Abraham Riesman suggests that wrestling’s fakery and Vince McMahon’s ruthlessness somehow define contemporary America. But readers who do not already agree with the author are unlikely to be persuaded
In reality, as Abraham Riesman explains in “Ringmaster”, his thorough but overwritten biography of Vince McMahon—the majority owner of World Wrestling Entertainment and the man who turned wrestling into an entertainment behemoth—many devoted fans are “smarts” rather than “marks”. They know they are watching a scripted event more akin to a soap opera than a traditional sport. But they love it anyway, either despite its phoniness or, more likely, because of it.
Mr Trump’s spectre haunts this book, which really tells two stories, one more tenuous than the other. The first and better tale is about Mr McMahon himself, and his rise from rural and small-town poverty in North Carolina. Like some other successful businessmen—indeed, like Mr Trump—he passes himself off as self-made.
He is also shrewd and ambitious, and was able to see that wrestling’s fragmented structure was inefficient. An earlier generation of promoters feared television would kill the market for in-person wrestling; Mr McMahon embracedand celebrity. WrestleManias—annual pay-per-view events running since 1985—featured not just famous wrestlers such as Hulk Hogan and Mr T, but also appearances by
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