28 Comments
User's avatar
⭠ Return to thread
William Burke's avatar

We’re now analyzing American politics through the lens of professional wrestling theory. Jesus. 😵‍💫

Expand full comment
James M. Coyle's avatar

Trump is a conman turned showman, while remaining a conman. The utter fakery of professional wrestling is entirely consistent with Trump. There is no truth in him. The presence of the professional faker and their minions at the RNC is a visible sign of the complete collapse of the Republican Party into the MAGA cult.

Expand full comment
Maureen Osborne's avatar

My son (now 37) loved the WWF when he was 5 or 6. He had several action figures, including Hulk Hogan. I’m ashamed to say that my husband took him to a WWF spectacle once, and I asked him about the experience this morning after reading Heather’s newsletter. He said it seemed like performance and he thought it was harmless fun at the time, but we both sort of marveled at our parenting lapse in supporting this ridiculous entertainment. I mean Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles was one thing, but... Suffice to say, my son’s WWF period didn’t make it past first grade, which right about where it should have ended. Trump never really made it past that stage.

Expand full comment
James M. Coyle's avatar

Ha! I had a similar experience with my younger son (now 43). He became enraptured by WWF when we returned to the US after 7 years in Thailand. He was 12 at the time. I was appalled by it. I actively and vocally hated WWF. In retrospect, I think this might have been a form of adolescent rebellion. The sudden move was pretty traumatic for all of us. He grew out of it after a while and turned into a fine man.

Expand full comment
Dick Montagne's avatar

In the late 80’s, I think, I worked on a film starring Hulk Hogan that Vince McMahon produced with WWF money that he had a lot of. They used to talk about flying back to Connecticut in the private jet together after putting on one of their “shows”, drinking champagne and having a grand time, it was all a show, nothing about it was real, except when they stomped around the ring, they were looking for the softest places to land. The people who believed in it are the very same people who are the maggot base. They could fill arenas with 15 thousand people who all bought into it, no wonder the orange turd is so attracted to them. It was a very lucrative conn job that made a lot of people wealthy, like Terry aka Hulk Hogan, who was working as a bouncer in FL and beat up a WWF champion when he got out of line in the bar, that got their attention and soon he was Hulk Hogan, that’s how I remember it anyhow. We know exactly who the maggots are, they have been WWF fans for decades, and they want to run the country, WTF???

Expand full comment
Victoria E Graham's avatar

They must have paid the Hulk a nice chunk of change.

Expand full comment
Rickey Woody's avatar

Nowadays, remember, you cannot spell conservative with CON.

Expand full comment
Rex Page (Left Coast)'s avatar

I was astonished to learn that a theory of professional wrestling exists. Even more astonished to learn that it has gone through a classic stage and is now in a neoclassic era.

Expand full comment
William Burke's avatar

We thought we were in late stage capitalism, and it turned out that we were in late stage pro wrestling. Learn something new every day.

Expand full comment
Judith Felsten's avatar

Best laugh I've had in days!

Expand full comment
MisTBlu's avatar

Sadly brilliant.

Expand full comment
Susan's avatar

Thanks for the snortle

Expand full comment
JDinTX's avatar

I thought it was just crap, I still think that. The dregs to which humans can sink. On second thought. Does it have any “six degrees of separation” from the Met Gala…

Expand full comment
D4N's avatar

I can scarcely wait to see the next evolution of the 'art'.

Expand full comment
Joan Lederman's avatar

Hopefully, it'll include documented observations of animal behavior like a robin harassing a butterfly, a red hawk wrangling with a squirrel, or a woodchuck stealing a squash -- we need everyday actual and real. What's under that ear bandage?

Expand full comment
Rex Page (Left Coast)'s avatar

None of those are fake, so are irrelevant in this context.

Expand full comment
Miselle's avatar

I've posted this several places today. Apologies to anyone who might be upset with that. I am not a troll, really.

Tennessee Brando breaks it down for us:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HNNhrxnICZc&t=460s

Expand full comment
William Burke's avatar

Thank you for the link Miselle. I noted Tennessee Brando’s portrait of John Prine behind him on the wall. Any friend of Prine is a friend of mine. Thanks again.👍

Expand full comment
Emily Elliot's avatar

Me, too!

Expand full comment
Susan's avatar

Pro wrestling was exactly what I thought of after the “attempted assassination” when, instead of allowing the secret service to actually protect him and get him out of there, he raised his fist for the photo op.

Expand full comment
Ally House (Oregon)'s avatar

As I read about said professional wrestling theory, and learned of its name "kayfabe”, I was struck by (since I don't know the etiology of the word) it could be pronounced several ways: Kay-Fabe, Ka-FAB-ee, KA Fa Babe I noted that it kind of tripped off the tongue like "cofeve."

I'll get more coffee. Pro wrestling, at the moment, seems to be better than watching what our national political parties have become, which is a sorry state of affairs.

Expand full comment
Rex Page (Left Coast)'s avatar

Yeah, puzzled me, too. According to Google, it’s KAY-fabe, rhymes with HAY-babe. Merriam-Webster agrees on the pronunciation and says its origin is obscure. Might be related to piglatin for “fake”.

Expand full comment
John Bruner's avatar

The WWE/pro-wrestling connection to Trump is a worthy observation. I remember watching local pro wrestling on rainy Saturday afternoons in the early 1960's when there was nothing else to do or watch on TV. I always felt a bit guilty and dirty just warching. It certainly portrayed good guys, bad guys, and refs that could go either way as well. Trump has always elicited a similar sense of uneasy dirt and naughtyness. Now I see why -- kayfbe!

Expand full comment
Rex Page (Left Coast)'s avatar

For good guys v bad guys, you can’t beat Lone Ranger reruns. The best part is the opening, with the magnificent Silver on the gallop.

Expand full comment
Sabrina Hanan's avatar

People who participate in neokayfabe have found a socially permissable structure to express there sadism and psychopathology. Media should be calling Trump's emphasis on Hannibal Lecter for what it is. A shout out to sadists and psychopaths.

Expand full comment
Miselle's avatar

I watched this clip yesterday. Tennessee Brando knows it and nailed it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HNNhrxnICZc&t=460s

Expand full comment