That Time Hillary Clinton Said Pro Wrestling Was Un-American

Following from last night's historic U.S. presidential debate, which is expected to have drawn around 100 million domestic viewers (crazy!) and certainly damaged Monday Night Raw's viewership there has been a lot of emphasis about how Donald Trump vs. Hillary Clinton is drawing parallels with the world of professional wrestling - a slanging match some might say!

In fact, it's spawned many meme's and jokes over the last few months, with some suggesting the pair should get into a WWE ring and settle it once and for all, I'm sure Vince McMahon would oblige! 

All this focus on the parallels to professional wrestling have recently brought to light something which wrestling fans may or may not find surprising - Hillary Clinton isn't a fan of professional wrestling, she thinks it's un-American. You can hardly blame her, WWE did once have her and Barack Obama (bad actors) fight it out in a bizarrely humiliating match on Monday Night Raw a few years back.

A few years ago Clinton was Testifying before the U.S. Foreign Policy Priorities Committee and blamed professional wrestling, in part, for damaging the perception of America abroad. The speech which aired on C-SPAN had Clinton saying Russia were exporting "instructive" information through English news services while America was exporting inferior programming.

"I remember having an Afghan general tell me that the only thing he thought about Americans is that all the men wrestled and the women walked around in bikinis because the only TV he ever saw was Baywatch and World Wide Wrestling," she lectured with a stern face to the sitting members of the U.S. Foreign Policy Priorities Committee.

Clinton further blamed wrestling for being at "counter purposes to what we truly are as Americans," leading to "Al Jazeera winning." 

Donald Trump on the other hand considers WWE Chairman Vince McMahon and his wife Linda close personal friends, having hosted a couple WrestleMania's in the early 90s and even appearing at one himself in which he shaved Vince bald!

Do you think professional wrestling has damaged the perception of America abroad?