10 Reasons WWE Should Remove Donald Trump From Hall Of Fame
Businessman is a lightning rod for criticism around the world.
This week, the Republican Party nominated businessman and WWE Hall of Famer Donald Trump to be its candidate for president of the United States this fall.
The path to the nomination has been fraught with
self-detonated land mines that would have sunk any other political candidate,
but instead have helped catapult Trump to becoming the most polarising presidential candidate in modern American history.
Even in just reading that paragraph, there likely are readers from the U.S. who are chomping at the bit to thrash this column in the comments below, while there are others from this country and around the world who are equally ready to give a thumbs-up and bash “The Donald”.
Trump’s history with WWE goes back decades, with WrestleMania IV and V taking place at Trump Plaza in Atlantic City, N.J. Trump also briefly “owned” Monday Night Raw in 2009 as part of a storyline and he famously participated in the Battle of the Billionaires at WrestleMania 23 against Vince McMahon, with Bobby Lashley and Umaga, respectively, standing in as their avatars.
Some fans have called for Trump to be removed from the HOF, saying that he is “promoting a violent and discriminatory war on people of different religions and nationalities”.
However, this is about more than a Change.org petition. Rather, let’s take a look at reasons why WWE should remove Donald Trump from its Hall of Fame, with those reasons tied to the wrestling world, not just the political world.
10. Booed At Own Induction
In 2013, Donald Trump was inducted into the WWE Hall of
Fame’s celebrity wing, joining such luminaries as Pete Rose, Snoop Dogg and
Drew Carey.
As much as fans might despise the idea that non-wrestlers like Trump were inducted before superstars like “Macho Man” Randy Savage, Ultimate Warrior and Sting, that can’t fully explained what happened at the Hall of Fame ceremony that year.
Despite being held at Madison Square Garden in New York City, Trump’s hometown, he was booed mercilessly by fans throughout his speech. Even Vince McMahon was booed while trying to induct him.
That was far beyond any normal “booing to be cool” effort. It was palpable. Keep in mind that this was a full two years before Trump began his run for president and began offending large groups of people via Twitter and various mainstream media interviews.