Each year with the annual WWE Hall of Fame ceremony, a celebrity is inducted. Usually someone who has had some kind of involvement with WWE in the past. This year, the most high-profile celebrity thus far will be inducted, and that is none other than the former “owner” of Monday Night RAW, that being Donald Trump.
This really shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone as “The Donald” has been involved with WWE for decades. He has had a long relationship with the pro wrestling powerhouse, being personal friends outside of the ring with WWE owner Vince McMahon as well as a friendly business rival. Two of the first Wrestlemanias heavily involved Trump, as both Wrestlemanias IV and V were held at Trump’s old Trump Plaza Hotel & Casino in Atlantic City, New Jersey.
Trending
In addition to this, Trump was later involved in Wrestlemania 23 in one of the high-profile matches on the card, that being Bobby Lashley vs. Umaga, with Trump in Lashley’s corner, Vince in Umaga’s, and the stipulation that the corner man for the loser got their head shaved at the end of the match. Umaga lost, and Trump, along with Lashley and referee “Stone Cold” Steve Austin, shaved Vince’s head right in the middle of the ring. And, during a post-match celebration, Austin “congratulated” Trump by giving him a Stone Cold Stunner. The match was mainly for charity, with both Trump and Vince donating large amounts of money to various charities using some of the revenue earned from the event.
Since then, Trump occasionally makes appearances on the show, including the ill-fated “Trump owns RAW” storyline from a few years ago that I mentioned at the start. Fortunately, the angle was killed before it really got off the ground, and Trump’s appearances on WWE television have generally been small guest spots or seats in the audience.
While it’s no surprise that Trump gets the nod this year, don’t expect the crowd at the Hall of Fame to welcome him warmly. A few years ago, Drew Carey was inducted and was nearly booed out of the building two nights in a row. Considering Trump is an even less popular overall figure than the current host of The Price is Right, the reactions at both the HOF and Wrestlemania the next night could potentially be some of the loudest hostile crowds we have seen for a wrestling show in a long, long time.
