Lavie Margolin Talks ‘TrumpMania’
Reactions to his book have been about 95% positive and 5% using it for toilet paper.
“TrumpMania: Vince McMahon, WWE and the making of America’s 45th President” is the definitive history between President Trump and his real-life friend, on-screen rival and fellow mogul: Vince McMahon. Covering their relationship from the late 1980s to 2017, TrumpMania focuses on not only pro wrestling’s influence on the Commander-in-Chief but also Trump’s overwhelmingly positive effect on WWE. Cartoonist Box Brown, who created Andre the Giant: Life and Legend, also deserves credit for the fun illustrations sprinkled throughout, adding levity to the heavy-duty discussion.
TumpMania is authored by Lavie Margolin, a contributor to WrestlingObserver.com, PW Ponderings and ROH World. Margolin recently spoke with The Wrestling Estate over the phone regarding his childhood love of wrestling, waning interest in the current product and feedback to his take on the most controversial man in America.
The following conversation has been edited for brevity.
Before we talk about TrumpMania, let’s talk about you. How did you discover pro wrestling?
Lavie Margolin: “It was about 30 years ago, interestingly enough, the same time the book begins. In the buildup to WrestleMania 5, the Mega Powers were versing the Twin Towers. Akeem fell on Elizabeth and Hogan was concerned so he went to the back to check on her. Macho was left by himself and got beaten down for quite a while and then had a fit of jealousy seeing Hogan standing over Elizabeth in the back. From there I was really hooked. Being from New York, the WWF was front and center. But I quickly discovered some of the smaller groups especially having cable, things like Herb Abrams’ UWF, IWCCW and Global on ESPN.
Herb Abrams, wow, I feel like he never gets a shout out. Were you a fan of his company?
Margolin: “It was actually interesting because it was the second event I ever went to, and it was so different from the first one. The first I ever went to with my parents was Hulk Hogan taking on Canadian Earthquake at Madison Square Garden. My father had a friend who was a librarian at the school where he worked who mentioned there would be a show at the Penta Hotel with all these names like Paul Orndorff, Cactus Jack Manson, Steve Williams.
So we went and it was fun and it was also in a ballroom. But just kept going and going — it was at least five or six hours by the time we left. My father said he just couldn’t take it anymore. But it was wonderful to meet the wrestlers and get Bruno Sammartino’s autograph. I liked watching it on SportsChannel, but I knew it was a few notches below because you’d see the same matches run over and over again. The lighting wasn’t great, but there was something fun in the grittiness of it.”
At what point did you realize, I love wrestling so much that I want to contribute somehow?
Margolin: “I had different waves of that. Growing up as a kid, I thought I’d be in the industry full time. Like many kids, I found the WWF address and solicited random jobs throughout school. I never really got too far with that. So I studied marketing and I love connecting my studies with wrestling. When you think of Vince McMahon, you think of his marketing machine. One of my writings can actually be found in a scholarly journal.
I went into a different field but sort of kept in touch with the industry. For the Wrestling Observer, I’d do book reviews on the website because I always loved reading wrestling books. In the last couple years, I officially became interested in the business background. I thought that Ring of Honor was very under reported in terms of a deep dive of their connections to Sinclair Broadcasting Group and their attendance figures and such.”
A lot of your writing is more fact-based, research heavy rather than opinionated. Do you have a journalism background?
Margolin: “I don’t have a journalism background, but I love research. Some people will do a Google search and check out the first two links, but I end up on page 57 because I love digging for more and more information. With TrumpMania, as you mentioned, there were many articles written at the time, most of which were by outsiders with the exception of people like David Bixenspan, who is doing wonderful work these days.
I thought it would be a very surface-level book, but the more that I dug, the more that I found. I love finding little tidbits like Trump being involved in wrestling that you might not know about, like hosting a GLOW event that was supposed to attract gamblers at one of his smaller casinos.”
At what point did you come up with this concept? Was it well into the campaign or after he had won the election?
Margolin: “It was post-election. My wife and I would watch the debates with fascination, and at that time, more of humor. When you looked at the polls, Trump always looked so far behind even when he won the Republican nomination. It was hard to take it seriously, at least from our perspective. When he won the election, we were consumed with Trump information. Then I was talking with a friend about different book topics that I had been thinking about and one of them was the cool backstory behind Trump and professional wrestling. I thought that it would be fun to write about it one day, but my friend said, ‘this is the book. You have to write about it now.’
