American Pundit Fighting takes pride in being the preeminent blog for Politics AND Wrestling. The site focuses on how pundits and politicians act like wrestlers, borrowing heavily from wrestling in their use of psychology, framing and theatrics. I've mentioned in the past how wrestlers have been involved in politics, from Ric Flair endorsing Mike Huckabee to Kane joining the Ron Paul revolution. Then there's former Governor Jesse Ventura, the hugely popular Hall of Fame wrestler who could possibly become the future President of the United States.
What I haven't talked about and perhaps little known amongst wrestling fans, are the growing number of wrestlers entering into political punditry. During the 2004 Bush/Kerry Presidential Election, wrestlers Mick Foley and JBL engaged in a series of political debates. Mick championing the Democratic Party and its nominee John Kerry whilst JBL supported the incumbent George W Bush. The debate was organised by the WWE in conjunction with The University of Miami. The WWE has a reputation for encouraging Voting especially amongst their target youth demographic.
Read the Miami Hurricane's recap of the event (October 5, 2004) - 'WWE tag team debate'
Read reviews of the debate from the knowledgeable fans at TheSmartMarks.com- Foley/JBL Debate Report
Whilst Mick Foley and JBL have dabbled in Punditry as ambassadors for the WWE, former wrestler Sean Morley has shifted his focus towards being a full time pundit. Best known as Val Venis in the WWE, Sean is a proud Libertarian (or what he calls "Freetarian"). Sean is passionate in his beliefs and is clearly a student of pundit media. In this latest audio Morley speaks of Sean Hannity who he admires but has lost some respect for due to his sloppy and sensational handling of the Chris Benoit murder-suicide. Sean Morley had worked with and was a friend of Chris Benoit.
Listen to the Freetarian Show (July 27)
"Out of control spending, war on drugs, the Benoit case and mainstream media"
Supplementary links
- Read an interview with Mick Foley discussing the reasoning behind the debate with JBL
- Go to Mick Foley's official myspace, read his blog post on campaigning for Barack Obama
- Read a previous post on JBL and his shoot fight with Keith Olbermann
- Go to Sean Morley's 'Freetarian' website
No comments:
Post a Comment