Latest news with #WrestleMania
New Statesman
6 hours ago
- Entertainment
- New Statesman
Donald Trump, the king of Scotland
Illustration by André Carrilho The world is not exactly lacking conspiracy theories about Donald Trump, but here's another: the President of the United States of America still thinks he's on a reality show. For years, the people around him have simply referred to the whole business – the elections, the criminal trials, the assassination attempt, the Epstein subplot, the presidency itself – as The Show. As far as he's concerned, this is all for the cameras. Summits and speeches are talked about as shoots and episodes; other world leaders are referred to as characters. Before a meeting or a press conference, aides will brief him on his script for the scene. Hundreds of people spend their time reassuring a nearly 80-year-old man in charge of 5,244 nuclear warheads that he and everyone he meets are just characters in a loosely scripted series. The problem with this theory is that it's obviously true. Donald Trump has been closely involved with the fake rivalries and mock combat of WrestleMania since the late 1980s. In 2004 he was hired by the British reality TV producer Mark Burnett as a pantomime businessman on The Apprentice. Burnett remains Trump's friend, adviser and his special envoy to the United Kingdom. Trump's meetings with world leaders at the White House this year have had the unmistakable confected drama of semi-scripted reality television, in which characters enter into staged confrontations over their interior design choices, or who's dating whom, or (in this series) the fate of Western democracy. Trump himself openly acknowledged this when he wrapped one of these scenes – his hour-long harangue of Ukraine's president, Volodymyr Zelensky, in February – by announcing: 'I think we've seen enough. This is going to be great television.' The arrival of the Trump show in Scotland allowed its star to try out some new material. 'Trump takes time out to open Scottish golf course,' the BBC reported, but this was backwards. He took time out from his real job of promoting his own businesses to travel not exactly to Scotland, but to the bits of it he owns (hotels and golf courses) to play golf and do a little diplomacy. This was international relations as practised by Henry VIII, who in 1520 travelled not exactly to France, but to the bit of it that he owned (Calais) for some sport and a little diplomacy. The décor for that summit included fountains that flowed with wine and a pair of live monkeys that had somehow been covered with gold leaf. Trump was pleased with the new ballroom in his hotel; he devoted almost as much time to it in his press conferences with Ursula von der Leyen and Keir Starmer as he did to the trade deals he'd agreed with both leaders. At other moments he gestured to his golf course outside. 'Even though I own it,' he observed, 'it's probably the best course in the world.' Footage emerged of Trump, who claims to be an expert golfer, and whose best scores are always recorded at clubs he owns, arriving near a bunker in a buggy. A few metres ahead of him, a caddy could be seen discreetly dropping a ball on to the course for him to play, rather than the ball he'd hit into the sand or the long grass. Who cares? It's not cheating, because it's not real. Also on display was Trump's capacity for comic timing. When he met the Starmers on the steps of his golf resort, Turnberry, there was a moment in which they were all supposed to stand while a bagpiper played. Any other politician would have waited for the music to end. Trump, with his gift for farce, began taking questions immediately. The journalists had to yell over the blaring, dissonant noise of music being squeezed out of a leather sack. Victoria Starmer's mouth was set into such a perfectly flat line that her expression could have been used to calibrate a spirit level. Trump's mockery of Starmer was delightful to watch. The Prime Minister, he observed, is: 'Slightly liberal. Not that liberal. Slightly.' He grouped Starmer together with his friend, Nigel Farage: 'They're both good men.' When it did not seem the PM could wince any harder, Trump declared: 'I respect him much more today than I did before, because I just met his wife… and family', he added, just a little more quietly. 'He's got a perfect wife. And family.' He declared his love for Scotland, the land of his mother, especially those parts of it which he has had bulldozed for golf courses and hotels. The natural beauty of Scotland is augmented by golf courses and hotels, but ruined by wind turbines (which he calls 'windmills', which is funnier, and which he opposes because he thinks they ruin the view from the 18th hole of one of his golf courses). Subscribe to The New Statesman today from only £8.99 per month Subscribe 'Wind is the most expensive form of energy,' he declared (it's actually the cheapest form of electricity), 'and it destroys the beauty of your fields and your plains and your fields and your waterways… If you shoot a bald eagle, in the United States, they put you in jail for five years. And yet windmills knock down hundreds of them.' The monstrous eagle-mashers are also bad for the mental health of whales. 