Donald Trump at WrestleMania 23: The 2007 Battle of the Billionaires

Originally published 2016-05-17.

The clip that resurfaced during the 2016 US presidential race came from WrestleMania 23, held on 1 April 2007 at Ford Field in Detroit. In a match billed as the "Battle of the Billionaires", Donald Trump and WWE chairman Vince McMahon each picked a wrestler to fight on their behalf, with the loser's billionaire agreeing to have his head shaved in the ring. Trump's man, Bobby Lashley, won. Trump and Lashley then shaved McMahon bald, and referee "Stone Cold" Steve Austin capped it off by hitting Trump with his signature Stunner.

Nine years later, as Trump rose to win the Republican nomination, people around the world rediscovered the footage. For some it was harmless showbiz; for others it was proof that a reality-TV entertainer was an odd choice for the White House. Here is what actually happened that night, why it went viral again in 2016, and how Trump's long relationship with professional wrestling fits into his public career.

The Battle of the Billionaires at WrestleMania 23

WrestleMania is WWE's biggest annual show, and the 2007 edition drew a crowd of more than 74,000 to Detroit. (A figure above 80,000 was widely announced at the time, but later reporting puts the real attendance at 74,287.) The billionaire match had been built up for weeks on WWE television, including scripted confrontations between Trump and McMahon and a much-publicised "money drop" in which Trump showered fans with cash.

The rules were simple, as wrestling storylines go. Umaga wrestled for McMahon, and Bobby Lashley wrestled for Trump. Stone Cold Steve Austin was the special guest referee. Midway through, Umaga knocked Austin down, and Shane McMahon, Vince's son, took over as referee and openly favoured Umaga. Austin recovered, delivered Stunners to Shane and Umaga, and Lashley speared Umaga for the winning pin.

The finale is the part most people remember. Trump, Lashley and Austin held McMahon in a barber's chair at ringside and shaved his head while the crowd cheered. Before leaving the ring, Austin turned to Trump and dropped him with a Stunner, a moment Trump took with a slightly awkward fall that has been replayed and mocked ever since.

Real or scripted?

Professional wrestling is scripted entertainment: the winners are decided in advance, and the moves are choreographed to look painful while limiting injuries. Both Trump and McMahon knew the outcome long before the event. What was real was the haircut. McMahon genuinely had his head shaved in front of the crowd and a large pay-per-view audience.

That mix of performance and reality is exactly what made the clip so interesting in 2016. Wrestling fans understood it as theatre. Viewers outside the US, many of whom had never watched WWE, saw a future presidential candidate body-slammed and shaving another businessman's head, and were understandably surprised.

Trump's long history with WWE

The 2007 match was not a one-off. Trump's links with the McMahon family go back decades:

• Hosting in Atlantic City. WrestleMania IV in 1988 and WrestleMania V in 1989 were held at Trump Plaza in Atlantic City, with Trump as the host venue's owner.
• The 2007 storyline. The Battle of the Billionaires was one of the most-watched WrestleManias of its era and boosted WWE's mainstream visibility.
• The Hall of Fame. In 2013 Vince McMahon inducted Trump into the celebrity wing of the WWE Hall of Fame.
• Politics. Linda McMahon, Vince's wife and former WWE chief executive, was a major donor to Trump's 2016 campaign. She later led the Small Business Administration in his first administration and became Secretary of Education in his second.

In July 2017, as president, Trump posted an edited version of an older WrestleMania clip in which he tackles McMahon, with a CNN logo placed over McMahon's face. The post was widely criticised as an attack on the press, and it showed how wrestling imagery had become part of his political style.

Why the clip went viral in 2016

When this post first appeared in May 2016, Trump had just become the presumptive Republican nominee. Old footage of candidates always resurfaces during campaigns, but this clip spread unusually fast for a few reasons.

First, it was visual and funny, which suits social media. Second, it fitted an existing debate about whether celebrity and showmanship were replacing political experience. Third, it travelled well internationally: people abroad who knew Trump mainly from The Apprentice now saw him in a wrestling ring.

The original version of this post shared the clip with a reader's comment that they would pity Americans if the man in the video became president, along with the writer's view that it said more about Western culture than about Trump himself. Others read the same footage very differently. Many supporters saw his comfort with wrestling crowds as evidence that he understood ordinary entertainment and could connect with working-class audiences, something more polished politicians struggled with.

In hindsight, both readings had something to them. Political analysts have often compared Trump's rallies, nicknames and staged feuds to wrestling "promos", the speeches wrestlers use to build up rivalries. Whether you see that as a strength or a warning, the 2007 match is a useful window into how he approaches an audience.

What happened next

Trump won the November 2016 election and served as the 45th president from 2017 to 2021. After losing in 2020, he won again in 2024 and returned to office in January 2025 as the 47th president. Vince McMahon, meanwhile, stepped away from WWE in 2022 and left its parent company in 2024 amid misconduct allegations, which he has denied.

The clip itself has outlived the platform where many people first saw it. The Facebook video that was embedded in this post is no longer available, but the match can be found on WWE's official channels and streaming archives under "WrestleMania 23".

(The Facebook video originally embedded here is no longer available.)

Watching old footage fairly

Resurfaced videos are a staple of every election. A few questions help keep them in perspective:

• When and where was it filmed? This clip is from a scripted 2007 entertainment show, not a political event.
• Is it edited? Many shared versions cut the match down to a few seconds, which changes how it feels.
• What does it really tell you? It shows a businessman comfortable with spectacle. It does not, on its own, show how someone will govern.

Judged that way, the Battle of the Billionaires is best seen as an entertaining piece of pop-culture history that took on new meaning once its star entered politics.

Sources: Wikipedia: WrestleMania 23; Wikipedia: WWE Hall of Fame; clip first shared via AnonHQ (2016).