Mark Henry squinted in the Manhattan sun, trying to figure out a way to wade through the hundreds of thousands of protestors streaming past Madison Square Garden. Finally, he came up with a proposition for The Big Show.
The “World’s Strongest Man” wanted the giant to rush into Seventh Avenue, waving his arms and growling chillingly, as demonstrators scattered in all directions.
“Mark,” the Big Show replied calmly. “I’m not gonna do it.”
And so, the march proceeded, with participants focusing their ire on the Garden, site of the inaugural WrestleMania, the first ladder match ever on pay-per-view (Shawn Michaels vs. Razor Ramon at WrestleMania X), and this year’s Republican National Convention.
Like at the Democrats’ soiree earlier this summer in Boston, a group of WWE Superstars had come to town to promote the company’s “Smackdown Your Vote” crusade, dedicated to signing up young people to cast their ballots in this year’s election. Henry, Big Show, Ivory and Christopher Nowinski were headed to a GOP-sanctioned “sign painting party” at the Pennsylvania Hotel, across the street from the Garden. The plan called for the WWE contingent to keep their placards non-partisan; Ivory eventually created a slogan that read, “WRESTLERS VOTE. DO YOU?” It was understood that the others in the room would be more partial to such mottos as “FOUR MORE YEARS” and “WE LOVE YA, DUBYA.”
By contrast, the people on Seventh Avenue were waving banners with phrases like “BUSH MUST GO” and “WORST PRESIDENT EVER.” And the WWE Superstars were pressed for time. So they turned around, ducked into a subway entrance, and crossed the street underground.
“The Big Show’s head was literally this far way from the ceiling,” Ivory said, holding two fingers together. “If he was a half-inch taller, all that soot and grime collected there would have been scraped into his hair. It was another experience doing something normal that isn’t normal when you’re with the Big Show.”
Nonetheless, Henry admitted that he kind of liked the sight of the protestors: “I did not take any offense to it at all. One of our rights is freedom of speech. If you want to protest something -- whether it’s sitting in the back of the bus, or the war in Iraq -- that’s what this democracy is for.”
However, he wanted to qualify that he had no personal ill will towards the president. Back when President George W.
Bush was still Governor Bush in Texas, he and Henry attended the same gym at the University of Texas in Austin. Upon spotting each other, they’d launch into a regular routine.
“Are you looking at me?” Bush would sneer with mock anger.
“Are you looking at me?” Henry would fire back, opening up his arms threateningly, and stomping towards the future commander in chief.
Bush’s entire security detail would laugh, until a new guy came on the job. The image of the oversized power lifter “stalking” the governor was a frightening one, and -- true to his training -- the agent reached for his gun.
“Are you gonna shoot me?” Henry questioned.
“If I have to,” the man coolly replied.
The story only came up once on Sunday. The rest of the day, the WWE Superstars appeared to utter nothing controversial. “No one even asked about my politics,” the clean-scrubbed Nowinski pointed out. “I mean, look at me. I look more like a Young Republican than most of them.”
Yet, at a late night gathering at the Roseland ballroom, the WWE representatives certainly stood out from many in the crowd, including some collegiate-looking men in business-casual attire, and women with Prada bags, carnations and striped scarves.
The deejay -- balding, in spectacles, a white shirt and blue tie -- reminded me of a cross between Dick Cheney and Tony Angelo, manager of the Mongol Brothers, circa 1970. When he spun a Latin tune, I noticed a couple stand stiffly in one of the stars reflected onto the dance floor, and move from side to side.
The guy looked like a 25-year-old version of Dave Hebner.
Mark Henry and Ivory appeared a few feet away, and drew a crowd pretty quickly. “They add explosive energy to this party,” Aaron Buerge, a onetime ABC Bachelor, observed after extolling the merits of Bush’s tax stimulus package.
The mob around the Superstars continued growing -- until it was so large that I was swept toward an exit by security, and found myself standing on 53rd Street, along with a number of paparazzi. Not wishing to miss anything, I went around the corner, in search of another entrance when I ran into Kate Boisvert of Brooklyn, holding a sign declaring, “BUSH LIES. WHO DIES?”
She and her friends told me that they were interested in crashing the party. I told them that they looked a little too conspicuous. We then began talking about WWE.
“My favorite is Triple H,” she mentioned. “I guess everyone I know likes the bad guys.”
I continued back into Roseland, and immediately encountered another Evolution supporter -- but with a contrary ideological bent. “I think that in wrestling and politics, you can always find someone to relate to,” said Anthony Sytko of Garwood, NJ. “In politics, President Bush is the man. In WWE, it’s Ric Flair. He’s done it all. He knows the tricks, and he knows how to play the game. And he’s a Republican. Wooooo!”
Before our conversation ended, the door of the club swung open, and I noticed the flash of cameras from outside. In walked the First Daughters, Barbara and her twin sister, Jenna Bush, both smiling, kind of checking out the scene. I followed them, past some framed photos of Bono, Bruce Springsteen, Elton John and the adversarial Bill Clinton, into the VIP Room. Boxing promoter Don King stepped on my foot and apologized. Actor Stephen Baldwin’s publicist asked if I was interested in doing an interview. But I wanted to talk to the Bush Girls about their wrestling interests.
Did their great-grandfather, Senator Prescott Bush of Connecticut, ever see The Sheik wrestle Bobo Brazil in New Haven? My grandfather told me that he had; maybe they saw the same match. Did Houston promoter Paul Boesch teach his sleeper hold to his friend, Bush 41? If that situation wasn’t going on with Lita and Kane, would Jenna date Matt Hardy?
Eventually, I found myself standing next to the pair, while a non-wrestling fan monopolized their time. Just as I was about to ask my first question about Heidenreich, Barbara began to break away, toward another part of the room. “I’m sure we’ll run into you again,” she politely told the pest.
“I love your dress,” Jenna said to the man’s female companion.
They moved on, and I turned, to see the beaming countenance of Ivory. I’m not sure if she’d noticed exactly what had transpired, but she certainly had a sagacious grasp on the entire scene.
“Isn’t it weird,” she said, “where the world of wrestling will take you?”
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