'It's driving them loco. It's driving them crazy.' There is nothing in which Trump cannot immediately be an expert, because this is a TV show and no one knows anything anyway. He was asked about the UK's problem with illegal immigration in small boats: 'I know nothing about the boats,' he declared, but he knew who was on them: 'They'll be murderers, they'll be drug dealers.' He claimed to have stopped six wars. 'I'm averaging about a war a month.' India and Pakistan were now at peace, thanks to him. He had put an end to the Congo-Rwanda conflict: 'They've been fighting for 500 years… but we solved that war.' Before Trump brought peace to the land, the situation was just: 'Machetes. Machetes all over the place.' He said hostages who were taken by Hamas during the 7 October massacre have since been to see him in the Oval Office. This is what he asked them: 'When you were a hostage, and you have all of these people from Hamas around you… did they ever wink at you and say, like, 'Don't worry, you're going to be OK?'' He cited the more noble situations he has seen in 'the movies' – 'you even see it with Germany, where people would be let into a house, and live in an attic in secret' – as if they were real, because for him they are. When someone lives in reality TV, rather than reality itself, they see no line between what can be material and what should not be. And so Trump continued his comic pace even when talking about 'what they used to call the Gaza Strip. You don't hear that line too much any more.' He spoke about the $60m in aid the US has sent as if it were generous (his government spends that in less than five minutes) and opined: 'You really, at least want to have somebody say thank you'. Asked if he believed the people of Gaza were starving, he replied: 'I don't know. I mean, based on television I would say, not particularly, because – those children look very hungry, but we're giving a lot of money and a lot of food.' Later he would try to appear more concerned: 'Some of those kids are… that's real starvation stuff. I see it. And you can't fake that.' It is truly grim is to see leaders who live in the real world nodding along, powerless or unwilling to describe the situation in Gaza as anything other than, as Starmer put it in response, 'a humanitarian crisis… an absolute catastrophe', as if the bloodshed and mass starvation were the result of a natural disaster rather than the deliberate actions of soldiers and the Israeli cabinet. It reveals who has the power to make jokes about anything, and who is the butt of them. And that is the point at which the Trump show stops being funny. [See more: A Trump-shaped elephant] Related
The Guardian
10 hours ago
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Hulk Hogan obituary
Hulk Hogan, who has died of a cardiac arrest aged 71, was the most famous personality in the world of wrestling, a flamboyant figure whose deep tan, blond horseshoe moustache, bright bandanas and heavily muscled body were known across the globe, even to those who had little interest in the sport. As the most recognisable face of the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) in the US, Hogan helped to build what had initially been a fairly parochial brand into a hugely lucrative phenomenon, watched on television by millions. Though the wrestling was all fakery, Hogan held the WWF's title belt a number of times across those boom years, including over a four-year stretch in the mid-1980s. Thereafter he largely maintained his dominance, while switching between the WWF and various other competitions over the next two decades. During a typical bout he would soak up blow after blow from his opponent until defeat seemed inevitable, only to suddenly snap into a fury that would turn the encounter around, often finishing things off with a trademark leg drop by bouncing off the rope, leaping into the air and then landing, leg first, on to his foe. Perhaps his most acclaimed performance came during 1987 in the third iteration of wrestling's annual WrestleMania event, in front of 93,000 fans at the Silverdome in Pontiac, Michigan, where he won the world heavyweight championship against the 2.24m (7ft 4in), 220kg (35st) André the Giant, who was said to have been unbeaten in the ring for almost 15 years. The bout set pay-per-view television records at the time, and confirmed Hogan's position at the centre of WWF's money-making machine. Hogan was born Terry Bollea, in Augusta, Georgia, the son of Ruth (nee Moody), a dance teacher, and Peter Bollea, a building site foreman. Growing up in Tampa, Florida, where he went to Robinson high school, he first worked as a dockworker while developing his showmanship as a bass guitar player in local rock bands. After a short period at the University of South Florida, he dropped his studies in 1977 to pursue wrestling. Eventually taking the Hulk moniker, after the muscle-bound comic book character The Incredible Hulk, at 2m (6ft 7in) and 137kg (21st) he was certainly built for the name, to