Professional Wrestlers make interesting decisions on the next career when their careers are over. Some have great endings living in retirement or working different roles in or out of professional wrestlers. Well, a specific other career industry choice has been very popular as a post-wrestling career.
That industry involves politics, and there are a ton of professional wrestlers who serve their respective countries in government roles. With the conclusion of the 2nd Inauguration of WWE Hall of Famer Donald Trump as president of the United States, let’s dive deeper into it by listing the 10 professional wrestlers involved in political positions.
I mentioned this while paying tribute to US President Jimmy Carter when looking at his ties to pro wrestling. It was even mentioned in the Back Saturday Dark Side of the Ring episode. Jim Barnett was a part of Jimmy Carter’s office of counsel to the president and a National Council on the Arts member. He is an honorable mention, as Barnett wasn’t a wrestler. However, he had a strong role behind the scenes as a promoter and was instrumental in the rise of Vince McMahon.
One of the most underrated tag teams in pro wrestling is the Fabulous Rougeaus. I loved them in the territory days and the late 80s in WWF. Unfortunately, it didn’t go long because Raymond Rougeau decided to retire due to chronic back pain. Jacques Rougeau would eventually become The Mountie and won the Intercontinental Championship. Raymond eventually returned to WWE to be a commentator from 1992 to 2002 and 2017-2021.
When Raymond left in 2021, he would run for a political position in Canada. His role is mayor of Rawdon, Quebec, Canada, which he still holds today. Raymond has a history with the city; he was the councilor in 2002 and was even the deputy mayor in 2013. As he was born in Quebec, it’s cool to see him serve the role of mayor.
Matt Morgan has wrestled in multiple different promotions, including TNA/Impact Wrestling, WWE, and NJPW. Morgan retired from full-time wrestling in 2014. He had a political career during his time, running for multiple offices. He became the District 4 city commissioner for Longwood, Florida, in 2017 and even got a chance to serve as the mayor of Longwood, too.
Today, he is back serving his commissioner role in Longwood, Florida. I will not fill in the details as it is current politics, and I am steering clear in discussing it.
Hiroshi Hase is a very fascinating case. In professional wrestling, he had a lengthy career from the mid 80’s to mid 2000’s. Hase has wrestled for multiple promotions but is known for his time in New Japan Pro Wrestling (NJPW) and All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW). What’s interesting is Hase was doing double duty as a professional wrestler and politician.
It started in 1995 when Hase was elected to the Japanese House of Counselors, becoming the 2nd to do it. Antonio Inoki was the 1st, and I will get to him later, don’t worry. That’s not all for Hase in the 2000s as a politician as he became a member of the House of Representatives for Ishikawa Prefecture.
Hase also served other roles, including becoming the Senior Vice Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology, and eventually was a part of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s cabinet. Today, Hase is the Governor of Ishikawa Prefecture and could get more years depending on how re-election goes.
Remember the Killer Bees tag team in the 1980’s. I do, and they were a fun tag team with Jim Brunzell and Brian B Blair. Did you know that Brian B Blair was involved in politics? That’s right; he ran for office multiple times in the 2000s.
Blair was elected as the County Commissioner of District 6 for Hillsborough County in Florida. He held that role from 2004-2008, and it is fascinating that he lost the 2008 election to Kevin Beckner, the first openly gay candidate/commissioner.
Tony Halme was a former MMA and professional wrestler. In pro wrestling, he wrestled in Herb Abrams UWF, NJPW, Catch Wrestling Association (CWA), and the WWF. He was commonly known under the name Ludwig Borga from 1993-1994.
When Halme’s career in professional wrestling and MMA ended, he entered a political career. Halme was a member of the Finnish Parliament for the Helsinki district from 2003-2008. If there were one word to describe his political career, it would be controversial. Well, let’s start by saying Mr Halme was a homophobic racist. This was a quote that he allegedly said to a prisoner.
“Hey, monkey. Even if I am the fattest person in the world, I can always get skinny, but the skin does not turn white even when washed.”