I was like, now? He was like, yeah! Once I did my research, I realized there was so much out there and I wanted to share that information. It was actually for people upset about Trump winning. It was cathartic for me to delve into this and understand Trump better from that perspective.”
Now that the book has been out for a couple months, what kind of feedback have you been getting?
Margolin: “I’ve been joking with people that about 95% of people are really excited and about 5% of people are very vitriol about it and use it for toilet paper. (laughs) Thankfully, it’s this way because I would be a little depressed if it was the other. People naturally assume because the name is TrumpMania that it would be very negative about Trump, but as you mentioned in your review, it’s clear that I’m not standing on his side, but once people delve into the book, they can see the balance even if they lean closer to one side than the other.”
Absolutely. Even if people disagree with your political slant, they can still take away so much from the book. As wrestling fans, we know about WrestleMania IV and V, Battle of the Billionaires and the Hall of Fame. You pack in so much more.
Margolin: “Yeah, I thought that was the most interesting thing. As fans, we know the storylines like him being owner of Raw. But when you look at it from not only the insider newsletter, which is an important perspective, but the public’s reaction to these things, it’s very interesting. Resources like Newspapers.com were really interesting and helpful.
For example, it just so happened that the Battle of the Billionaires was taking place on April Fool’s Day. So to the public, it was reinforced that someone will actually lose their hair. There will be a payoff. Sometimes as huge fans, we get so wrapped up in ourselves, so it’s important to see how the public reacted, which brings a whole other perspective.”
Speaking of the Battle of the Billionaires, were you following WWE when that happened?
Margolin: “I remember ordering the pay-per-view. Probably around 2001 or 2002 is when my interest waned. WWE acquired WCW and the intellectual rights of ECW and it just didn’t go as well as hoped for. There was also the shock value of the Katie Vick storyline. My interest went away and I didn’t have the consistency of watching every Monday night. But the Battle of the Billionaires storyline just seemed like something I couldn’t miss.”
When your interest waned in WWE, is that when you became a fan of Ring of Honor?
Margolin: “Yes, that’s a good point. I’ve always been more of a live events person than a tape trader, probably because of the interest of time and cost. I loved going to Ring of Honor in its early days, and then when Mike Johnson of PWInsider used to run these wrestling bus trips when you’d go to the Manhattan Center and they’d take you to Elizabeth, New Jersey, or Philadelphia. There would be people on the bus like CM Punk who I had heard the name, but people were so excited and I was like, who is this guy?
Aside from going to shows, I mostly follow wrestling in newsletters and on the internet. I like to hear the podcasts more than watch the shows.”
Well, that’s interesting. How is your interest in the current product?
Margolin: “To sit down and watch a two or three-hour program, I just don’t have the time or dedication to do it. Sometimes I’ll tell myself, okay, I used to love this, but when I put it on, I find myself playing on my iPad or checking the internet or doing some work. But when something catches a buzz, I definitely watch. When The Shield was running hot, that was a group I really enjoyed. Right now, Braun Strowman is certainly interesting to watch to see what they’re going to do with him. Hopefully, they can protect him because he seems to have the most buzz to be a star.”
You know, my favorite part of the book is when you list the different WWE Superstars’ reactions to Trump winning the election. Were you fascinated by this dichotomy?
Margolin: “Yeah, especially in the type of company where you have to be very careful about what you say. They’re always watching. I think WWE management is still figuring out social media use and the best way to regulate that among their talent. It was interesting to see who was positive about the win like, of course, JBL, and who was expressing major concern, somebody like Sami Zayn, who wasn’t a surprise as he had been very outspoken about it.”
Writing a book is such a massive undertaking on top of your quick turnaround. Would you be interested in writing another one?
Margolin: “Yes, I consider writing as part of my professional trade. As I dove deep into this book, it gave me more confidence to write about wrestling and sparked different ideas. I don’t know if I would write another book about wrestling and Trump, but I could see an expanded edition. There are also different areas of wrestling that haven’t been explored in depth that would be really interesting from a book perspective.
One of them is the Brawl For All. Looking back at it 20 years later, that was such an odd thing in the context of the WWF at the time. Looking back at the Collision in Korea shows, where the pro wrestling attendance record was set. From a political and wrestling perspective, that would be something interesting to look at today. And finally, I don’t know if there is enough information out there, but looking at Vince and Linda McMahon pre-acquisition of WWF. How much can you find out about the Snake River Canyon jump or when they managed the Cape Cod Coliseum?”
“TrumpMania” is available on Amazon. Check out John Corrigan’s review of “TrumpMania.”
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