World Championship Wrestling and all of its assets had been sold three days prior to its chief rival, the World Wrestling Federation, with whom it had been engaged in a knock-down, drag-out television ratings war for the better part of six years.
"I wanna be, for all intents and purposes, the Hulk Hogan of Mexico.On March 26, 2001, the final episode of WCW Monday Nitro aired on TNT. "I wanna be larger than life, I wanna be part of the culture, I wanna be part of everything," he says. "But this situation is too much, and it's too good to pass up right now, so I'd like to milk it for everything it's worth."Īs President Trump intensifies his call for a border wall and a tax on Mexican imports, Sam believes he's cementing himself in Mexican culture. and Mexico were to get aggressive or violent, then I'd have to think about it," he says. This is the key to Polinsky's shtick: the badder the American villain, the greater the Mexican hero.īut Polinsky knows there could be a political limit to his character. "And when he loses, he makes the Mexicans look like heroes." "I think he's doing really well to take advantage of this moment and bring it to the stage," she says. Perla Covarubbias, the lone woman in a group of screaming guys, also approves. "The important part of lucha libre is to relieve your stress, to yell, to get the crowd fired up." "He's great," says Marco Espinosa, the lucha libre diehard fan. None of the Mexican fans have anything bad to say about Sam Adonis. "To be honest, it felt good hitting him, to return every one of the insults he threw at the Mexican people with a punch."īut back in the arena, something unexpected happens. "The fans wanted us to take it to Sam Adonis," he says. Dejected, he grabs his American Trump flag and walks offstage, his head hanging low.Īfter the fight, Angel de Oro stays firmly in character as he recounts the emotions of the battle. In the end, Polinsky and his fellow rudos lose. Polinsky's character gets even angrier, yelling back at his hecklers. He slams Polinsky to the mat with a suplex and the crowd explodes. But he's quickly bested by a gold-plated opponent named Angel de Oro. He wins the first takedown and grabs his flag again, mocking the audience.
Polinsky emerges in a flood of spotlights, waving his American Trump flag proudly, beaming as the crowds boos and hisses.Īs the fight kicks off, the crowd waits anxiously to taunt Polinsky. Boos and whistles from the crowd echo backstage.Īs he turns to enter the arena, he reveals the back of his neon, spray-painted tights: on his right butt-cheek is a cartoonish version of Trump's face. "Go USA! Go Trump!" he yells in his accented Spanish.
"You have Trump the persona and Trump the actual person," he says.īackstage at Arena México, Polinsky is shooting a promo for his fight, which is being beamed directly to the jumbotron inside the arena. Those theatrics, Polinsky says, are similar to what Trump has done as a politician.
In the early 2000s, Trump regularly participated in WWE shows, often as the adversary to WWE CEO Vince McMahon.
MONEY PRO WRESTLING MEXICO PROFESSIONAL
"I guarantee a lot of his success came from his experience in professional wrestling," he says. "But I'm thankful he's in the position he's in, because it's putting more money in my pocket." "I can't say I support him, but I definitely supported him more than Hillary Clinton," he says. But is Polinsky a Trump fan in real life?
0 kommentar(er)
