Cage Match

In July, word came from the president he was considering a cage match wrestling event to be held on the White House lawn. As the Skydance – Paramount merger closed on Aug. 7, and UFC signed an exclusive deal with Paramount+ four days later, the UFC match to celebrate the nation’s 250th anniversary appears to be inevitable and will be aired on Paramount stations, including CBS, the former home of Edward R. Murrow and Walter Cronkite.

Trump’s affection for professional wrestling is well known, as is his induction into the WWE hall of fame in 2013. Regardless of concerns about propriety, a cage match is an expression of the president’s character. The event is expected to host some 20,000 of his closest fans on the lawn and be available to countless others via the internet. From where do cage matches come?

The American Wrestling Association (AWA) was a professional wrestling promotion based in Minneapolis from 1960 until 1991, according to Wikipedia. It was founded by Verne Gagne and Wally Karbo, originating as part of the Minneapolis Boxing & Wrestling Club. Unlike modern professional wrestlers of the WWE, Gagne was an amateur wrestling champion who was an alternate on the U.S. freestyle wrestling team at the 1948 Summer Olympics. He ran the AWA with a conservative sensibility, Wikipedia said, firmly believing that sound technical wrestling should be the basis of a pro-wrestling company. Cage matches reflect no basis in technical wrestling as Gagne had come to know it. I submit they are about the fans.

Father and we kids attended a professional wrestling match at Municipal Stadium in Davenport. The stands were not packed although because of the popular Saturday morning television program, All Star Wrestling, the event drew a good-sized crowd. Patrons were unruly, with arguments breaking out among them. I almost got into a fight after mouthing off to a stranger. That day there was a cage match during which constructing a cage of chain-link fencing was part of the spectacle. Was that real blood when one wrestler crushed another against the cage wall? It was hard to say from the bleachers. Young women would visit the motel across the river where the wrestlers stayed and attempt to accompany them on tour. Such plebeian entertainments were typical in my home town. This is a crowd that later would evolve into MAGA cult members.

Once one admits a cage wrestling match is not sports, then what kind of spectacle is it? I have to believe we could all be pursuing more constructive use of our time. It’s a free country, though, and a wrestling star is president. Celebrating professional wrestling is just one more way our culture is getting away from us as the country marks its 250th birthday.