who did not lose a match during his first nine months at WWE, trying to keep the fibers of McMahon intact.
What happened with months of accumulation, only 13 minutes on the bell with a bell, and what followed changed the professional struggle forever.
More therefore, it was an entertaining moment of camp which taught Trump the power of the live drama live: a lesson that surely helped electrify its presidential races.
Donald Trump celebrates his victory over Vince McMahon at Wrestlemania 23 in 2007
Trump put his sad locks on the line but prevailed against McMahon in the Battle of the Billionaires ” of Wrestlemania “
“They just wanted to make this thing as large as possible. When Trump has passed, the first thing he said: “It’s the world of your guys. So I’m not trying to intervene, but let me know what I can do to enlarge this thing” ” Lashley said Chris Van Vliet Last year of the match. “And (Trump) was like:” Everything I have to do, if I need to make people to bring people to enter if I need it, if we have to use (Trump) Tower, just tell me what I have to do to be able to do this. “”
“It is therefore where it comes from. And we said to ourselves: “Very good, cool.” Because we thought most of the time people come in struggle, they say to themselves: “Oh, I want this big place where I bang everyone and be beating everyone.” And so we like a little where we make them look like stars, some people hate in the struggle sector, others are like: “Oh, let’s be just fun with that.”
With McMahon and Trump selling their quarrel, while focusing only on the amount of money they could have each other when the cameras were disabled, they had to choose two wrestlers who could sell the drama of the future American president becoming Mr. Clean in front of more than 70,000 fans watching in Ford Field of Detroit, and millions more in the world.
At least three other clashes would have been considered the part in the ring of Trump-McMahon before landing on Lashley and Umaga. In all the scenarios, Trump played the hero, McMahon being the villain.
The first was Shawn Michaels, representing Trump, like an additional coast for McMahon, whom he beat in Wrestlemania of the previous year, against King Booker, the naughty royal version of Booker T, who would fight on behalf of his boss. A creative distance due to other talent injuries has bothered this possibility.
There was also Kane, whose real name is Glenn Jacobs, and is currently the republican mayor of the county of Knox, Tennessee, supporting Trump, taking a 7 -foot monster 1 inch the big khali.
This match occurred on the show, just in different circumstances, with winning Khali. This result would have been reversed if it was linked to the billionaires, probably with Kane performing a body slam on Khali to recreate the epic moment of Wrestlemania III between Hulk Hogan and Andre the Géant.
Then it was the most lucrative idea reported, with Hogan, representing Trump in the ring, who slammed another giant several years before supporting him politically, against the Big Show, which was billed to weigh more than 500 pounds during certain parts of his WWE race.
The pair seemed to have a close friendship and was frequent collaborators
McMahon in the match was Umaga, which was managed by Armando Estrada
McMahon’s largest wrestling rival, Stone Cold Steve Austin, was the referee of the match
The participation of the fight on behalf of Trump in Detroit was then the champion of the ECW, Bobby Lashley
None of the wrestlers appeared on the map, the match occurring in front of a much smarter crowd, not under the banner of WWE, less than a month after Wrestlemania 23.
Lashley and Umaga were not to be outdone, the first being a world champion on several occasions and a current champion of the elite struggle, and the second being one of the destructive forces of WWE in the 2000s before his tragic death in 2009.
Another twist was McMahon’s largest rival in the ring of all time, and the most popular wrestler in history, Stone Cold Steve Austin, becoming the special guest referee of the match.
It is not known if McMahon has never launched Trump losing the match, because the result was not called on the fly. It would have been quite a conversation to be a fly on the wall because it never happened.
This raises the question, if the whole world understood that McMahon presented the idea knowing that he was going to be shaved, beyond earning money, why choose Trump to be involved at least as he also works for the unconditional fans of the company?
“Like him or hate him as he does, but he is charismatic in many ways,” said McMahon’s real son-in-law and current WWE content, Paul ‘Triple H’ Levesque on “ flagrant ” this month. “And I think he likes to put himself under the skin of people. It’s incredible and it is a genius and it worked in our company.
“Do I think he got this from our business?” I think he understands him innate. It was his whole life. You think of that, like there are many billionaires around the world, I suppose. Why was he the most famous? Why was he the one who was in people magazine every week?
“And with everyone under the sun, why was he considered the quintessence of this billionaire status and all that, because of his charisma and his character and who he is, and the way he can talk about it and do all these things, he captivates people and I think that is there.”
What happened and the edge of the ring and between the strings was a frantic match, notably Shane McMahon, speaking and trying to keep his father’s hair intact before the Lashley lance poses Umaga for the fall.
After the match, Trump, Lashley and Austin shaved McMahon Chauve in the middle of the ring
The mega-initial has highlighted the Wrestlemania 23 card which had 1.2 million purchases
Even without being the main fighters in the ring, Trump and McMahon were physical in Wrestlemania, with the commander -in -chief of the McMahon laundry rope on the ground and hitting him several times in the head.
This moment came to the foreground in 2017, while Trump, during his first mandate in the Oval Office, published a video on his social networks of the moment, with the CNN logo imposed on the head of McMahon.
“I think everyone wanted to do something in this match and be part of this match. So I don’t know who told him to do it ”, Trump’s clothesline told Chris Van Vliet. “I don’t know when they told him.
“But leading to this match, it was not supposed to be an altercation, but I suppose they may have spoken, or someone talked, and they understood, okay,” we will do a small clothesline, because it could be easy, and jump on top and punch. “I don’t know where it comes from, but that’s what they decided to do.
After the hands of Lashley and Trump were lifted in victory, McMahon was shaved with Austin with a few shears.
While a discouraged McMahon left the camera, Austin, Lashley and Trump, with shaving cream covering his expensive costume, celebrated with drinking beers in the ring before the unpredictable finish of the segment.
Austin gave the future president of his signature “ cold sturding ” leaving Trump lying in the ring while the Texas Rattlesnake has done its release, a clip which is still published on the WWE website to date.
Unlike Hogan and the Undertaker in support of Trump in the political world, and Dave Batista rallying against the president, Austin has not publicly declared his real political convictions since the start of the 2016 electoral cycle.
In 2017, Trump posted an image of the match on social networks with a CNN logo on McMahon
Sometimes during their quarrel, Trump and McMahon were physically involved in the ring
It was far from the only time there was a Trump-McMahon collaboration, especially today with the wife of Vince, Linda McMahon, as the president secretary of the president.
Trump Plaza Hotel in Atlantic City, New Jersey, also welcomed the IV and V of Wrestlemania in 1989 and 1990. Trump also had a seat by the ring in Wrestlemania VII.
McMahon also appeared with Trump on `The Celebrity Apprentice ‘less than a year after` `Battle of the Billionaires”, and with his hair reprir, the future president calling the former WWE CEO` `the biggest promoter he has ever known. ”
During the episode, McMahon can look at the legends of the combat sports Tito Ortiz and Lennox Lewis, who were candidates for the Trump NBC reality competition, in case they were interested in a professional re -evaluation cameo.
The requests for WWE and AEW interview to speak with their respective talents involved in the match were not returned to the Daily Mail.
Vinces has been exiled from WWE twice now, Vinces of sexual misconduct, which he denies, the federal investigation ending at the start of Trump’s second term.
Trump has been in the oval office for a second time since 90 days when Wrestlemania 41 begins on Saturday, currently in the midst of several political fights, including a Maryland man who was accidentally sent to a prison in Salvador.
No one could have predicted how their lives would have happened after the Battle of the Billionaires ”, everything on which he was concentrated in 2007 was the biggest buzz possible. Ironically, little has changed.
