What is the connection between Donald Trump and WWE?

It's not a secret that Donald Trump is, like Ronald Reagan before him, a president plucked straight from the world of entertainment. He entered the White House after becoming famous as the host of The Apprentice — one film-based Twitter account frequently and hilariously refers to him as "Home Alone 2 star" — and is standing once again as the Republican nominee this year against incumbent president Joe Biden.

One of Trump's most intriguing connections to the entertainment world, though, is his long-running bond with World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE). For around 40 years, Trump has worked with the professional wrestling powerhouse and, indeed, Hulk Hogan addressed the Republican National Convention earlier this week. The bonds remain strong.

So let's explore how exactly Trump became affiliated with the WWE and how those links to professional wrestling have shaped his time in the world of politics.

How did Donald Trump's relationship with WWE start?

Donald Trump began working with WWE's then-owner Vince McMahon in the middle of the 1980s. In both 1988 and 1989, the company's flagship WrestleMania events were billed as taking place at Trump Plaza in Atlantic City, New Jersey. In actuality, the shows happened next door at Boardwalk Hall, but Trump sponsored the events and appeared on camera in the audience.

Read more: Trump has always acted the pro wrestler – Hulk Hogan speaking at RNC just confirms it (The Independent)

The bond then went quiet publicly until 2004 when Trump appeared in a brief interview segment at WrestleMania XX, which took place at Madison Square Garden in New York City. Three years later, though, Trump's biggest contribution to WWE happened at WrestleMania 23 in Detroit, Michigan.

In the run-up to that event, Trump and McMahon became on-air rivals and staged a WrestleMania match called "The Battle of the Billionaires". Each businessman picked a wrestler to represent them in a match, officiated by WWE legend Stone Cold Steve Austin. McMahon chose the enormous Samoan powerhouse Umaga, while Trump chose the equally enormous Bobby Lashley. The losing billionaire would have their head shaved live in the ring.

The match was, of course, a chaotic affair filled with outside interference — including from Vince's son Shane McMahon. Lashley ultimately beat Umaga and Trump got the chance to shave McMahon's head, before he fell victim to a Stone Cold Stunner from Austin. It's fair to say Trump wasn't the most gifted person in terms of making that move look good.

Later that year, WWE staged a storyline in which McMahon got into a limousine that subsequently exploded. Wrestler Triple H later explained that Trump was one of many people who he claims phoned the company to check that McMahon was okay after the stunt.

Read more: WWE stars turned actors: The wrestlers who switched the ring for Hollywood fame (Yahoo Entertainment)

Trump returned to WWE for a few weeks in 2009, in which his character "bought" the company from McMahon in a short-lived storyline. He was recognised for his contributions to wrestling in 2013 when he was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame.

How has WWE been connected to Donald Trump's political career?

When Trump was elected president in 2016, he appointed a member of the McMahon family to his inner circle. Vince's wife, Linda McMahon, served as head of the Small Business Administration between 2017 and 2019.

She left her government post in order to chair campaign finance organisation America First Action, which raised $83m (£64m) for Trump's re-election campaign in 2020. Linda is now the chair of the board for the pro-Trump think tank America First Policy Institute.

Read more: Vince McMahon paid $5m to Donald Trump's foundation (BANG Showbiz)

Vince also had something of a role in the first Trump administration, appearing as part of a committee the president put together with numerous sports executives to reopen that part of the economy after COVID-19 closures in 2020.

In terms of the wider wrestling world, WWE legend The Undertaker made several donations to the Trump campaign in 2020 and former WWE champion Chris Jericho — who now wrestles for rival company All Elite Wrestling (AEW) — donated $3,000 (£2,300) to that re-election campaign.

Of course, Hogan is now the most prominent Trump supporter from the wrestling business in the wake of his shirt-ripping performance at the RNC, in which he yelled that he wanted to "let Trump-o-mania make America great again".

Read more: Celebrity Trump supporters: who has backed his presidential bid? (Evening Standard)

The links between WWE and the man who may well become a two-time president later this year run deep and go back decades. Given Trump's love of performance and theatricality, it's no surprise that he has an affection for an art form that has great American heritage and a unique relationship with the truth.

This article originally appeared on Yahoo TV UK at https://uk.news.yahoo.com/donald-trump-wwe-connection-133801982.html