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Why A Petition To Remove Donald Trump From WWE HOF Makes No Sense & Won’t Work

Donald TrumpI write a wrestling column for the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review every Monday and Friday. Today’s column focuses on the petition created by a WWE fan to have Donald Trump removed from the WWE Hall of Fame and why it won’t work. Here’s an excerpt:

A petition to remove Donald Trump from the WWE Hall of Fame makes no sense.

In case you didn’t even know or perhaps forgot, the billionaire businessman and Republican presidential candidate is in the celebrity wing of WWE’s Hall of Fame, which also includes Arnold Schwarzenegger, Bob Uecker, Drew Carey, Mike Tyson, Pete Rose and William “The Refrigerator” Perry. All have had involvement in WWE programming at some point in the past 30 years.

Trump Plaza in Atlantic City hosted WrestleMania 4 and 5 in the 1980s.

In 2007, Trump was a big part of WrestleMania 23. Billed as billionaire versus billionaire, the feud featured Vince McMahon, who was in the corner of Umaga, and Trump, who backed the up-and-coming Bobby Lashley. Stone Cold Steve Austin served as the referee. The losing billionaire had to shave his head.

Umaga lost, and Trump took a razor to McMahon’s head before getting stunned by Austin.

Trump’s comments often make headlines during controversial campaign for president. Most recently, he suggested America should stop Muslims from entering the country, given national security issues related to Islamic extremists.

This prompted a petition to be launched by WWE fan Grace Lin on a website called Change.org. The petition called for the removal of Trump from the WWE’s Hall of Fame based on his comments toward banning a religion from the United States. The petition’s goal was to get 10,000 signatures. It’s fewer than 1,000 away from that goal.

The WWE’s handling of Hulk Hogan earlier this year forms a basis of support for Trump’s removal. Audio tapes surfaced before Hogan’s trial over a leaked sex tape on a website several years ago.

Hogan confirmed the authenticity of the 2008 audio tapes on which he repeatedly uses racial slurs while he talking to his daughter about a black man she was dating.

When the tapes came out this past summer, WWE released a statement terminating its contract despite Hogan’s admission and apology. It pulled him in midseason from his role as judge on its reality show, “Tough Enough.” It stopped selling his merchandise. His name is no longer listed on the WWE website as a member of its Hall of Fame.

The petition contends that Trump should suffer the same consequences as Hogan. I disagree.

CLICK HERE for why I disagree that Trump can’t be compared to Hogan in this situation.

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