CNN covers anti-ICE chants, says WWE & AEW in ‘politically shaded rivalry’
AEW has received more mainstream attention following the anti-ICE chants heard recently on Dynamite.
CNN published an article in its business section on Saturday covering the chants. The piece included comments from Eero Laine, a professor of theatre at the State University of New York at Buffalo who studies the history of professional wrestling. Laine said what makes the anti-ICE chants notable is that they are not directly tied to what is happening in the ring and are not part of the usual repertoire of wrestling chants.
Laine said the anti-ICE chants, “are interesting in that they support a political stance associated with one of the wrestlers, but they are not necessarily directly related to what’s happening in the ring. And the chant is not part of the repertoire of standard wrestling chants.”
Laine also says in the article that at the end of the day, wrestling is about getting people’s attention, and referenced the title of Eric Bischoff’s book, “Controversy Creates Cash.”
“That’s the bottom line with wrestling, it’s attention,” Laine said. “They’re selling attention.”
Laine added that wrestlers can “embody” ideas, allowing fans to cheer for or boo against them during a match.
“You can actually watch two ideas fight each other in the ring, and you can cheer and boo for each of them,” he said. “So there’s a kind of morality play at work in the ring.”
The article noted that representatives for Brody King and MJF did not respond to requests for comment, nor did AEW or WWE.
The CNN article also stated that WWE and AEW are in a “politically-shaded” rivalry, with the article disclosing Warner Bros. Discovery’s minority stake in AEW.
CNN’s Michael Ballaban wrote:
“The embrace of contemporary issues is part of a larger, politically shaded rivalry playing out in the industry, between the 7-year-old AEW and the industry’s ruling juggernaut for generations, WWE (Warner Bros. Discovery, CNN’s parent corporation, owns a minority stake in AEW).”
In Friday’s edition of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, Dave Meltzer noted that neither WWE or AEW want to be seen as favouring one side or the other regarding politics.
Meltzer wrote:
“The problem is that there were people who want AEW to be the anti-WWE organization and see WWE’s ties to Trump, but both AEW and WWE badly don’t want to be seen favoring one side or the other for fear of alienating a large percentage of their audience, although it is harder with WWE because of Paul Levesque’s association with Trump and Linda McMahon’s history with WWE and being Levesque’s mother-in-law.”
The full article from CNN is available here.
Ian Carey is a writer from Toronto, Ontario, Canada, whose work has been featured in NOW Magazine, The Huffington Post, and more. A lifelong wrestling aficionado born in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, he has covered the industry for a decade and a half. He joined the f4wonline.com team in 2019.