Before he was elected President of the United States, Donald Trump entered another elite club when he was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2013. Now, various media outlets have reported that Trump could make a return to the world of wrestling with an appearance on WWE’s SmackDownwhen the show debuts on Fox in October. If true, it’s unclear whether the commander-in-chief will actually appear in the ring as he has done in the past, or just show up in a pre-taped video.
A member of WWE’s creative team told Sportskeeda.com that it was Fox executives who asked WWE to get Trump on the show. “FOX have asked for Trump so I’m trying to write something short and easy for him that makes him look good,” the anonymous source told the website. “Vince doesn’t like us to say anything bad about Trump so I’m just doing the best I can.”
Trump is no stranger to the WWE. WrestleMania IV and V took place at Trump Plaza in Atlantic City, and he’s been on Raw many times. His most famous wrestling moment came in 2007, when he picked Bobby Lashley to represent him at WrestleMania 23 in the “Battle of the Billionaires: Hair vs. Hair match” against Vince McMahon and his pick, Umaga.
The highlight of that match came after the pinfall, when Trump, Lashley, and special referee “Stone Cold” Steve Austin shaved McMahon bald. While the match was nothing spectacular, it did feature the future president clotheslining Vince and throwing a few half-assed punches at the WWE CEO.
Trump and the WWE have also been intertwined through politics in recent years; Linda McMahon, formerly the WWE’s CEO, was part of Trump’s cabinet, serving as Administrator of the Small Business Administration before stepping down in April to become chairwoman of America First Action, a pro-Trump Super PAC (a political action committee with the goal of getting the president re-elected). Though Trump’s appearance on WWE TV is purely a rumor at this point, their history together certainly gives it some credibility.