It didn’t help that not one day into office he went after Finnish president Tarja Halonen stated in a radio interview.
“If a lesbian can be elected president, then why can’t I be elected to parliament?”
What an absolute piece of garbage. But wait, there’s more. It turns out he is also a domestic abuser, drives under the Influence, trafficked drugs, had a gun with no license, assaulted people in public, and even was in a coma for 3 weeks during his tenure. The deeper that I dover reading about his political career, it’s just full of insanity. If the rumors are true that Dark Side of the Ring is doing an episode of Borgia in Season 6, they have to mention his political career.
The Great Sasuke is more notable as a Japanese professional wrestler. He was more known for his time in Michinoku Pro Wrestling as one of their top stars. The Great Sasuke, aka Masanori Murakawa, is known for his political stint. In 2003, Sasuke won a spot in the Iwate Prefectural Assembly as a Legislator. He held this role for a few years and even tried to run for governor of Iwate in 2007, but he failed to secure a bid.
Atsushi Onita is the founder of Frontier Martial Arts Wrestling and is the man who started the growth and popularity of hardcore wrestling and death matches. He legit started doing deathmatches before other promotions in America. Onita also had a career in politics in Japan. A video game inspired by Onita’s time in politics was titled Atsushi Onita’s Political Quiz.
One of the biggest disappointments in the Dark Side of the Ring episode on FMW and Onita is that they didn’t detail Atsushi Onita’s political career. Onita had a spot on the House of Counselors in Japan in 2001 and served until 2007.
Onita’s political career came to an end after a scandal. He was caught using a government hotel room where he had “encounters” with an adult film star and a representative from the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, and Transport. As a result of getting caught, he had to resign from his role.
Jesse “The Body” Ventura has done it all. He was a professional wrestler and commentator, started in movies and TV Series shows, was a bodyguard for the Rolling Stones, served in the US Navy, and is very involved in politics. Ventura began his political venture in 1991 and became the Mayor of Brooklyn Park, Minnesota, from 1991-1995.
Jesse Ventura became the 38th Governor of the state of Minnesota from 1999-2003. A fascinating fact about Ventura is that he’s the only Minnesota governor to win in the Reform Party. Ventura also campaigned to be US President in 2020 in the Green Party but decided to drop out due to health issues.
This is the most prominent and current former professional wrestler now involved in politics. That would be Glenn Jacobs, aka Kane. He is currently the Mayor of Knox County in Tennessee. He has been in that role since 2018 and is currently in his 2nd term.
I won’t talk about current politics because I couldn’t care less. I don’t know anything about politics today, and I don’t want to get involved. However, Mayor Kane did win the 24/7 Championship in 2019, can’t take that away from the record books.
This, to me, is the biggest name in professional wrestling that got involved in politics. After all, Antonio Inoki founded New Japan Pro Wrestling (NJPW), the most significant Japanese pro wrestling company. Inoki was a part of the House of Counselors in the Japanese government from 1989-1995 and 2013-2019. Inoki founded the Sports and Peace Party in politics in Japan and was the party’s leader for a bit. The party today was dissolved in 2006.
A big reason why the Collision in Korea PPV happened in 1995 was due to Inoki’s involvement in politics. At the time, he was going through multiple scandals and wanted to hold a peace festival to make him look better when it came time for reflection. Also, North Korea and Japan were long-time rivals, and Inoki wanted to ensure peace. It didn’t work out the way he wanted as Inoki eventually lost his reelection bid in 1995.
He returned in 2013-2019 and often visited North Korea multiple times to keep the peace. After all, with his close ties to his mentor Rikidozan, he used that as leverage to speak with them. Inoki would get suspended from the government for some of these trips because he didn’t get authorization to do it occasionally. Inoki retired from politics in 2019 due to being in feeble health and will pass away on October 1st, 2022.
So those are the 10 professional wrestlers who got involved in a political career. My question is, who else did I leave out? Let me know in the comments section. Don’t forget to give a like, and check out our other wrestling content. By the way please be respectful in the comments, there is no need to act crazy about this topic.
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