This weekend, tens of thousands of people will go to Las Vegas – and millions of others worldwide will connect to television – for the two -day show which is Wrestlemania: WWE brand, annual old decades for professional struggle.
Consider WrestleMania 41 of this year as the final of the season for a year of professional struggle: the bitter quarrels will take conclusions, the dreams will become reality and the new champions will be crowned.
There is a reason why Pro Wrestling remains among the most popular television programs, crossing the socioeconomic (and yes, political) divisions. The struggle can sometimes be a drop and downright offensive. But in its best, it is an art of narration featuring breaking and devastating victories on the evil which can send an entire arena in euphoria.
And for those looking for an overview of the inner psyche and the stylistic approach to President Donald Trump, there are few better things to monitor than the so-called showcase of the immortals of this weekend.
Trump has a deep link with the world of professional struggle – he is himself a WWE temple. Trump welcomed two Wrestlemanias first at the end of the 80s. He claimed to “buy” on Monday evening RAW, WWE flagship program in 2009.
And Trump and Vince McMahon – A real life friend of Trump who reigned on the landscape of the fight with an iron fist, until the scandal finally makes him leave the company – also had their “billionaire battle” in Wrestlemania 23. When Trump’s chosen fighter defeated McMahon, Trump obtained the right to shake the head of the ring.
His approach to politics is imbued with the staging of Pro Wrestling. He explains why Hulk Hogan appeared during the republican convention of last year and why the past appearances of the Trump GOP convention will seem indistinguishable from some of the big entrances to wrestlers this weekend in Las Vegas.
“When he ran for the first time for the first time, you can say that there was a lot of professional struggle involved there,” said Dave Meltzer, the pre -eminent American wrestling journalist. “And this (last), even more.”
But it goes much further than that. The basic professional struggle is designed to fight between good – “babyfaccies”, in the language of struggle – and the bad guys, or “heels”. And although the modern struggle is generally no longer as cut and dried, Trump works under the same thought, framing his efforts, his allies and his enemies in this sense.
One of the main Wrestlemania events of this year corresponds to red meat, Babyface All-American Cody Rhodes against John Cena, who has been the WWE hero for decades to turn against fans in the twilight of his career. This scenario follows so closely the archetype of good Yore’s avoidance that it is the kind of reservation (wrestling ingo to decide who wins and loses) “that Trump would do,” said Meltzer.
WWE has transformed Cena – which, after decades in the ring, transcended a legitimate Hollywood star – in a heel without ambiguity for what is presented as his farewell tour, he said, instead of a more morally complex character.
“The whole thing is the creation of enemies that are probably not even your enemies, and use it to bring people to rally behind you,” said Meltzer, alluding to the similarities between the professional struggle and the president’s political style. “” The reason why you are not where you want to be is because of these enemies, and I will fight these enemies for you. “”
Trump also embraces another central principle of the struggle: “Kayfabe”, which refers to the maintenance of the illusion that the professional struggle is real. Kayfabe is the agreement between fans and wrestlers that we all agree to accept this somewhere in the average reality for the good of the series. Fans of struggle know that everything is false – that The Undertaker is not in fact a deadly mortician with mystical powers, but a real human being who just had the Trump candidate as a guest on his podcast. But most of the pleasure of the struggle comes from the vague lines of real and makes believe.
Those of Washington may know Kayfabe by another name: take Trump seriously, but not literally.
“No one knows what is a bluff or not, and the world is at stake,” said Josephine Riesman, the author of the biography “Ringmaster: Vince McMahon and the Unemaking of America”, said about Trump. “There is the show because the world is at stake. But what has brought us, there is an information environment in which many points of sale have contributed to the merger of reality by Donald Trump.”
Trump lives and dies of Kayfabe, where the friend and the enemy never seem to know what is real and what is all for the show. (Just ask the Republicans to explain in a circle on each recent tariff movement.) Perhaps the only person to embody Kayfabe more fully is the fight against the impresario Vince McMahon himself.
McMahon and his wife Linda were important financial supporters of Trump’s political career – Linda McMahon was the first chief of the Trump’s small businesses and is now his education secretary. You do not have to fold your eyes too strong to see the similarities between the character on the screen of Vince McMahon – the Banfaron, valiant, bigger than life “M. McMahon ” – and in the way the president behaves.
Vince McMahon quickly realized how Trump’s skills could be used in the political arena. “Secondly against me, Donald could very well be a great president of the United States,” he told Trump’s enthronement at the WWE renown temple in 2013.
Was it a premonitory insight or simply Kayfabe in practice?
McMahon and Trump know that the real answer is not the point. The real show is to keep everyone guess.
This article appeared for the first time in Politico Nightly. Register To get the conversation of tomorrow in your reception box every day of the week.
