World Wrestling Entertainment has invited Glenn Beck to appear on its television program Raw after he attacked the WWE as “the stupid wrestling people” for introducing a tea party character that he says amounts to “demonizing” the tea party.
WWE, founded by two-time Connecticut Republican Senate candidate Linda McMahon and her husband Vince McMahon, creates larger-than-life characters and pits them against each other in wrestling matches. Linda McMahon herself even entered the ring in the past.
In a segment on Wednesday on BlazeTV, Beck criticized WWE for bringing out a new characters, Zeb Colter, as the manager for recurring character Jack Swagger. Colter uses phrases like “We the people” and appears to be a tea party character. Adding to that perception is the fact that his last name bears a homophonic resemblance to conservative commentator Ann Coulter.
The Colter character is racist and xenophobic, saying things like “how do we get rid of ’em” and saying this country is “not the land of the free and the home to whoever wants to cross our borders.”
Beck said that WWE was saying, with this character that “anytime you use any of those phrases,” like “we the people,” among others, “you’re a racist moron like this guy.”
WWE invited Beck to appear on the show to address his criticisms.
“WWE is giving Beck the opportunity to address our 14 million weekly viewers and our global fan base, as he believes we are offending our ‘conservative’ fans with this storyline,” WWE wrote in the press release.
“Similar to other television shows and feature films, WWE is in the entertainment business, creating fictional characters that serve as protagonists or antagonists. To create compelling and relevant content for our audience, it is important to incorporate current events into our storylines,” WWE wrote. “WWE is creating a rivalry centered on a topical subject that has varying points of view. This storyline was developed to build the Mexican American character Del Rio into a hero given WWE’s large Latino base, which represents 20% of our audience.”