When Worlds Collide: Politician Uses Wrestling To Complain About State Of The Union Address And Wrestlers Are Not Happy

You don’t hear this about wrestling very often. There are certain careers that wrestlers tend to gravitate towards after their time in the ring is over. Some wrestlers go into entertainment, some go into real estate and then a small amount of them go into politics, occasionally with some success. This includes Jesse Ventura becoming Governor of Minnesota and Kane becoming Mayor of Knox County, Tennessee. You don’t see those worlds cross over too often, but that is the case at the moment.

On Tuesday night, President Donald Trump delivered the annual State of the Union Address. As usual, the speech wound up being received rather differently depending on whom you asked, with some politicians being huge fans and others not exactly liking what they heard. One politician was not pleased and talked about it on Twitter, with his response including a reference to wrestling. This did not sit well with some wrestlers.

Ohio Congressman Tim Ryan walked out of the speech, saying that it was “like watching professional wrestling. It’s all fake.” This received a wide assortment of responses from wrestlers, including Kane, Gail Kim, Paige, Dolph Ziggler, Drake Maverick, Kamille and more. The majority of the comments were negative, with most of the wrestlers responding to the general statement rather than taking a side.

Some of these are rather good:

Sir, your statement is emblematic of the out-of-touch elitism, so typical of Washington, that has alienated countless everyday Americans. Professional wrestling brings joy to millions around the world. Politicans like yourself usually bring nothing but misery. https://t.co/QgR2gtMKze

— Glenn Jacobs (@GlennJacobsTN) February 5, 2020

As a fan of pro wrestling, politics & Congressman Ryan, I see many similarities between the jobs we so passionately do…
such as; it’s only real when we win https://t.co/PdX6uSYgdP

— Nic Nemeth (@HEELZiggler) February 5, 2020

You leave wrestling out of this!!! ? https://t.co/6YTiADHu4o

— PAIGE (@RealPaigeWWE) February 5, 2020

You’re ‘fake’ constantly so that you get what you want out of life. https://t.co/0PWHz3oAxn

— Drake Maverick (@WWEMaverick) February 5, 2020

Come to @aiwrestling Friday and see just how fake it is! https://t.co/JurrOuXXe8

— REAL Dean Malenko account (@FilthyTomLawlor) February 5, 2020

WWE has touched on politics before. Check out some of their moments:

Opinion: I can’t blame the wrestlers for not liking this statement. Wrestling has come a long way but there are always going to be people whose response is “who cares, it’s fake”. That gets annoying in a hurry as you don’t get that reaction from critics of any other form of entertainment. It’s the one thing that people tend to go to and it never goes away. I’m sure some people will agree, but this isn’t something wrestling fans want to hear.

What did you think of the statement? What do you say when people tell you wrestling is fake? Let us know in the comments below.

Thomas Hall has been a wrestling fan for over thirty years and has seen over 50,000 wrestling matches. He has also been a wrestling reviewer since 2009 with over 5,000 full shows covered. You can find his work at kbwrestlingreviews.com, or check out his- Amazon author page with 30 wrestling books. His latest book is KB’s Complete 2004 Monday Night Raw Reviews.

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