This was pretty awesome. The WWE now has a Tea Party character portrayed as a racist buffoon. It might seem no big deal but IMO this is a sea change.
WWE Invents Odious Tea Party Character As Part of Publicity Stunt, Suckers Glenn Beck
The WWE isn’t about to bait Jones, or give him airtime, but Beck’s another story. His attack warrants an invitation “to appear live this Monday on Raw,” and a patronizing explanation.
WWE says …
Glenn Beck goes nuts
This is, I think, the first time in my life that the WWE has entertained me. Well played.
Considering that Vince is by all accounts an ultraconservative himself and wrestlers as a whole tend to be right-leaning (the Rock considered running for the GOP nomination in 2008, so I once read) I guess you’d have to just read it as poking fun at themselves. Can’t be all that different from when they played Kurt Angle as a jingoistic asshole.
The point of this was to play up the rivalry between Jack Swagger and Mexican wrestler Roberto Del Rio. The WWE will take advantage of the publicity any way they can. However, they are also dealing with Jack Swagger’s arrest for marijuana possession, which may require them to suspend him for 30 days under their Wellness Policy. So right now it’s all a mess, and they’re probably happy to have this phony controversy come up. Let’s not forget that John “Bradshaw” Layfield, former wrestler and current WWE announcer works for Fox Business Channel, this could all be a work.
No doubt, but the significant thing (IMO) is that they were willing to go there in the first place, and they were quite upfront that part of this “work” being put forward is because 20% of their fans are Hispanic. That being a anti-Hispanic buffoon is mock-worthy by the WWE given the highly conservative demographic profile of their fan base is fascinating to me.
Things are changing.
The 1% have been villains in the WWE for decades. The Million Dollar Man was the marquee heel back in the 80s/90s. It’s not quite the same thing, but the WWE’s characters have always leaned a little left in general.
By all means, if you liberals want wrasslin’ to be your sport of choice, you’re welcome to it. I can’t say that wrasslin’ is at all appealing to me. Even at the high school level, it just makes me think of herpes outbreaks
I don’t know if you could read too much into that. Ted Dibiase may have been a stereotypical fat cat character, but his tag-team partner for many years, Mike “Irwin R. Shyster” Rotunda, was an evil tax lawyer who played as if the IRS’ job was to screw innocent people out of their hard-earned money, and you also had all-American superhero faces like Hulk Hogan quite literally defending the honor of the USA against one-dimensional Iraqi sympathizers Sgt. Slaughter and Col. Mustafa (the Iron Sheik himself, with a different costume on), at a PPV so slathered in flag iconography that Bob Costas dropped out of a scheduled appearance because it was too over-the-top “AMERICA FUCK YEAH”-ish for a legit journalist to involve himself in.
And behind the curtain, of course, most of those wrestlers skew conservative. The Million Dollar Man himself is an evangelical minister these days, Sting has made a Christian biopic about his experience becoming a born-again, and Ric Flair campaigned for Mike Huckabee in 2008.
The wrestlers tend to skew conservative, and Vince McMahon himself as well, but it’s more of a libertarian type thing. They don’t generally embrace the culture war, they certainly haven’t had an anti-drug attitude, and they are in no way the law and order types. Basically they’re a bunch of independent businessmen leaning toward economic conservatism, and objecting to regulation of their own industry.
The WWE actually takes the piss out of lots of people.
I don’t follow it closely, but just yesterday I saw them talking about the Man City/Man Utd divide in English football (whilst also mentioning Juventus and taking a back-handed swipe at the way darts is seen as a sport in the UK) and simultaneously laughing at the “Real American” stereotype.
And they’ve just installed a caricature of the Mexican upper class as the “World Champion” after a few months of him being a “heel”.
I’m not claiming that they’re good people at the WWE, but they know what they’re doing when they appeal to the most base xenophobic instincts of the fans, and they clearly have a sense of humour.
20% of the WWE audience is Hispanic. Quite a few of their major TV show/house show locations are heavily Hispanic.
They’re attempting to build up Alberto Del Rio as thier major Hispanic star*. Given the idiotic anti-hispanic hysteria on the far right, it only makes sense to go back to the well (xenophobia being a major wrestling trope).
At the WWE, they don’t give a rat’s ass about “progressives” or “traditionalists” or “liberals” and “conservatives.”
They care about what puts asses in seats and Nielsen numbers.
Vinnie Mac booked him and his son against Shawn Michaels and God, for pete’s sake.
Katie Vick, anybody?
If Vince thought that a “Burning Flag on a Live Predatory Drone” steel cage match would sell PPVs, he’d do it.
[aside]Which is what’s got Orton all pissed. He has two, and there’s talk that they won’t put the strap back on him because they’re afraid he’ll get himself fired.[/aside]
The most interesting part of this was the ground breaking “break character” video. I’m absolutely shocked that Vince would allow such a thing.
“When even the WWE starts making sport of Tea Party Republicans it might be time to take stock”
Then again, when the WWE starts adopting on your own attitudes, and you think that’s a GOOD thing, it might be time for YOU to take stock.
[jumping from the top rope with a folding chair onto rowrrbazzle]No!! It’s time for YOU to take stock! [/jumping from the top rope with a folding chair onto rowrrbazzle]
The WWE is very interested in expanding into Mexico which is growing economy and has a strong tradition of pro wrestling. As mentioned they recruited Albeto Del Rio who is the son of a mexican wrestling legend to be the heel and feud with Rey Misterio. Since Rey is too injured they tried to replace him with Sin Cara but that has not worked out. They did a series of shows in Mexico last fall which probably did not do the numbers they wanted with Del Rio as the heel. So they turned him face and now they need a heel for him to feud with. Having an anti-immigrant heel work with a Mexican face makes perfect sense. Pro wrestling has always exploited ethnic groups to get fans and this is no different. They may have even seen this report on Lucha Libre wrestler “RJ Brewer”. He has been very succesful with the same gimmick and anything that succeeds will be copied.
Just for fun, Media Matters did an article taking Zeb Colter’s statements and comparing them to actual statements broadcast by Tea Partiers and Fox News types.
That reminds me of the time Tina Fey parodied Sarah Palin on SNL by quoting her word for word.
This sounds like an urban myth. Do you know when this was supposed to have happened?
Yeah, it was the episode with the parody of the disastrous Katie Couric interview. Sure, there was much of the dialogue that was made up, but there was an answer to one question where Fey simply repeated much of what Palin has said word for word.
ETA: Here it is.