I'm sure most of you, by now, have heard about the recent wave of sexual assault allegations in the professional wrestling industry; even though the UK independent scene got hit the hardest, some prominent US figures went down as well, and I wouldn't be surprised at all if more of them were exposed, given the seedy history of the business. So, my challenge here is, how could professional wrestling not only avoid being associated with the absolute worst of humanity, but end up as one of the cleanest, most progressive forms of entertainment out there?
AHC: Make professional wrestling stereotypically associated with the left wing and/or progressivism.
- Thread starter Neoteros
- Start date
Wow, you know how to pick a challenge.
The problem isn’t that the sport is particularly left or right leaning it’s just built around fighting for entertainment. And that is often a seedy industry. The only things I can think of is to have wrestling have some greater social or spiritual significance, a la the ancient Olympics, And tbh I am not so sure about that one. Historically the entertainment industry has a lot of potential to be dirty, so does the fighting industry. When you combine them, you are going to get at least some dirt.
The problem isn’t that the sport is particularly left or right leaning it’s just built around fighting for entertainment. And that is often a seedy industry. The only things I can think of is to have wrestling have some greater social or spiritual significance, a la the ancient Olympics, And tbh I am not so sure about that one. Historically the entertainment industry has a lot of potential to be dirty, so does the fighting industry. When you combine them, you are going to get at least some dirt.
Roller derby is another form of entertainment that combines rough athleticism and over the top theatrics (in the 1980s it was as scripted as professional wrestling, too) but it isn't neck deep in carny shit. I wonder if it has something to do with it being a female dominated endeavour.
The Benoit murder/suicide and the death of Guerrero did happen close to each other (in fact, it was Eddie's death that pushed Chris over the edge), and Owen Hart had died less than a decade earlier. The problem here, is Vince McMahon, he's what a certain US politician known for his orange complexion would be, if he were even just half as competent and intelligent as he thinks he is.
The only person in the business that I'm aware of, that's as wholesome as he is knowledgeable about the industry, is Mick Foley. Rob Van Dam too, but I doubt someone who's high as a kite 24/7 even in his middle age could even run a WWE-sized business.
That's an understatement. One possibility is to have the Plane ride from hell turn fatal and have the bodies analysed for drugs.
Grey Wolf
Donor
It seems strange to me that a sport should have any political association attached to it. I mean, I follow Formula 1 Grand Prix and I know people from left and right who do so. The idea that simply because it is a hugely expensive sport it should be seen as conservative, or that it is a globalised sport so might be seen as liberal, seems pretty nuts to me. The question, I suppose, would have to be - WHY does professional wrestling seem to be associated with the right wing? Is it that it lacks a grassroots version where youngsters from inner cities can get out of poverty by taking part? So it is purely a professional sport, where money and theatre dominate?
I’m a bit confused with what the OP mean by associated with left wing and in progressivism?
Does it mean that in a Communist regime somewhere, there’s pro wrestling where Austin/McMahon style employee vs. evil boss storylines is used as class struggle propaganda?
Does it mean that the stereotypical wrestling fans are “latte-sipping hollywood liberals”?
or does it mean that there’s better working conditions for wrestlers (employees instead of independent contractors, offseason, unionized etc.)?
Does it mean that in a Communist regime somewhere, there’s pro wrestling where Austin/McMahon style employee vs. evil boss storylines is used as class struggle propaganda?
Does it mean that the stereotypical wrestling fans are “latte-sipping hollywood liberals”?
or does it mean that there’s better working conditions for wrestlers (employees instead of independent contractors, offseason, unionized etc.)?
I once saw a documentary about Owen Hart, made after he died, and apparently toward the end he was playing up the Canadian aspects of his persona, and there was footage of him taunting an American audience about the superiority of Canadian health care.
Which is basically a left-wing position. Granted, I think he was being cast as a villain at that point, so presumably the audience was expected to disagree with what he was saying. But still, it's something a lot of Canadian fans would have cheered on.
