10 Times Wrestling GENUINELY Tried To Be Progressive
The BAE Community?!
There's an in-built risk mixing the notion of 'progression' and politics that can result in folks either side of the left/right divide getting tarred with a brush they're not particularly thrilled with. The mere mention of Donald Trump in articles on this website (almost always in context of his numerous appearances with WWE over the years) unearths a plague of abuse from his supporters now on permanent alert regardless of if the tone is even broadly negative.
This introduction isn't to do just that, but his Presidency was again noteworthy to wrestling fans when Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson raised his legendary eyebrow in the direction of The White House.
'The Great One' noted in several interviews that he'd considered running in either 2020 or 2024 depending on his work schedule or public demand. Many of his 'millions' were suitably electrified until the slightest research revealed his prior registration as a Republican and current stance as an Independent.
Far from the Democratic dreamboat many had him pegged as, Johnson's rise through one of the most capitalistic games in town should have clued in the same folk that were surprised to hear that millionaire pro-gun red state property magnate The Undertaker also leans to the right.
For generations, the art-form itself was the ultimate closed club, even now existing on an island away from a scandalised Hollywood and homogenised music industry. A deregulated and indefinable art-form is not one that will often risk future-proof forethought for financial freedom. But when it does...
10. Chyna Wins The Intercontinental Title
When Triple H glibly responded to Stone Cold Steve Austin's podcast query about Chyna's future Hall Of Fame trajectory with mumbled concerns about her porn career, he inadvertently kickstarted an overdue movement for her place among the elite.
He ought to have done it years ago, and sent her a percentage of all his future earnings too.
The footage exists on a WWE Network currently funding the building of his mansion's seventh annex if proof's needed - Chyna got Triple H over. Their relationship was mutually beneficial for sure, but 'The Ninth Wonder Of The World' was a vital component in making the crowd at long last give a tiny toss about Hunter Hearst Helmsley.
Their on-screen bond positioned them on equal footing enough to at one point both be considered contenders to Stone Cold Steve Austin's WWE Championship at SummerSlam 1999, but he'd politic her downwards to an Intercontinental Title compromise that summer.
Her matches with Jeff Jarrett and Chris Jericho were an acquired taste, but her constant improvement was obvious, and her placement in the midcard never remotely questioned by her adoring audience.
It's a drum WWE are probably frustrated they can't beat more, but Chyna's rise before her controversial fall was inadvertently one of their finest ever tales of female empowerment.