Revisiting Hillary Clinton’s Strange WWE History

By now, we’re all aware that an actual WWE Hall of Famer is running for President of the United States. That’s probably strange enough. The long and quasi-storied history of Donald Trump in the WWE (and the McMahon family’s support of their friend Donald) has been well-documented and told time and again, but Democratic presidential candidate and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has her own history with the pro wrestling giant, as unlikely and baffling as that may seem.

In 2008, all three presidential hopefuls aired pre-taped addresses on WWE Raw. These were videos that were shown on the TitanTron in the arena, as well as to the home audience, allowing the live crowd to hoot and holler all they wanted as John McCain, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton all stumbled through references that they clearly didn’t get.

It was pandering at its finest, but it guaranteed WWE would be able to claim the president had appeared on Raw in an election year. Vince McMahon is nothing if not able to recognize and seize an opportunity.

The pre-taped messages were probably just as awkward for the candidates to record as they were for wrestling fans to watch. Behold, as Clinton christens herself “Hill-Rod” for some reason, threatens to drop a People’s Elbow and calls out Randy Orton by name:

Yeah, that’s a thing that happened. Unlike Trump (who has been hanging around the then-WWF since 1988, when a venue he owned hosted WrestleMania IV), that video remains the only time that Clinton herself has appeared on WWE programming.

Unless you can count the reams of jokes Vince McMahon and Jerry Lawler made about the Monica Lewinsky scandal in the late 1990s, there is only one other significant bit of Hillary Clinton WWE footage: the time “Hillary Clinton” had a match against “Barack Obama” on Raw in 2008 in a “Democratic Primary Presidential Smackdown.”

Yes, the same year that Clinton and Obama both agreed to air taped speeches for Raw, WWE thought it would be a hilarious and good idea to put on a mock wrestling match featuring politician impersonators. In the interest of equal opportunity, of course, the late Umaga came out to destroy both participants (three, if you count Fake Bill Clinton) and prove that WRESTLING IS STRONGEST POLITICS THERE IS.

A fake Hillary (who looks a lot more like Victoria Jackson, honestly) aping Hulk Hogan while Bill hogs the spotlight facing off against a Rock-channeling Obama (I believe before SNL ever made that connection) where the main joke is “he has big ears” is probably some of the most toothless satire you’ll see, but it is still just as rough to watch as those pre-taped speeches. If I had to pick between watching that fake match or watching Clinton say “Hill-Rod” on a loop for all eternity, I’d be hard pressed to make that Sophie’s choice for my own personal hell.

It must be mentioned that Donald Trump has also received the “impersonator wrestles a match” treatment from WWE, as “Donald Trump” wrestled “Rosie O’Donnell” on Raw during the two celebrities’ very public spat in 2007. O’Donnell clearly got the worst of that, of course, if the below video opening with Jim Ross saying “Lesbianic fury” doesn’t tip you off.

I feel like it’s safe to say we won’t be seeing Clinton on WWE television any time soon again — or ever. But it’s a near guarantee that, win or lose, Donald Trump will be back in front of wrestling audiences. After all, he used to own WWE Raw.

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