Which is basically a left-wing position. Granted, I think he was being cast as a villain at that point, so presumably the audience was expected to disagree with what he was saying. But still, it's something a lot of Canadian fans would have cheered on.
Ideas:
Lucha Libre becomes huge, becomes popular with the Hispanic Youth community, and a top star becomes a big Bernie supporter.
I do think for this to succeed, WWE cannot exist.
There actually is a progressive fanbase now, I'd argue that NJPW and AEW fanbases are mostly progressive politically. It's a minority compared to the WWE fanbase, but collapse WWE while keeping AEW around and you probably get left-wing wrestling in the US.
Lucha Libre becomes huge, becomes popular with the Hispanic Youth community, and a top star becomes a big Bernie supporter.
I do think for this to succeed, WWE cannot exist.
There actually is a progressive fanbase now, I'd argue that NJPW and AEW fanbases are mostly progressive politically. It's a minority compared to the WWE fanbase, but collapse WWE while keeping AEW around and you probably get left-wing wrestling in the US.
Paul Vachon, a Canadian wrestler, ran for the NDP(Canada's SI-affiliated socialist party) three times in the 80s and 90s.
Roller derby was never the television success that Wresting was. My guess is that has more to do with it. The executives were still mostly male, and I would argue it is more the executives that set the tone.
I have to agree with those that are questioning the politicalization of the sport. My prof used to say “Correlation is not Causation”. WWE being a somewhat dirty organization, but that does not mean wrestling is inherently right, or left, wing.
Personally WWE/WWF is right wing because of the leanings of it's owner. Now older feds such as counter culture ECW or newer ones like AEW have been positively progressive in comparison.
Google youtube video when racist gimmicks got over by wrestling with Wregret it's very funny and informative both on the mindset of the majority if the industry and the wrestlers involved.
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Pro-wrestling historically has also labeled outsiders as heels and usually the faces were locals who responded to challenge over their masculinity or insults thrown against the public. Those faces were wrestlers hidden among the public, which is one of the first gimmick. Heels became foreigners and faces turned into patriots, so there is definitely an early history of nationalism.
One of the earliest foreign heels was a man named Tojo Yamamoto. He was born in Hawaii, however he was ethnically Japanese. In the 1960s and 70s, he would wrestle in the southern United States and attendees would boo because of his identity and look (Boaz incident). Around the same time, there was a wrestler who went by the name of The Sheik, purported to be a Muslim man from Syria. In addition to serving as a pioneer of the still-prevalent “hardcore” wrestling style, Fans’ reaction to villains like The Sheik and others such as the villainous manager Skandor Akbar was less in reaction to a current event and perhaps more caused by our fear of the unknown.
The Cold War produced an endless run of “Soviet” baddies across virtually every territory, all reveling in the lustful boos of an American audience conditioned to despise the U.S.S.R. Likewise, the Iranian hostage crisis and subsequent hostilities gave rise to one of the genre’s most infamous heels, Iron Sheik. We live in a much different world in the 2000s than we did in the 1980s.’
Interestingly, both of Mexico’s top promotions, AAA and CMLL, built main-event angles around American wrestlers with jingoistic personas. Though it turns a classic American wrestling trope on its head, it’s a throwback to an old formula for foreign wrestling promotions. The most basic, and oftentimes cheapest way to garner heat comes from pairing a foreign stereotype heel against a domestic babyface.
The Japanese wrestling scene rose from the popularity of Rikidozan, who achieved legendary status vanquishing American foes less than a decade after atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Rikidozan’s conquests set the template for a common storytelling arc in Japan that persists even today: that of the monster gaijin. Tall, hulking Americans like Bruiser Brody, Stan Hansen, Big Van Vader, Bam Bam Bigelow and, yes, Hulk Hogan, functioned in Japan the same way “Russians” Ivan and Nikita Koloff, or “German” villains a generation earlier.
