President Donald Trump has apparently sparked the wrath of wrestling fans with his deadly immigration crackdown.
A wrestling event in Las Vegas on Wednesday night briefly went off the rails as fans broke into an anti-ICE chant, apparently taking even the wrestlers in the ring by surprise.
All Elite Wrestling legend Brody King had just entered the ring for his ‘Dynamite’ title matchup with Maxwell Jacob Friedman, or MJF as he is known, when the crowd suddenly began protesting.
MJF broke character and looked around in disbelief as the chant grew louder. King, a Los Angeles native, nodded in approval. Even the commentator went silent as the crowd continued, “F— ICE! F— ICE! F— ICE!”
King has been outspoken about his own anti-ICE sentiment. He wore an “Abolish ICE” T-shirt during the heavy-handed clampdown in his hometown last year. The 6-foot-6 AEW heavyweight also launched a fundraiser for the families affected by raids in Minnesota. Before his bout with MJF, he posted on X, saying the fundraiser had raised almost $60k. “F— ICE,” was his sign-off.
Trump’s relationship with professional wrestling is unusually deep for a political figure. It goes back decades, starting with his ties to former World Wrestling Entertainment boss Vince McMahon.
In the late 1980s, Trump Plaza in Atlantic City hosted WrestleMania IV and WrestleMania V, helping cement WWE as a mainstream spectacle. It also gave Trump an in with the wrestling world.
In 2013, after bizarre cameos at WWE events, including “Battle of the Billionaires” in 2007, Trump was even inducted into the entertainment company’s Hall of Fame.
The ties remained strong when Trump entered politics. Linda McMahon, Vince McMahon’s wife and a former WWE executive, became a major Trump donor and later served as administrator of the Small Business Administration during his first term.
In his second term, she was one of his early appointments, this time as education secretary.
WWE legend Triple H, real name Paul Levesque, also popped up in the White House last July, doing his signature water spit entrance, as he arrived in his capacity as the company’s Chief Content Officer for the signing of an executive order to reinstate the Presidential Fitness Test in American schools.
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