Pro Wrestling's New Bad Guy: The 'Progressive Liberal'

In the early 1980s, professional wresting relied on an Iranian sheikh and various large men with Russian accents to draw the ire of fans. In the late 1990s, an arrogant, millionaire boss served as the magnet for boos.

Today, in a sign of the times, a wrestler calling himself the “Progressive Liberal” now feels the heat.

Performing for an outfit called Appalachian Mountain Wrestling, the Progressive Liberal predictably makes the audience his enemy. His moves include smugness, condescension, and whining, none of which do him much good in the ring but they all do wonders for his heel persona.

“You people need to be reprogrammed,” the Progressive Liberal lectures Eastern Kentucky wrestling fans. “You continually vote against your own interests.” He wears a “Not My President” shirt, corrects the pronunciation (“creek” and not “crick”) of Appalachians, and refers to people he dislikes as “Fox News maggots.” He informs Kentuckians that they need to reject coal in favor of clean energy. He tells them to trade in their “bullets” for his “bullet points of knowledge.”