Wrestling gets political
‘Villain’ antagonizes fans with anti-Trump rhetoric
It was a strange sight, even for the ‘sport’ of professional wrestling.
A wrestler holding a microphone faced an Appalachian crowd before a match and began unleashing a torrent of insults, the nature of which seemed out of place at a pro wrestling tournament.
“I understand now why you all identify with country music. It’s slow and it’s simple and it’s boring, just like each and every one of you.”
As the crowd grew increasing hostile, the wrestler’s remarks became more politically-tinged.
“You know what, I think Bernie Sanders would make a great secretary of state.”
“I want to exchange your bullets for bullet points. Bullet points of knowledge.”
He even called Donald Trump a “con man.” The crowd exploded in jeers. “Shut up,” someone yelled. Strange, indeed. But then, the muscular man’s shirt read: “Not My President.”
Meet the wrestler who goes by the name “Progressive Liberal.” Dan Richards is the most hated character in Kentucky’s Appalachian Mountain Wrestling (AMW) circuit.
Professional wrestling has long included villains, someone for the audience to cheer against. Traditionally, though, they’re burly, angry men who do “evil” things like praising the devil or sneak-attacking other wrestlers with chairs and ladders. He’s burly enough, at 6-feet-5. But he praises not the devil, but Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders.
This might be the first case when a character became a villain by espousing liberal dogma. And it seems to be working. He’s caught the attention of Deadspin, Sports Illustrated, even the right-wing Breitbart.
The latter called him “a wrestling heel for the Trump era,” and wrote, “His moves include smugness, condescension, and whining.”
The “Progressive Liberal” is really Daniel Harnsberger, a 36-yearold real estate agent from Richmond, who had been on the indie wrestling circuit for years before conceiving of the character. Once he did, he simply waited for the prime moment to unveil it, which he found in 2015 in Sabine, W. Va.
“It was a small crowd and I had freedom to do whatever I wanted that night, so I just decided to get on the mic — and this is maybe a couple months after Trump started running. Who knew the guy was going to be president?” Harnsberger told Sports Illustrated. “So I did this interview on the house mic and I said, ‘If he’s elected president, I hope Trump doesn’t build a wall around Mexico. Instead I hope he builds it around this town so none of you people can infiltrate the population.’ ”
Harnsberger’s shtick is simple. He plays a smug liberal elitist who lectures the audience on political matters. His enemies are “Fox News maggots.” His fictional character hails from Washington, D.C. His wrestling shorts bear a donkey. He insults his fans’ Appalachian accents, correcting them — “Do you live in a holler? No, you live in a hollow.”
He even calls his finishing signature wrestling move the “Liberal Agenda.”
In one promo video, he wore a shirt patterned with dozens of photos of Hillary Clinton’s face, patched together in a strange collage, and he addressed AMW’s fans: “You people need to be reprogrammed. You continually vote against your own interests. You put people in Congress and the White House that aren’t going to help you. They’re not going to bring your jobs back.”
These may not sound like the most scathing of insults, but at a time when politics are a breeding ground for intense, burning emotion, it seems to work brilliantly.