(crossposted at The Old Eighteen)
UPDATED: CAelxanderJ has a diary up on this too. Oops! Consider this my take on the Barack-and-Wrestling Connection.
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World Wrestling Entertainment has announced that each of the three remaining presidential contenders will be appearing on WWE Raw tonight, which is airing a three-hour episode on the USA Network from Greenville, SC beginning at 8 pm EST. More below the fold...
The WWE has had an open challenge for the last couple of weeks inviting Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama to settle the nomination IN A STEEL CAGE!!!, but it's being reported that the two candidates, along with John McCain, will be appearing in taped messages that will air during the show. Frankly, I'm disappointed, as I was really hoping to see The Barack lay the smackdown on The Undertaker's Doink the Clown's Hillary's candy ass. This all appears to be legit, though the WWE is rumored to have been seeking lookalikes to play at least one of the candidates. Who knows what Vince will pull out of his sleeve? A while back the show had Rosie O'Donnell and Donald Trump lookalikes, so I guess we'll have to wait and see how this all pans out. One thing's for sure: Hillary's already turned heel, so we know that won't be happening tonight.
As an on-and-off wrestling fan, on one hand I think this is kind of cool - it could be entertaining, and could also help one or more of the candidates (I'm hoping Obama) win a few votes if everything goes well. But that's the caveat: there's always the risk when a candidate does one of these entertainment-type appearances that the bit will fall flat, especially if it's not handled well. And those of you who haven't watched the show before, as someone who has, I can say that the initial crowd reaction might be embarrassing depending on how negative it is. You probably remember Bush leaving the Washington Nationals' home opener red-faced several days ago; now imagine an arena full of people yelling out "ASSHOLE! ASSHOLE!" at one or more (all three?) of the candidates.
But there's also this red light going off inside my head, leaving me to wonder if we're crossing some sort of line here. This hasn't happened when the candidates have made appearances on other shows, like their appearances on the Colbert Report just a few nights ago. Maybe it's because the WWE, and pro wrestling in general, has always had this undercurrent of sleaze about it. Wrestlers are constantly dropping like flies, dying far earlier than they should be from drug overdoses, or (as in the well-publicized case of Chris Benoit) murder-suicides, or just from the wear and tear that their bodies take over the years. Drugs and steroids are always circulating among the boys in the locker room, and they have been joined in recent years by a growing number of women wrestlers who are generally there for tittilation more than athletic performance. Women are often objectified and portrayed in a demeaning light, and some of the "divas," as they are called, have ties to the porn industry either before or after (and in a few cases, even during) their wrestling careers. There could be a backlash against the candidates for wallowing around in this mess, and unflattering comparisons could be made by pundits between the (ahem) scripted world of professional wrestling and the world of American politics, which more than a few cynics have claimed is just as rigged as wrestling is.
I don't know what to expect or how this will all play out, but if nothing else it should be entertaining, even if it's entertaining in that straining-your-neck-to-see-the-car-crash way. For those of you who don't want to watch the whole show, I'm sure that the WWE will probably have something posted pretty quick to get some cheap publicity from the blogosphere, but if not there's always YouTube. And that's the bottom line, 'cause Big Tex said so!