which he added the alliterative Hogan in 1979 when he joined the WWF. He came to wider attention in 1982 after a memorable appearance in the film Rocky III as the combative wrestler Thunderlips, who matches Rocky Balboa (Sylvester Stallone) in a charity fight. Having initially been branded as a bad guy in the ring, by the mid-80s Hogan had been recast by the WWF as the opposite, and he was striding into the ring to the song Real American by Rick Derringer, fighting for national pride against sinister 'foreign' rivals such as the Iron Sheik, nominally representing Iran, and Nikolai Volkoff, supposedly appearing on behalf of the Soviet Union. Soon the US was subject to a long period of 'Hulkamania' as Hogan reached even wider fame, selling out stadium events, commanding massive TV audiences and appearing in further wrestling-related film roles, including in No Holds Barred (1989) and Mr Nanny (1993), while also starring as a mercenary in the television series Thunder in Paradise (1994). He lent his name to video games, a chain of restaurants and a merchandising empire that was turning over $1.7bn by 1991. In 1994, around the time he confessed that he had used steroids, Hogan moved to a new franchise, World Championship Wrestling (WCW), with whom he adopted a more villainous but equally popular persona. He was WCW's star performer for several years until returning to the WWF (by then renamed WWE) in 2002, after which he left and returned several times, wrestling for other entities in between. He was still taking part in occasional bouts into his 60s, but by then was more frequently in the public eye for other reasons, including from 2005 to 2007 in the reality TV series Hogan Knows Best, which looked in on his family life. In 2012 Hogan sued the Gawker website for posting a video of him having sex with a friend's wife, claiming invasion of privacy. Four years later a court awarded him $140m in damages, although he eventually settled for $31m as the website's owners filed for bankruptcy. In 2015 the release of another section of the same video showed him using racist language, for which he apologised unreservedly. In recent years he had been a vocal supporter of Donald Trump, and last year he appeared at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, tearing off his top in typical Hulk style to reveal a Trump/Vance shirt underneath. Hogan was married three times and divorced twice. He is survived by his third wife, Sky Daily, two children, Brooke and Nick, from his first marriage, to Linda Claridge, and two grandchildren. Hulk Hogan (Terry Gene Bollea), wrestler, born 11 August 1953; died 24 July 2025
Fox News
14 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Fox News
Hulk Hogan 'paved the way for us to do what we love,' WWE star Alexa Bliss says
The pro wrestling world was stunned to learn that Hulk Hogan died at the age of 71 after suffering a potential cardiac arrest at his home in Florida. Hogan left a lasting legacy on WWE and the industry in general, helping to elevate it into the upper echelon of pop culture and sports entertainment. WWE paid tribute to Hogan with a 10-bell salute and a video montage showing his career in the ring. Alexa Bliss, ahead of her tag-team match with Charlotte Flair at SummerSlam, spoke to Fox News Digital about Hogan's impact on pro wrestling. "He obviously paved the way for what we do, and because of the impact that he's had on WWE, we're now able to do these huge shows," she said. "We're having a two-day SummerSlam. It's the first-time ever we're having a two-day SummerSlam. When you talk about WWE, one of the first names people talk about is Hulk Hogan. "I had a moment with him at WrestleMania when I was hosting. He came out, and we did a surprise entrance and did the flex thing, and it was a lot of fun. He's made such an impact on our business — it's undeniable." Bliss, whose real name is Alexis Kaufman, recalled her husband — singer Ryan Cabrera — showing off the Hogan video he captured at WrestleMania 35. Little did he know, Bliss was hosting the event and brought out Hogan. "My husband had a video of that WrestleMania of me and Hulk Hogan at the entrance, not knowing it was me with him," she recalled. "He goes, 'Oh, I have this really cool video of Hulk Hogan because I went to this WrestleMania once.' I was like, 'Yeah, that's me.' And he was like, 'Wait, what? That's not you.' And I go, 'Yeah, that blonde right there, posing with Hulk Hogan…' He goes, 'No, it's a video of Hulk Hogan.' And I go, 'Right, but the person right next to him, that's me.' I was like, 'You have a video of Hulk Hogan and your future wife on that video.' I always thought that was kinda cool." Ultimately, Bliss tipped her hat to how Hogan paved the way for her and others in the business. "But obviously, yeah, it's super sad. Condolences to his family. He was such a big personality and a big character in our world, and he paved the way for us to do what we love." Bliss and Flair will compete for the tag-team titles against Raquel Rodriguez and Roxanne Perez at SummerSlam. The premium live event will take place Saturday and Sunday.
