So, there’s this wrestling problem with the President. I don’t think he realizes that he isn’t playing for an audience that understands kayfabe anymore. Kayfabe being the pro wrestling term for the level of “fake” involved in the show that everyone including the fans gets. All of this has me thinking of a few pro wrestling stories that have come across my Netflix queue this week.
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Confession time. I grew up watching pro wrestling back when it wasn’t the multi billion dollar business that the McMahons have turned it into. In fact, they bought up and absorbed my favorite regional circuit from my childhood. Anyway, now that you know about my sordid past, let’s get on with the diary.
Donald Trump was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2013, which means that he has been involved in showmanship and fakery for a long time. They don’t just let anybody in.
But long before he stepped into the Oval Office, Trump was helping to shape the future of the squared circle. In fact, he had been making a consistent impact on WWE since the days when Andre the Giant was still king.
For those unfamiliar, Andre the Giant was the big guy in The Princess Bride. He was one of the greatest heels, wrestling for bad guy, that the world has ever seen. He was one of the secrets to raising the profile of Hulk Hogan back in the day. After all, there is no hero without a villain.
I’m sure most of you have heard about The Donald’s latest vile tweet. I only know that there was one and that it implied some violence towards CNN. There is something really ironic about a Fox News regular calling any news outlet a fraud, but there you go. He just keeps getting worse and finding new lows.
Like I said, this is merely the catalyst for the rest of the diary. I don’t wish to discuss *45 any more than I absolutely have to. Besides, this is Top Comments. I try to keep it light. On to the latest pro wrestler to aspire to heel-dom, “Progressive Liberal”, a heel you love to hate on the Apppalachian Mountain Wrestling circuit.
Yes, he wears a shirt with Hillary Clinton’s face all over it.
That's his wrestling persona — and his costume. And most weekends, Harnsberger dons it to work in semipro regional circuits as a stereotypical coastal elite who trolls in Donald Trump country. (He sometimes also wears a shirt that says "Not My President.")
He's wrestled for years — until recently, without the left-leaning political tilt — in conservative corners of Kentucky, Virginia and West Virginia. It's a grind. These are small gigs, often in high school gyms or on county fairgrounds.
I don’t even know what to make of this, although Daniel Harnsberger claims to actually be a Progressive Liberal. I am, to say the least, skeptical.
"I'm the progressive liberal in real life," he says, "so I think this would generate a reaction from fans, especially the places I was going."
And that's probably what makes Harnsberger such a good villain. A great heel, he says, is one who "believes what they're saying and feels justified in their actions."
So, there you have it. Heels are now claiming to be not just Democrats but Progressive Liberals. I guess we really are that hated in Red country. I’m not surprised nor shocked but I am a little bit horrified at the thought of injecting violence into the political arena.
Story #2 this week is about Hulk Hogan the aforementioned face of the World Wrestling Federation, later World Wrestling Entertainment after the World Wildlife Fund sued for trademark infringement. Hulk Hogan, nee Terry Bollea, was at the center of the lawsuit that bankrupted the website Gawker.
You may have heard the story. A sex tape of Hogan in which he used some “colorful” language denigrating African Americans. Gawker reported on the tape and Bollea sued for invasion of privacy, infringement of personality rights, and intentional infliction of emotional distress.
The whole thing turned on the difference between Bollea and his public persona. Curiously, Bollea had very little money at the time of his trial yet it was curiously well funded. It turns out that Silicon Valley billionaire Peter Thiel of PayPal was paying the legal bills.
This isn’t a huge deal in and of itself. Perhaps Thiel was just a fellow wrestling fan who adored Hulk Hogan and wanted his legacy preserved. Perhaps he was just making a curious philanthropic donation. But no, Thiel’s support was probably motivated by a desire to do what Trump himself has pledged, opening up the libel laws to make the press legally culpable for publishing anything that a rich person wants kept quiet.
And that is the danger of this lawsuit. After all, the press is the only profession explicitly mentioned in the Bill of Rights. If memory serves, it was right up front making it more important to the framers than the right to keep and bear arms. Or at least that’s the conclusion I draw from it.
And now on to the lighter side. Netflix recently released a new series called GLOW. For the uninitiated, that would be the Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling. Yes GLOW was a real thing and it was everything you might imagine from the name.
Everything about this show is awesome in my personal opinion. The show is brought to us by the creative team behind Orange is the New Black. And everything that I loved about OITB is there. The female characters are flawed and multi layered. They feel real in a way that pro wrestling can only hope to achieve.
A side note, Marc Maron plays a coked up director behind the show. I can’t help but feel that he is channeling the man he would be if he had kept doing the things he was actually busy doing in the 80’s.
The show does a great job of balancing the concept of putting on a good show with the real life struggles we all face.
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TOP COMMENTS
from your humble diarist:
from scyellowdogdem:
I nominate this comment by Rikon Snow because, although it states something that should be obvious, for some reason most people see a wealthy man and assume he must be brilliant and hardworking and a leader. I say "wealthy man" because I don't think the assumption extends to women. I think most people assume a wealthy woman got that way because of a man. Both assumptions are wrong and, in the case of the current Occupant of the White House, can be dangerous.
from Yasuragi:
kaleidoscope recalls a drive from Milwaukee to Louisiana during the summer the Civil Rights Bill was passed, and Goodman, Chaney, and Schwerner went missing.
leevank, a witness to the vote, adds this
And from purplehawk, an amazing memory of that time
navkid, besides its link to important history (I knew only sketchy details), navkid's comment is profoundly moving.
all 4 comments from Denise Oliver Velez’s FP post on the 1964 Civil Rights Act.
TOP MOJO
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