In USA, the longstanding connection between pro wrestling and the GOP is interesting. Many of pro-wrestlers seem to support less government intrusion, private-sector initiatives, more individual rights and freedoms, and strong free-speech protections. It’s perhaps because pro-wrestling is one of the most free-market-oriented industries in the world. Profit-generating pro-wrestling organizations like the WWE, the NWA, Impact Wrestling and Ring of Honor aren’t unionized and sadly have no plans to be. Pro wrestlers work as independent freelance contractors, although they can be signed to multiyear deals.
For some wrestlers, that status is legitimate. In the territorial area, wrestlers could move around as they saw fit, just as modern unsigned independent wrestlers can. Looking into pro wrestling’s past, there have certainly been calls and times when a union would’ve been much needed. Starting in the late 1940’s, when the National Wrestling Alliance had a subsequent monopoly on pro wrestling here in the United States. Colluding to control wages, stifle competition, and crush any resistant wrestlers, the NWA survived a federal antitrust investigation to dominate pro wrestling well into the seventies.
Pro-wrestlers either had to play by the NWA’s rules or be banished to the so called “outlaw” promotions or from the business altogether. When Verne Gagne’s AWA and Vince McMahon Sr’s WWWF broke away from the NWA’s stranglehold, it gave wrestlers more opportunities. The territorial days in the 70’s and early 80’s allowed wrestlers to jump from one promotion to the next without getting old and stale. They were considered by bookers and promoters as “independent contractors,” because in truth…they really were. They worked territory to territory making as much money as they could without really committing to one particular area.
Still, there have been attempts at unions in pro wrestling in the past, most of which went nowhere. Pro-wrestling union has been long talked about since the dawn of the business. The main individual who spearheaded the movement in USA was none other than Jesse ‘the Body’ Ventura. Jesse Ventura saw a huge opportunity for the roster to take a stand, get organized, form a union and get their piece of the WWF’s pie. One night after a television taping, Ventura waited for the right time to propose his plan. WWF management were away in booking meetings and Ventura gathered all of the available wrestlers in the locker room and went to work.
He told the wrestlers about the WWF considering all of its wrestlers as independent contractors, yet were not allowed to make money elsewhere. They were exclusive property of the WWF, despite being called independent. There was no 401K, no retirement plans and no health insurance. It all didn’t measure up to Ventura. Wrestlers like Bret Hart and Rowdy Roddy Piper seemed in favor of unionization. Someone, allegedly Hulk Hogan, had apparently gone to Vince the next day and ratted Ventura out. It subsequently scared off everybody who may have been remotely interested in unionization for fear of losing their job.
WWE accentuated it tremendously and turned pro-wrestling into politics. Vince Mcmahon is a conservative and he's the most important figure in wrestling so yeah I would say WWE as a whole leans right, not to mention his wife is in Trump's cabinet and worked in WWE for most of her career. People will probably knee jerk and say "of course not wrestling has people with all sorts of varying political opinions" but I think mainstream american wrestling has definitely leaned right thanks to WWE.
In my opinion, you need to avoid the takeover of pro-wrestling by Vince McMahon Sr and to allow the unionization of pro-wrestling. Another possibility is to have NWA not avoid a federal antitrust investigation. A higher number of promotions and a public revelation of NWA illegal practices towards wrestlers could push for unionization in smaller promotions.
Mainstream pro-wrestling is WWE. WWE is right wing because of the leanings of it's owner. Avoiding takeover of pro-wrestling by WWE would then diminish the influence of GOP and politics in the business. It could help unionization without a monopolizing behemoth. Allowing unionization would perhaps be a good way to attract rookie pro-wrestlers who are neither libertarians nor republicans. It would also silence or neutralize right-wing owners/storytellers.
In Mexico, one of the biggest pro-wrestling strike occurred due to television rights in CMLL promotion during the 1990’s. The union was concerned that wrestling on TV would keep fans from attending live shows occurring simultaneously, and also that the TV stars would monopolize bookings with smaller promoters, leading to less bookings for local favorites. It happened late, because pro-wrestling had been banned from television in Mexico City since the 1950's because of a perceived negative influence on children. It could happen earlier in USA and also lead to unionization in bigger televised promotions.
