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PEOPLE&ARTS Tuesday 4 July 2017
Smackdown! Trump’s insult act comes from pro wrestling hype

By JAKE PEARSON In wrestling, writers create
Associated Press season-long dramas that
NEW YORK (AP) — Mak- turn the mat into a stage
ing bombastic boasts. for fantasy. Narratives pit
Dropping signature catch good against evil, stron-
phrases. Attaching insults ger personalities win over
to rivals’ names. Shouting more subdued ones, and
down perceived enemies. announcers legitimize the
If President Donald Trump’s at-any-costs tactics of the
recent attacks on televi- “heels.”
sion personalities, journalists When Trump publicly sup-
and political rivals feel like ports Russia’s Vladimir Pu-
something straight out of tin, depicted by the U.S. in-
the pro wrestling circuit, it telligence services as a sort
may not be a coincidence. of global “heel,” he is ef-
Wrestling aficionados say fectively playing the role of
the president, who has a the announcer who builds
long history with the game, up the bad boy in the ring,
has borrowed the time-test- justifying his alpha-dog be-
ed tactics of the squared havior, Madigan said.
circle to cultivate the ulti- And when Trump assigns
mate antihero character, a In this Sunday, April 1, 2007, file photo, WWE Chairman Vince McMahon, center, held by “Stone prefixes to his political ri-
figure who wins at all costs, Cold” Steve Austin, prepares to have his hair cut off by Donald Trump, left, and Bobby Lashley, vals’ names (think “low I.Q.
incites outrage and follows right, after Lashley defeated Umaga at Wrestlemania 23 at Ford Field in Detroit. Crazy Mika” Brzezinski or
nobody’s rules but his own. Associated Press “Crooked Hillary” Clinton)
“In our terminology, he’s taunting sessions. and on and the baby face professor at Florida State he is effectively emulating
playing it to the hilt,” said In subsequent months of quips a response right back College in Jacksonville the longtime wrestling an-
former World Wrestling En- Trump’s tweets and pub- and the audience goes who has written about pro nouncer Bobby “The Brain”
tertainment writer Dan Ma- lic feuds, it became clear crazy.” wrestling, said Trump is most Hennan, who cheered on
digan. to Madigan and other for- Perhaps Trump comes by it clearly portrayed in the ring “heels” over rule-following
On Sunday, Trump’s ap- mer WWE writers that, con- naturally. He hosted back- by the industry’s current “baby face” wrestlers he
parent fondness for wres- sciously or not, Trump was to-back WrestleMania bad-boy-turned-hero: CM disparaged.
tling emerged in a tweeted channeling professional events in his Atlantic City, Punk, a brash 38-year-old “The hero is boring. He
mock video that shows wrestling in his politics. New Jersey, Trump Plaza in wrestler whom writers have does the same vanilla
him pummeling a man in “The parallels are uncan- 1988 and 1989. And then, dubbed the “Voice of the thing,” Madigan said. “You
a business suit — his face ny,” said Domenic Cotter, most famously, there was Voiceless.” always watch what the
obscured by the CNN a producer who in the mid- a mock “Battle of the Bil- CM Punk’s character of- bad guy says and does.”q
logo — outside a wres- 2000s cut backstage seg- lionaires” in 2007 when he ten says he will say things
tling ring. It was not clear ments for WWE. body-slammed and then no one else dares to say, Like us on
who produced the brief Depending on your po- shaved the head of WWE and wrestling writers have
video, which appeared to litical affiliation, the writers boss Vince McMahon. created a new narrative Facebook
be a doctored version of said, Trump is playing one Most recently, he picked for him that’s almost tailor-
Trump’s 2007 appearance of two classic wrestling McMahon’s wife, Linda, made for the current politi-
on World Wrestling Enter- characters: The “heel,” or who ran twice unsuccess- cal environment of leaked
tainment Inc. But it was ultimate bad guy, who wins fully for the U.S. Senate in emails and unauthorized
tweeted from the presi- at all costs; or the modern- Connecticut, to head the dossiers: revealing the se-
dent’s official Twitter ac- day wrestling protagonist, Small Business Administra- crets of what happens
count. dubbed a “face” or “baby tion. backstage.
Madigan was first struck face,” in wrestling par- Ranjan Chhibber, a hu- “This is pro-wrestling writing
by the parallels last sum- lance. manities and film studies genius,” Chhibber said. facebook.com/bondianoticia
mer when Trump was in- “I think of Donald Trump as
troduced at the Republi- the ultimate baby face,”
can National Convention. Cotter said, “almost in the
There was a backlit Trump, ilk of ‘Stone Cold’ Steve Actress and internet star
unveiled in stark silhouette, Austin, who was this rage-
who then sauntered onto against-the-machine, anti-
stage at the Quicken Loans authority and establish- Stevie Ryan dead at 33
Arena in Cleveland, just like ment figure.”
wrestling’s most infamous Cotter saw Trump employ
antihero, The Undertaker. a classic pro wrestling tac- LOS ANGELES (AP) — Stevie the agency performed an
“His demeanor, duration tic during his first news con- Ryan, an actress and co- autopsy.
of his walk to the podium, ference as president-elect, median who gained fame Ryan had gained fame
his playing to the crowd. when he ordered CNN re- with impersonations of ce- on YouTube with imper-
... Pure Undertaker,” Madi- porter Jim Acosta to be lebrities on YouTube, has sonations of celebrities, in-
gan said. quiet and barked, “You are died. cluding Justin Bieber, Kim
And Trump’s tiger-like pac- fake news!” She was 33. Kardashian and Amy Wine-
ing on stage behind Hillary “In wrestling terminology, Los Angeles County coro- house.
Clinton during the second he cut a promo on that ner’s spokesman Ed Winter She also had a sketch com- In this July 31, 2013 file photo
presidential debate last CNN reporter and got over says Ryan died Saturday at edy show on VH1, “Stevie Stevie Ryan arrives at the
fall in St. Louis? That’s how him, basically,” Cotter said. her home in Los Angeles. TV,” and co-hosted a rela- Do Something Awards at the
wrestlers stalk their oppo- “In wrestling, some swarmy He says her death has tionship talk show with Bro- Avalon in Los Angeles.
nents during pre-match heel is going on and on been ruled a suicide after dy Jenner.q Associated Press