Ritwik Agrawal

From Vanity Fair’s nicely done profile of WWE’s Roman Reigns (Joe Anoa’i):

In the Trump era, wrestling has been held up as a Rosetta stone for understanding modern politics. “To be honest,” Anoa’i says, “the world seems to be more like wrestling than any other form of entertainment.”

This reminded me of my post analyzing the phenomenon of Donald Trump, himself a WWE hall of famer, through an analogy with the wrestling character Stone Cold Steve Austin. This was back in 2019 during Trump’s first term in office:

Trump’s political persona bears a striking resemblance to “Stone Cold”. Trump interacts directly with the public, bypassing and frequently attacking the mainstream media. Trump bypasses not only the platform of the mainstream media, but also the social graces widely expected of public figures in their public and diplomatic dealings […] In other words, much in the spirit of Stone Cold Steve Austin, Trump is out to tell the truth, stick with the people, not embarrassed to exercise America’s great power, show other countries and leaders their place when necessary, and providing simple solutions (“border wall”) to complex problems.

Full piece here