A journey that took him from the equally crazy worlds of professional wrestling and American politics, Jesse “The Body” Ventura paved the way for so many people–in BOTH worlds!

I grew up as a huge fan of politics & professional wrestling. They appealed to me for many of the same reasons:

• Both featured great communicators. Whether it was Bill Clinton talking about feeling our pain, or Ric Flair talking about riding Space Mountain, as a shy kid I admired people that could talk a good game.
• They were adversarial in nature. In wrestling you had good guys & bad guys. In politics you had the Democrats & the Republicans. Wrestling going to shades of grey during the late 90s followed in the footsteps of politics. Sometimes you didn’t know who to root for.

A lot of people my age or older are bitter over how the wrestling business has evolved. Maybe part of the reason I’m not as bitter over the state of wrestling is because I reserve most of my bitterness for the state of politics. Government is a much more important endeavor than sports entertainment, yet I think the average pro wrestler takes their profession & responsibility to their supporters more seriously than the average politician.

This isn’t a new development. That’s why I always thought that somebody that was hugely successful in pro wrestling could translate well to politics, given that they had a focused message and weren’t a complete train wreck out of the ring. They had a similar skill set to good politicians, and they cared more.

I wasn’t in the majority on this. After all, wrestling was a silly, uncouth bit of nonsense. People thought that all wrestlers were unintelligent maniacs that had to resort to beating themselves up to make a buck. The idea of a lowly wrestler sitting in public office instead of an intelligent lawyer or businessman or someone that had grown up in the political game was insanity.

Politics + Wrestling

Back in 1998, the idea of Jesse “The Body” Ventura being elected Governor of Minnesota was laughable to most observers. It wasn’t to me. While Jesse did have an in-ring career of some note, he is far more remembered in pro wrestling for his time as a color commentator. He had the gift of gab. He could talk intelligently & make people believe that whatever he said was real. Of course that would translate to politics!

He wasn’t the first man to step behind the microphone and call matches as a heel. Gordon Solie was joined on commentary from time to time by heels over the years, Roddy Piper being the most notable among those men. Jesse was the first to do it on a full-time basis for a national promotion, and he changed the expectations people had for wrestling announcing. Now, people expect a heel color commentator, and are disappointed when they don’t have one. Corey Graves can thank Jesse for his current role on WWE television. As much as we all love Bobby Heenan, it was Jesse’s absence while filming movies that gave him the chance to co-host Prime Time Wrestling & get all those commentary gigs at various arenas sitting next to Gorilla Monsoon. Which is another reason we are all thankful for Jesse Ventura…he stepped aside & gave us that Gorilla/Bobby magic.

Not a Fountain of Misinformation

Jesse claimed to call it like it was. He gave the babyfaces credit when they deserved it, but would also call them (and his broadcast colleague) out on their blatant hypocrisy. He typically defended the heels, but would acknowledge when they made bone-headed mistakes & deserved to lose. I do think the line he treaded is something that a lot of heel announcers after him failed to appreciate. You need to have some level of credibility. Jesse had it, most of the people after him didn’t.

And let’s be honest, everything bad he said about Hulk Hogan ended up being 100% accurate! The man formed the New World Order and was also a racist. Not the type of guy that the kiddies should be looking up to.

“The Body” Becomes “The Mind”

Despite being a great communicator, a war veteran, a former mayor & much more charismatic than his opponents in the election, not to mention having a stronger Internet presence than the others, Ventura was still considered the underdog due to his wrestling background. The world was shocked when the voters of Minnesota elected Ventura Governor on November 3, 1998. The polling had indicated that his two opponents were neck & neck several points in front of him. Norm Coleman was a career politician & Skip Humphrey was a career politician whose father was a Vice President of the United States and had the Metrodome named after him.

The odds & the polls were stacked against Ventura, but Jesse appealed to voters that were off the radar of the pollsters. Does this sound familiar to anybody else?

They Shocked The World

Ventura scoffs at the idea that he paved the way for the man currently seated in the Oval Office. While he & Donald Trump were friendly at one time, Trump’s right-wing policies since ramping up his political activity don’t sit well with Ventura. Ventura currently lives in Mexico, and finds Trump’s immigration policies offensive. However, one can’t deny that Ventura crashing through the celebrity barrier paved the way. Other people with more experience in television than politics would follow.

Jesse’s good friend & co-star in multiple movies, Arnold Schwarzenegger, became Governor of California. Arnold was always serious about politics, but the idea of him getting elected was doubtful until Jesse’s win in Minnesota. Jesse’s not very good friend Hulk Hogan considered a run for President, as he figured that if Jesse could be a governor, being President would be easy for the Hulkster, brother. An interview with Jay Leno on political matters put that thought to a halt. Jerry Lawler, Bob Backlund & several other wrestlers ran for various offices with limited success.

They Got Entrenched

It wasn’t until recently that political aspirants with wrestling backgrounds saw more success. WWE Hall of Famer Trump pushed the door even more open by naming Linda McMahon the Administrator of the Small Business Administration. To her credit, she’s one of the few Trump cabinet-level appointees that hasn’t done anything illegal, illicit or otherwise questionable. Linda had two high-profile Senate runs in Connecticut that didn’t result in much success. Does a McMahon even make it past a Senate primary without others paving the way to make “wrestler” an ok thing for a politician to have been? Probably not.

Glenn Jacobs did what Jerry Lawler couldn’t do & got elected mayor of a major city in Tennessee. At one time, Kane was a die-hard Libertarian that abhorred politics. Now he’s a run of the mill Trump Republican. The road was easier.

Trump Made It Bigger

If anything, Trump took Ventura’s road to success to the next level. Ventura ran as a third party candidate. He was able to use his force of personality on the people, but the politicians often didn’t go along for the ride. Maybe Ventura could have ran as a Democrat or Republican & found success. Neither party represented what he stood for. He wasn’t going to compromise. Trump was able to reach forgotten people like Ventura did, but he took it a step further. He made the Republican Party go along for the ride. He’s re-shaped the GOP in his own image. He didn’t have to compromise either.

Jesse Ventura had a large role in sending politics & wrestling in their current direction. Maybe it’s not the direction his supporters would have liked. One can’t deny that he paved the way for the people responsible for both.

Dr. Frankenstein didn’t like his monster either.