Geopolitics in Wrestling

Extracted Attributes

• Purpose

  To generate ticket sales and audience investment through narratives leveraging racial, class, and xenophobic stereotypes

• Mechanism

  Pitting 'foreign menace' characters against 'heroic' national figures

• Current Status

  Less common today in WWE

• Related Concept

  Wrestling diplomacy, which uses wrestling to promote peace and cultural exchange

• Historical Practice

  Used to create characters and storylines in professional wrestling

Timeline

• Soviet invasion of Afghanistan contributes to a setback in US-USSR détente, setting the stage for aggressive Cold War rivalry that would be reflected in wrestling. (Source: web_search_results)

  1979-XX-XX

• Ronald Reagan's election ushers in an era of aggressive Cold War rivalry, providing a potent backdrop for geopolitical wrestling storylines. (Source: web_search_results)

  1980-XX-XX

• The Cold War is used as a backdrop for wrestling rivalries, such as Hulk Hogan's 'Real American' persona against the Russian/Soviet tag team 'The Bolsheviks'. (Source: web_search_results)

  1980s-XX-XX

• The end of the Cold War and a rise in political correctness lead to a decline in ethnic stereotyping in wrestling, making it harder to find acceptable 'foreign' villains. (Source: web_search_results)

  1990s-XX-XX

• The character Colonel DeBeers, a last attempt to base in-ring conflict on political conflict, flops as a villain, marking an end to an era of overt geopolitical wrestling. (Source: web_search_results)

  1990s-XX-XX

• The practice of using geopolitics to create wrestling characters is less common today. (Source: bf00b7cf-9d1c-41da-96d1-a178b238dcf3)

  Present

ASEAN

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) is a regional grouping of all 11 states in Southeast Asia, which aims to promote economic and security cooperation among its members. Together, its member states represent a population of more than 600 million people and a land area of over 4.5 million km2 (1.7 million sq mi). The bloc generated a purchasing power parity (PPP) gross domestic product (GDP) of around US$10.2 trillion in 2022, constituting approximately 6.5% of global GDP (PPP). ASEAN member states include some of the fastest growing economies in the world, and the institution plays an integral role in East Asian regionalism. The primary objectives of ASEAN, as stated by the association, are "to accelerate economic growth, social progress and cultural development in the region", and "to promote regional peace and stability through abiding respect for justice and the rule of law in the relationship among countries in the region and adherence to the principles of the United Nations Charter." In recent years, the bloc has broadened its objectives beyond economic and social spheres. The current Secretary-General is Kao Kim Hourn, while the chairmanship for this year is held by Malaysia, led by Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim. The ASEAN chairmanship was handed over formally to the Philippines for 2026 on 28 October 2025. Full chairmanship will be assumed on 1 January 2026. ASEAN engages with other international entities in the Asia-Pacific region and other parts of the world. It is a major partner of the UNTooltip United Nations, SCOTooltip Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, PATooltip Pacific Alliance, GCCTooltip Gulf Cooperation Council, Mercosur, CELACTooltip Community of Latin American and Caribbean States, and ECOTooltip Economic Cooperation Organization. It also hosts diplomatic missions throughout the world, maintaining a global network of relationships that is widely regarded as the central forum for cooperation in the region. Its success has become the driving force of some of the largest trade blocs in history, including APECTooltip Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation and RCEPTooltip Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership.

Web Search Results

• Wrestling diplomacy - Diplo

  Wrestling diplomacy uses wrestling to promote peace between nations, involving competitions to promote cultural exchange and understanding.