Of course, you won’t avoid the use of foreign heels gimmicks, especially during the Cold War or in case of foreign crises. It should only be noted that WCW had less foreign heels than WWE during the same period. WCW had some good and interesting progressive storylines without relying too often on stereotypes. I can imagine them pushing in this direction nowadays, if they avoided being bought by WWE (and kept Eric Bischoff in command).
One of the earliest foreign heels was a man named Tojo Yamamoto. He was born in Hawaii, however he was ethnically Japanese. In the 1960s and 70s, he would wrestle in the southern United States and attendees would boo because of his identity and look (Boaz incident). Around the same time, there was a wrestler who went by the name of The Sheik, purported to be a Muslim man from Syria. In addition to serving as a pioneer of the still-prevalent “hardcore” wrestling style, Fans’ reaction to villains like The Sheik and others such as the villainous manager Skandor Akbar was less in reaction to a current event and perhaps more caused by our fear of the unknown.
The Cold War produced an endless run of “Soviet” baddies across virtually every territory, all reveling in the lustful boos of an American audience conditioned to despise the U.S.S.R. Likewise, the Iranian hostage crisis and subsequent hostilities gave rise to one of the genre’s most infamous heels, Iron Sheik. We live in a much different world in the 2000s than we did in the 1980s.’
Interestingly, both of Mexico’s top promotions, AAA and CMLL, built main-event angles around American wrestlers with jingoistic personas. Though it turns a classic American wrestling trope on its head, it’s a throwback to an old formula for foreign wrestling promotions. The most basic, and oftentimes cheapest way to garner heat comes from pairing a foreign stereotype heel against a domestic babyface.
The Japanese wrestling scene rose from the popularity of Rikidozan, who achieved legendary status vanquishing American foes less than a decade after atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Rikidozan’s conquests set the template for a common storytelling arc in Japan that persists even today: that of the monster gaijin. Tall, hulking Americans like Bruiser Brody, Stan Hansen, Big Van Vader, Bam Bam Bigelow and, yes, Hulk Hogan, functioned in Japan the same way “Russians” Ivan and Nikita Koloff, or “German” villains a generation earlier.
In USA, the longstanding connection between pro wrestling and the GOP is interesting. Many of pro-wrestlers seem to support less government intrusion, private-sector initiatives, more individual rights and freedoms, and strong free-speech protections. It’s perhaps because pro-wrestling is one of the most free-market-oriented industries in the world. Profit-generating pro-wrestling organizations like the WWE, the NWA, Impact Wrestling and Ring of Honor aren’t unionized and sadly have no plans to be. Pro wrestlers work as independent freelance contractors, although they can be signed to multiyear deals.
For some wrestlers, that status is legitimate. In the territorial area, wrestlers could move around as they saw fit, just as modern unsigned independent wrestlers can. Looking into pro wrestling’s past, there have certainly been calls and times when a union would’ve been much needed. Starting in the late 1940’s, when the National Wrestling Alliance had a subsequent monopoly on pro wrestling here in the United States. Colluding to control wages, stifle competition, and crush any resistant wrestlers, the NWA survived a federal antitrust investigation to dominate pro wrestling well into the seventies.
Pro-wrestlers either had to play by the NWA’s rules or be banished to the so called “outlaw” promotions or from the business altogether. When Verne Gagne’s AWA and Vince McMahon Sr’s WWWF broke away from the NWA’s stranglehold, it gave wrestlers more opportunities. The territorial days in the 70’s and early 80’s allowed wrestlers to jump from one promotion to the next without getting old and stale. They were considered by bookers and promoters as “independent contractors,” because in truth…they really were. They worked territory to territory making as much money as they could without really committing to one particular area.
Still, there have been attempts at unions in pro wrestling in the past, most of which went nowhere. Pro-wrestling union has been long talked about since the dawn of the business. The main individual who spearheaded the movement in USA was none other than Jesse ‘the Body’ Ventura. Jesse Ventura saw a huge opportunity for the roster to take a stand, get organized, form a union and get their piece of the WWF’s pie. One night after a television taping, Ventura waited for the right time to propose his plan. WWF management were away in booking meetings and Ventura gathered all of the available wrestlers in the locker room and went to work.