Yahoo
20 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
‘WWE: Unreal' Review: Netflix Docuseries Is Too Polished, Skips WrestleMania Drama
John Cena's heel turn gets a welcome explainer, but too many questions are left unanswered 'We're going to lift the curtain. We are going to show you things you've never seen in this show,' WWE Hall of Famer and Chief Content Officer Triple H said in announcing its docuseries collaboration with Netflix. The question is, do we really need to see this? 'WWE: Unreal' gives the audience unprecedented access, going backstage with WWE Superstars and staff as they bring the company's biggest spectacles to life from the Royal Rumble to WrestleMania. More from TheWrap Jon Stewart Jokes Trump Did What Anybody Who Was Innocent of Working With Epstein Would Do: 'Fled the Country' | Video Former NBC Cable President Tom Rogers Joins Versant as Senior Advisor Every Upcoming Marvel TV Show Headed to Disney+ Seth Meyers Points Out Trump Says 'Worse Things About Windmills Than He Says About Jeffrey Epstein' | Video When I was younger, I believed that The Undertaker was a dead man walking, Umaga was a tribal chief and Vince McMahon was an egomaniacal billionaire… Maybe that last one was true. There was a real magic in keeping kayfabe alive as audiences get lost in the compelling storylines that make the matches and rivalries more believable. The upcoming Netflix sports documentary is controversial within the wrestling fan community as it's the most obvious example of WWE directly breaking kayfabe — the illusion that wrestling and its storylines are real. In the McMahon era, breaking kayfabe and lifting the curtain to this extent was a big taboo and something out of the question. But times have changed, and the demand for more wrestling content is greater than ever in the WWE's Netflix era. With that in mind, there was a fear that 'WWE: Unreal' would break that illusion. But the slow-burning documentary doesn't reveal too much to wrestling fans that they didn't already know. However, it was a good opportunity to introduce a new audience to the personalities that make the WWE the global powerhouse that it is. From CM Punk to Rhea Ripley to Cody Rhodes to Bianca Belair, the industry is in great hands with its stacked roster of beloved talent. It was compelling viewing to see the nerves and fears the WWE superstars have before stepping into the ring as they show their vulnerability and human sides, especially with CM Punk. CM Punk had dreamed about main-eventing WrestleMania from the moment he stepped into the ring. Therefore, seeing the culmination of this hard-fought journey was a powerful segment of the documentary, which shows the Chicago WWE legend break down in tears after his match with Roman Reigns and Seth Freakin' Rollins as Triple H consoles him. These are the moments that elevate the documentary as we rarely get this access and insight into their lives. The highlight of the documentary was Episode 4 as the audience were given a detailed breakdown of John Cena's heel turn. The WWE icon turned 'heel' — bad guy — at Elimination Chamber on March 1 after Cody Rhodes refused to 'sell his soul' to the Final Boss, A.K.A The Rock. In a moment that shocked the world, Cena viciously beat Rhodes alongside The Rock and Travis Scott. The captivating segment of the documentary was led by Triple H as he discussed the inception of the heel turn and alternative ideas that the creative team had considered before this historic moment. One idea even suggested that after Cody Rhodes refused to sell his soul, The Rock was supposed to call an impromptu title match against Kevin Owens and Cody would lose his title before WrestleMania.'WWE: Unreal' felt like the perfect opportunity to lift the curtain on some of the controversial moments in recent months, especially the ending of Cody Rhodes vs John Cena at WrestleMania. Many WWE fans questioned why Travis Scott needed to be involved in the main event of WrestleMania and despite being an integral part of the storyline in Elimination Chamber, The Rock was nowhere to be