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With Andrew Yang Running For Mayor Of New York, Will He Stay Focused On WWE Issues?

By Jason Ounpraseuth

On today's episode of The Wrestling Inc. Daily podcast, "TrumpMania" author Lavie Margolin made his return to the podcast to discuss how the changing political landscape not only affects President Donald Trump but also The McMahons and WWE. Andrew Yang, a long-standing critic of WWE over how they treat their talent, has now announced that he will be running for mayor of New York. Also, President-elect Joe Biden has announced Boston mayor Marty Walsh as his labor secretary. Wrestling Inc. Managing Editor Nick Hausman asked Margolin how these new developments will affect Vince McMahon and WWE.

"I'm starting to see more about Andrew Yang, here locally in New York City, just because he's planning to run for mayor," Margolin noted. "One of my contacts on Twitter was like, 'Oh, Vince McMahon must be thrilled that he's focused on that now,' but will they change? Not without some significant rules or re-looking at things. From my understanding, Biden is more of a moderate, which some feel like maybe that's what we need right now. Everyone can make their decisions, but they've skirted this for so long that to change the way it is, I think something significant would have to happen.

"I think it's more likely to happen during a Biden administration, but somebody would have to sort of pick up that torch and run with it, and I don't know if it's going to happen. I hope that it would. I think fairness for the wrestlers comes forward with more competition, and as AEW further establishes themselves, at least you have one against the other. You'll have better contracts. If live events continue to be less support of the overall revenue stream then people won't be run into the ground. Although, I shared an article today from NPR in 1919. I don't know how wrestling did compared to 1918, but baseball came back very strong post pandemic.

"So not to run live events as frequently might be a mistake for the the bottom line. So that's something to think about. I think for wrestling, at least the first time around, it's been at least a year for most people, and then it'll have been a year and a half or two years. You sort of want to take your kids to the show. You want to go yourself, whatever it may be, at least the first time around as long as the business isn't super cold. You'd probably want to check it out."

The topic of WWE building a physical hall of fame came up. The news was revealed by Ric Flair, and Margolin talked about how many entities are dealing with how they choose to use Trump's likeness as Trump, as of now, is still in the WWE Hall of Fame. The PGA have announced that they will not be running a tour on Trump's golf course, but Disney have been silent on Trump's status in their Hall of Presidents.

"A lot of different places are sort of struggling with this," Margolin pointed out. "Disney World, they have the Hall of Presidents. I'm not sure where it stands now, but it took them forever to make Trump. So everyone's sort of trying to figure this out. He has a long history of shady things in terms of real estate, from what's come out publicly, but even into the 2000s, when it's sort of like, 'Oh, that's the nice 'you're fired guy'.' I mean not nice, but 'that's the you're fired guy. I like him.' He would get awards from universities and so on, and you start hearing about these universities that say, 'Oh, I'm going to take it back now.' But when did people come to this trade-off?

"PGA Tour in 2022, an event was expected at a Trump golf course. Of course, now they say it was too much for them. It wasn't too much to see children in cages. It wasn't too much to see immigrants treated the way they were and so and so on. Everyone has this breaking point, especially with corporations. A corporation is defined by maximizing revenue. They're going to do what what makes them the most money and part of that is being risk averse."

WWE Hall of Famer Mick Foley has called on McMahon to kick Trump out of the HOF. Margolin credited Foley for not staying silent noting that he and his family have a lot to lose with Foley speaking out against an ally of the McMahons.

"So definitely credit to Mick Foley," Margolin expressed. "Sometimes people think about it. 'Well, he's already somewhat wealthy. He doesn't have to worry about the company,' but we have to remember that his son works for the company, and I think his daughter has some connection still or would have the possibility of a bigger role in the future. So those sort of things could come back, but it's a time not to be silent, and he's pretty much stood out as much as possible.

"At certain times, I think, when tweeting him and speaking publicly, sort of hoping that he'll listen to logic, but then at other times, becoming angrier, really standing out for the issues more than anyone that stands out like that and part of their income is derived from their popularity. Like you mentioned, he lost Twitter followers and maybe some opportunities. You have to give him credit for that."

A 2020 Election Special Edition of Lavie's "TrumpMania: Vince McMahon, WWE and the Making of America's 45th President" was recently released and is now available for purchase on Amazon. Margolin's full interview aired as part of a recent episode of our podcast, The Wrestling Inc. Daily. Subscribe to get the latest episodes as soon as it's released Monday – Friday afternoon by clicking here.

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