He told the wrestlers about the WWF considering all of its wrestlers as independent contractors, yet were not allowed to make money elsewhere. They were exclusive property of the WWF, despite being called independent. There was no 401K, no retirement plans and no health insurance. It all didn’t measure up to Ventura. Wrestlers like Bret Hart and Rowdy Roddy Piper seemed in favor of unionization. Someone, allegedly Hulk Hogan, had apparently gone to Vince the next day and ratted Ventura out. It subsequently scared off everybody who may have been remotely interested in unionization for fear of losing their job.
WWE accentuated it tremendously and turned pro-wrestling into politics. Vince Mcmahon is a conservative and he's the most important figure in wrestling so yeah I would say WWE as a whole leans right, not to mention his wife is in Trump's cabinet and worked in WWE for most of her career. People will probably knee jerk and say "of course not wrestling has people with all sorts of varying political opinions" but I think mainstream american wrestling has definitely leaned right thanks to WWE.
In my opinion, you need to avoid the takeover of pro-wrestling by Vince McMahon Sr and to allow the unionization of pro-wrestling. Another possibility is to have NWA not avoid a federal antitrust investigation. A higher number of promotions and a public revelation of NWA illegal practices towards wrestlers could push for unionization in smaller promotions.
Mainstream pro-wrestling is WWE. WWE is right wing because of the leanings of it's owner. Avoiding takeover of pro-wrestling by WWE would then diminish the influence of GOP and politics in the business. It could help unionization without a monopolizing behemoth. Allowing unionization would perhaps be a good way to attract rookie pro-wrestlers who are neither libertarians nor republicans. It would also silence or neutralize right-wing owners/storytellers.
In Mexico, one of the biggest pro-wrestling strike occurred due to television rights in CMLL promotion during the 1990’s. The union was concerned that wrestling on TV would keep fans from attending live shows occurring simultaneously, and also that the TV stars would monopolize bookings with smaller promoters, leading to less bookings for local favorites. It happened late, because pro-wrestling had been banned from television in Mexico City since the 1950's because of a perceived negative influence on children. It could happen earlier in USA and also lead to unionization in bigger televised promotions.
Of course, you won’t avoid the use of foreign heels gimmicks, especially during the Cold War or in case of foreign crises. It should only be noted that WCW had less foreign heels than WWE during the same period. WCW had some good and interesting progressive storylines without relying too often on stereotypes. I can imagine them pushing in this direction nowadays, if they avoided being bought by WWE (and kept Eric Bischoff in command).
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To answer this question without spilling over into current politics is pretty hard.
But then again, if you find a way for black wrestlers to succeed without being limited to using stereotypical characters and gimmicks that might be a step forward.
But then again, if you find a way for black wrestlers to succeed without being limited to using stereotypical characters and gimmicks that might be a step forward.
It's amusing how the WWF wrestlers most in favour of unionization were two Canadians, and someone hailing from a US state well known for its labour history.
I wonder, if the Canadian promotions had defected from the NWA early on, just like the Mexican and Japanese ones did, maybe...
Junkyard Dog was one hell of a draw back in his day, maybe he could stay South rather than join the WWF, clean himself up, and get an Eddie Guerrero redemption run several decades early?
I don't think wrestling being politically progressive would necessarily mean a lack of sexual misconduct. Just look at Hollywood.
I think if pro wrestlers unionize at some point and become very vocal about it that could do it. However, it would be hard to make anything in the entertainment industry super associated with left-wing politics, speaking as someone in the industry, because we’re held hostage by donors, who are usually older and disgustingly rich. Individual people in the industry are often pretty leftist but we can’t publicly express that because we can get fired for it.
Castrate the progressive movement, make the US left socialist/labourite.
Mckinley lives and a more conservative democrat wins in 1912. Huey Long with Norman Thomas as VP wins in 1932.
Mckinley lives and a more conservative democrat wins in 1912. Huey Long with Norman Thomas as VP wins in 1932.