seen. The anti-climactic moment at WrestleMania led to speculation and fan theories about a power struggle within the industry, which could have easily been put to bed with this documentary. However, despite going into meticulous step-by-step detail for Cena's heel turn, there was no explanation or discussion of the WrestleMania main event, which was quite disappointing. In answer to the question at the beginning of the piece, 'Do we need to see this?' Well, yes and no. In theory, 'WWE: Unreal' is a promising concept as the audience gets unprecedented access into the writers' room during one of the most exciting times in wrestling history. However, this only works if there's real drama, jeopardy or suspense, but instead, it felt too polished and edited. The charm and intrigue of the show came from getting to know the real personalities behind the larger-than-life characters, as this insight into their lives and ambitions will build a strong connection with fans around the world. 'WWE: Unreal' is now streaming on Netflix. The post 'WWE: Unreal' Review: Netflix Docuseries Is Too Polished, Skips WrestleMania Drama appeared first on TheWrap. Solve the daily Crossword
Irish Independent
a day ago
- Entertainment
- Irish Independent
Hulk Hogan's son joins WWE wrestlers in emotional tribute to his father
Hogan, real name Terry Bollea, died last Thursday after suffering a cardiac arrest at the age of 71. He is survived by Nick, 35, and estranged daughter Brooke, 37, whom he shared with his first ex-wife, Linda. An emotional Nick was joined by his wife, Tana Lea, and a number of WWE superstars at the beginning of WWE's flagship show Raw to commemorate Hogan. The episode was broadcast from Detroit and streamed on Netflix. Nick could be seen wiping tears away from his face during the heartfelt moment. Other notable faces present during the tribute included top WWE stars such as CM Punk, Gunther, Jey Uso, Iyo Sky and Dominik Mysterio. Eric Bischoff, who worked for WWE between 2002 and 2007 and was a close friend and business associate of Hogan's, also appeared during the salute to the 71-year-old. Addressing the crowd, WWE's chief content officer, Paul 'Triple H' Levesque, said: 'He [Hogan] captivated millions of people and inspired them around the globe. 'We would not be standing here right now – all of us together – if it was not for him.'' This was the second time that WWE had honoured Hogan's legacy on TV since his death on 24 July. Friday's episode of SmackDown also featured a 10-bell salute to the former world champion, as well as a video package that Levesque narrated. Nick Hogan previously wrote a heartfelt tribute to his father on Saturday (26 July). 'This has been overwhelming and extremely difficult,' he wrote on his Instagram, alongside a carousel of images of him and his father throughout the years. The first image featured the pair in matching red and yellow shirts when Nick was a young boy. 'Hearing so many kind words and stories about my dad's life, interactions and experiences with everyone has been incredible and comforting,' he added. Remembering Hogan as the 'most incredible person I've ever known' and his 'forever hero,' he called him the 'most kind, loving and amazing father anybody could ask for.' 'I feel so blessed to have had the greatest dad in the world,' Nick wrote. 'He was not only the best dad but also my mentor and my best friend. He always has been my best friend and I love him and miss him more than I could ever explain.' Hogan skyrocketed to fame in the 1980s, bringing professional wrestling into the mainstream. He went on to become an eight-time WrestleMania headliner and six-time World Wrestling Entertainment champion, in addition to an actor and reality television personality. He was also embroiled in controversy throughout his career. A sex tape scandal and racist remarks clouded his reputation and left him asking fans for forgiveness. The former wrestler also became a fixture during President Donald Trump's 2024 re-election campaign, appearing at the Republican National Convention to appeal to voters.