• [PDF] politics by kayfabe: professional wrestling and the creation of

  made him a hero to the immigrant populations in New York City. He would be regularly pitted against, and defeat some “foreign menace” to the delight of the crowd. (Shoemaker 2013, 22-24)8 The best example of the usefulness of a “foreign menace” in wrestling as a reflection on foreign politics is the storyline featuring Hulk “Real American” Hogan and the Russian/Soviet tag team aptly named “The Bolsheviks”. The Hogan-Bolshevik Kayfabe rivalry used the Cold War in the 1980s as its backdrop and [...] involves the employment of racial and nationalistic prejudices of an audience to generate support for the narrative surrounding the 2008 election. In both politics and professional wrestling, these tropes are used because they work: in professional wrestling, they generate ticket sales and help the crowd develop an investment in the show, while in politics, these tactics help to drive popular support for policy and elections. Promoters’ use of racial, class and xenophobic stereotypes to draw [...] coincided with a sharp rise in hostile public rhetoric between US and the USSR. Following the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979, the hopeful period of détente between the two superpowers suffered a major setback. With the 1980 election of Ronald Reagan to the US presidency, there seemed to be a new era of aggressive Cold War rivalry. Reagan, campaigning as a hardened Cold Warrior who would be tough on the Soviets, came into office, faced bad economic news at home and seemingly aggressive

• Pro Wrestling and the End of History - Paul A. Cantor

  This problem was compounded by the fact that at roughly the same time as the Cold War was ending, ethnic stereotyping began to be anathematized. By the early '90s, the WWF even seemed to be testing whether it could capitalize on the new era of political correctness. With Russia and virtually every other country ruled out as a source of villains, Vince McMahon and his brain trust searched the globe to see if any ethnic group remained an acceptable object of hatred. The result was a new villain [...] Perhaps what appears to be the end of history is only the end of the nation-state, and humanity is now groping confusedly toward new modes of political organization, which may be at once more global and more local in their scope. Today's professional wrestling points in these two directions simultaneously. At any moment of deep historical change, it is easy to become fixated on what is being lost and fail to see what is being gained. The way wrestling has been struggling to find some kind of [...] Colonel DeBeers was a flop as a villain and in some ways marked the end of a wrestling era -- a last, desperate attempt to base physical conflict in the ring on political conflict outside it.

• Professional Wrestling is More Real than US Politics | by Matt Kornfield

  In WWE, the match results are pre-determined. Things are choreographed if need be, like difficult stunts that could hurt the wrestlers. But the wrestlers act like it’s a real match with real stakes on the line (and as far as their bodies are concerned, that’s true). That’s the faycabe of it all. In US politics, you know one of two people are going to win: it’ll be a Democrat or a Republican, with a sprinkling of independents who were part of one of the two parties at some point. [...] I’d go so far as to say the US political system is like the WWE, but worse. tl;dr: Our political system is a pro-wrestling good guy vs. bad guy match, the results might as well be fake, and we the people take all the hits. ## The Bad Guys In professional wrestling, it’s always clear that one of the wrestlers is the “good guy” (or gal) and someone is the bad guy. When they come out to the ring, there’s a constant stream of BOOOOOO’s from the crowd, the music has a darker tone. [...] In the WWE, the bad guys usually lose their matches, but the bad guys are always winning in US Politics. The “bad guys” in politics are just a plot device to get people fired up and to keep them engaged. And are these good guy vs. bad guy matches really “fair?” ## The Results Aren’t Pre-determined, But Might As Well Be

• How the Culture of the WWE Took Over US Politics - Nate Bowling

  I have more to say about wrestling and politics, in particular about how progressive politicians should embrace the populist message of Dusty Rhodes’s _Hard Times_ promo. But that will have to wait until next week. InPolitics, Society, SportsTagsWWE Share 3 Likes ← Being Choosy About Online SpacesA Nation of Accidents → []( POWERED BY SQUARESPACE [...] Home Blog Media Contact Me Newsletter Bowlings Abroad Nerd Farmer Podcast Teaching Civil Liberties Supporting Undocumented Students How the Culture of the WWE Took Over US Politics April 10, 2023Nathan Bowling Image 2 _The gap between politics and the world of pro-wrestling has become non-existent. We're seeing politicians drop "heel" promos to generate campaign donations and "heat" leaving policymaking to rot._ [...] The word _kayfabe_ refers to the illusion that wrestling is real, unscripted—that it’s a competitive sport. When we puncture that veneer and address the sport as the scripted drama, we call it _breaking kayfabe_. The feigned outrages that rise up in our politics everyday feel like kayfabe. Look at events this week in Tennessee: two Black Democratic legislators were expelled from the House for breaking rules on decorum while participating in a protest against gun violence. Rep. Andrew Farmer,