2013
Everything I Needed To Know I Learned From Pro Wrestling (Pt. 4–The Anti-American All-American)
Over the years, a reliable way to get a wrestler “over” (popular with the fans) has been to make him appear to be very patriotic. Perhaps the best example is that of legendary wrestler Hulk Hogan, whose theme song proclaimed that he was “a real American/fighting for the right of every man”.
At one point, due to storyline exigencies I won’t go into here, Hogan was forced to wrestle in a mask, coming out as “The American Patriot”, a star-spangled heavyweight whose moves, voice and theme song were remarkably identical to the then-banned Hulkster. Naturally the fans were aware of what was going on and cheered lustily whenever the masked hero managed to prevail over the dastardly Vince McMahon and his minions.
Despite the arrest and injuring the top wrestler in the company, Swagger has continued to get a “push”, perhaps because the WWE hope that the politically tinged message will garner them extra publicity. At the beginning of their pairing, some right-wing media picked up on what seemed to be attacks on the Tea Party movement. Radio host Glenn Beck got in the act, which led to Swagger and Colter inviting Beck onto Monday Night Raw to debate them (naturally, Beck didn’t show up).
The thing that interests me the most about this character development is that Swagger has NEVER been cheered for his xenophobia. In fact, in an effort to protect the character, announcers are careful to make sure to speculate that Colter has “brainwashed” Swagger, thus putting the blame on the manager, not the wrestler. The only one to stand up for the duo is heel color commentator John “Bradshaw” Layfield, a brash Texan who praises Colter for being a Vietnam Vet (and thus, an American hero). At one point, on “Old-School” Raw, WWE legends Dusty “The American Dream” Rhodes and Sgt. Slaughter accompanied “Hacksaw” Jim Duggan as he came out to face Swagger and Colter.
As you can tell from the video, Swagger gets a huge amount of heel “heat” for beating up three legends known for their patriotism, but he also gets berated by the announcers, saying that they want no part of Swagger’s America.
I have found the audience reaction to Swagger and Colter to be very interesting. It is well-known that despite what the writers want, it is up to the “WWE Universe” to decide what will be popular (or not). Swagger and Colter have been booed from the outset, despite the fact that they would seem to represent the views of many “real” Americans.
The “non-partisan” (not really) Federation for American Immigration Reform has collated the results of numerous surveys that seem to show that the majority of Americans believe that porous borders (mainly to the south) are a serious threat to the United States and that illegal immigrants “harm” American workers.
If the numbers are so convincing, then why do wrestling fans boo Swagger and cheer Del Rio? I think that it has to do with fairness and familiarity. When Americans answer pollsters’ questions on immigration, they equate “following the rules” with fairness, and so naturally someone who breaks immigration laws is not deserving of approbation. But when they see and hear the venom coming from Colter and Swagger, it turns them off. Similarly, the idea of a generic Latino “stealing jobs and draining resources” is unpopular, but the charismatic Del Rio is a fan favorite for his fighting spirit, charm and resiliency. And then when Swagger and Colter have also run down other fan favorites like heel Englishman Wade Barrett:
and Canadian-American face Chris Jericho:
the fans rebel against such unfair, discriminatory and rude behavior toward people that they think they “know”. I think that this is not unlike the way that homophobes change their minds and support same-sex marriage once they learn that someone they know and like is gay.
I wonder if the powers-that-be in the WWE expected such a negative reaction to Swagger’s new persona? And if they did, what does that say about America? WWE fans are a cross-section of the population, with a weekly total viewership of 14,000,000. According to the WWE’s corporate website, 58% of the WWE audience has at least some college education, nearly half have household incomes over $60,000 and 36% of viewers are female. Perhaps most telling is the number of Hispanic viewers. According to WWE research, Monday Night Raw is the most watched weekly show among Hispanic men (also African Americans) and Friday Night Smackdown is the most watched Friday night show among Hispanic men. By the end of this decade, 12 states and the District of Columbia will have “majority-minority” populations, and California and New Mexico will have a plurality of Latinos. The WWE is a publicly traded company and they know that to increase shareholder value they must keep viewership high. By building up characters like Del Rio the WWE is creating strong Hispanic fan favorites who will help the company maintain their grip on minority viewership. And there is no better way to do that than to have a big, xenophobic bully drawing heat. I think that the WWE knew exactly what they were doing. Because anti-immigration bigots can now feel that their views are being freely aired on WWE programming, and more progressive people can feel glad when announcers criticize Swagger and Colter and can cheer when he loses a big match. This way, more people will tune in, and the company will continue to succeed.
I’d love to know what your thoughts are on this topic. Please feel free to leave a comment!
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