To Understand the Trump Voter, Understand the WWE
By: Andrew Cheng
Tags: Politics, Culture, WWE, Trump, Election 2020

To the 80 million Americans who voted for Joe Biden in the 2020 Presidential Election, Donald Trump’s supporters might as well have come from an alternate universe.

To the uninitiated, the world of professional wrestling can also feel like a parallel dimension. World Wrestling Entertainment chairman Vince McMahon shamelessly calls his fanbase the WWE Universe™. The monicker is actually quite apt. Social norms do not apply here. It’s a place where employees regularly flip off their bosses, and violence is the primary (and only encouraged) method of conflict resolution.

Mr. McMahon’s and Mr. Trump’s universes may have more in common than one may think. According to Professor William P. Stodden of the North Dakota State College of Science, both politics and pro wrestling revolve around Kayfabe.

Political Kayfabe

Kayfabe is the art of making staged performances come across as genuine or authentic. Wrestlers present themselves as heels (villains) or babyfaces (heroes), thus giving the audience someone to root for (and against) during a match. Similarly, politicians would construct heightened social realities to incite and galvanize their electorate. Bernie Sanders riles against income inequality. George W. Bush champions the war on terror. If a candidate takes the side of something you care about, s/he becomes your christened babyface. The opposing candidate, by default, becomes your heel. The election season morphs into a grand spectacle, filled with all the hype and drama of a WWE grudge match. The politicians may be putting on an act, but the stakes can feel all too real.

As a long-time associate of Vince McMahon, Donald Trump is well-versed in the art of Kayfabe, perhaps more so than anybody else on Capitol Hill. His campaigns are divisive, if not outright polarizing. But everyone knows where Mr. Trump stands. He is for tax breaks, isolationism, small government, and coal mining. He’s against illegal immigrants, government regulations, political correctness, and China.

Politicians construct heightened social realities to incite and galvanize their electorate.

But Donald Trump isn’t just skilled at Kayfabe; he’s as much a master of it as “Rowdy” Roddy Piper, “Stone Cold” Steve Austin, and Dwyane “the Rock” Johnson.

The case of the Rock — it’s good to be bad.

Disclaimer: The following pertains only to Dwayne Johnson’s wrestling persona and has no bearing on the man himself.

OWN. “What Dwayne Johnson Learned After Being Booed by 20,000 Wrestling Fans | Oprah’s Master Class” YouTube, 12 Nov. 2015, https://youtu.be/bO7FQsCcbD8.

In 1996, Dwayne Johnson (going by the stage name Rocky Maivia) broke into wrestling as the (then) WWF’s next top hero. He smiled everywhere he went. He slapped the hands of all the little children he passed along the entrance ramp. But the fans hated him, at least this pure-bred babyface incarnation of him. So Johnson reinvented himself as the Rock, a boisterous narcissist who’d brag about everything from his leopard-print jackets to the angle of his right eyebrow.

Surprisingly, but perhaps not so surprising to wrestling insiders, the audience loved the Rock’s new act. In two short years, Dwayne Johnson would become the WWF’s signature babyface. Yet, the Rock persona would always retain the elements that had made it successful as a heel. Even as a good guy, the Rock would belittle his opponents and torture his backstage interviewers. He would even engage in occasional acts of misogyny.

Wrestling psychology

Photo by Jason Pofahl on Unsplash

Unlike most politicians, Donald Trump started his 2016 campaign very much like a heel wrestler. His descent down his golden escalator was flashy, if not excessive. He associated Mexicans with rapists and would never apologize for it. Like the Rock before him, The Donald had a knack for coming up with schoolyard epithets for his political opponents. In the Republican primaries, he went after Lyin’ Ted (Cruz) and Little Marco (Rubio). Later on, his main jabronis would be Crooked Hillary (Clinton) and Nancy (Pelosi).

According to former Smoky Mountain Wrestling promoter Jim Cornette, heels should not alter their personalities when they attempt to switch over to the babyface side. Instead, they should keep their characters intact and direct their heinous acts on other (more deserving) heels.

Like the Rock of the late 90s, The Donald would never give up what brought him to the dance. There was no way Trump could be more presidential; doing so would only fracture his fanbase. Like the millions (and the millions!) of the Rock’s fans before them, Donald Trump’s fans are perfectly willing to ignore their hero’s wrongdoings as long as he keeps up the good fight. Their president is the Rock to every other politician’s Rocky Maivia. Donald Trump is the true babyface; everyone else is just trying way too hard.