As I sit down to write this weekly roundup, on Thursday afternoon, news has just broken that none other than Hulk Hogan will speak at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee tonight, ahead of Donald Trump’s acceptance speech.
I confess to being, against my better judgment, a lifelong Hulk Hogan fan: Yes, wrestling is “fake”. Yes, Hogan is an infamously selfish SOB who made his career from keeping other wrestlers down. Yet for all that, he shares something in common with the Presidential candidate that he is endorsing: Both are, ultimately, magnificent storytellers. Hogan, in the ring, can make you believe that what you are watching is real, even as you know it isn’t. Trump, it is often said, has brought the principles of pro wrestling to politics: It’s over-the-top, goodies versus baddies stuff with Trump as the antihero. The man has the instincts of a pro-wrestler – perhaps never better demonstrated than with his raised fist and exhortation to “fight” moments after getting shot. It was reminiscent of Hogan’s famous “hulking up” maneuvre, where Hogan would always mount a last-second comeback in his matches and suddenly become impervious to pain.
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