Pro-Trump wrestler is Mexico’s ultimate villain
Sam Adonis is an American who promotes the president as a crowd-baiting persona
Pro wrestler Sam Adonis is limping to a coffee shop in Mexico City when he answers the phone. He has just finished training for his next gig in the capital city, where for the past four months he has been one of the most in-demand performers in the Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (CMLL).
Adonis, who grew up in Pittsburgh as Sam Polinsky, is one of the few Americans who has made a successful career in Mexico’s competitive CMLL, or World Boxing Council. The 27-year-old is tall and blond, which makes him stand out in the lucha libre community, but he didn’t become a superstar until last November, when he began playing on Mexico’s anger at U.S. President Donald Trump.
“Wrestling always kind of plays off what’s happening in the mainstream (media), so I was thinking about it and I said, ‘Yeah, if (Trump) wins, I’m getting myself a flag with his face on it,” Adonis said. “And once (the audience in 16,500-seat Arena Mexico) see that big orange spot on the flag, you can just instantly, in one moment feel the room change. It’s a fever pitch.”
When deciding to cultivate his in- ring persona as Trump’s biggest fan in the ring, Adonis said he drew inspiration from pro-wrestling days of yore and, specifically, the Iron Sheik, the Iranian-American WWE Hall of Famer who used the Iranian flag to taunt audiences in the-1980s when he fought Hulk Hogan.
Hoping to recreate the passion and emotion pro-wrestling audiences used to feel four decades ago when many still thought the competition was real and the Iron Sheik really was an enemy of the state, Adonis thought, “Why not? Let’s play this up. Get a picture of Donald Trump in- stead of the Ayatollah and the people will be just as pissed off.” It worked. “The energy in the arena is always great, but when I’m out there it’s just absurd,” Adonis said. “The hatred. It’s almost a hostile environment. I’m sure there’s places in Afghanistan more tranquil than this.” Adonis was only half kidding. During Sunday night’s show when he teamed up with two other “rudos,” the Spanish term for heels, to take on three popular Mexican stars, spectators chanted “Get out!” at Adonis and threw popcorn and beer at him. Others screamed obscenities as they watched him lose to legendary luchador Blue Panther and his partners Triton and Drone.
“There is a lot of ill will for Trump’s character, and because of that every time they hit him, we enjoy it,” wrestling fan Gerardo Romero told The Associated Press at the show.
Adonis called the atmosphere in the arena “uncomfortable,” noting that even his girlfriend, who is Mexican, feels that way when she attends his matches. He said it sometimes verges on dangerous, which has prodded his colleagues to urge him to be careful. Adonis, however, said the reaction he gets outside the ring is more jovial.
“People are enamoured . . . that I put them through such a good show,” he said. He likens his role to that of a comic-book villain and said most people see him that way, too.
“In order to have a good good guy, you need to have a good bad guy,” Adonis said. “I’m just doing my job.”
Adonis did not vote in the election, but said he would have considered voting for Trump. Adonis the American hopes the U.S. and Mexico will work out their differences. Adonis the wrestler has some grudging respect for the 45th president.
“I respect the fact that he’s kind of a villain. He’s kind of embraced his position, as you like me or you don’t, but I’m not changing,” Adonis said. “It is almost a professional wrestling mentality and I have a sympathy for that.”