A champion wrestler has vanished from the ring after fans at his last match chanted ‘F--k ICE’ in protest against the Donald Trump administration’s ongoing nationwide deportation drive.
“The deal is that they didn’t want the fans in the arena to be chanting that,” sports commentator Dave Meltzer claimed Thursday on Wrestling Observer Radio. “If Brody [King] came out, there was that risk.”
It follows after an All Elite Wrestling (AEW) event went off the rails in Los Angeles last Wednesday, stunning King, his opponent Maxwell Jacob Friedman and even the commentators into silence as the crowds roared out the anti-Trump slogan.
Both King and Friedman were conspicuously absent from the organization’s broadcast this Wednesday. They remain slated to battle for the Grand Slam Australia title Saturday.
King has made little secret of his contempt for ICE and the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown. He’s previously worn an “Abolish ICE” T-shirt to events and even launched a fundraiser in response to ongoing raids in Minnesota.
Meltzer suggested Thursday the decision to keep King off the airwaves had been made above AEW President Tony Khan’s head by the organization’s distributor, Warner Bros. Discovery.
“This is not a Tony call,” he told listeners. “Nobody wants to get on Trump’s bad side. If it wasn’t for that, nobody would care, it’s just a chant, but unfortunately they’ve got a company they’re trying to sell and get regulatory approval from a guy who is gonna take that stuff personal.”
Warner Bros. Discovery has provisionally agreed to terms for a multi-billion-dollar deal with Netflix that would see Discovery split off into a separate entity, with Netflix taking over a number of Warner Bros. brands, including HBO.
The merger remains subject to approval by the Federal Trade Commission, chaired by Trump appointee Andrew Ferguson, with Paramount Skydance, controlled by Trump allies Larry and David Ellison, continuing efforts to outbid Netflix’s offer.
Meltzer appeared unconvinced that King’s absence from Wednesday’s show will do much to placate the wrestler’s fans. “When he comes back, it will happen again,” he added. “I don’t know how they’re going to handle it.”
Trump, who has not thus far commented publicly on chants of “F--k ICE” at last week’s AEW match, has a well-known affinity for the spandex-clad spectacle.
He’s put in at least seven appearances at WWE events over an almost 30-year period, including a 2007 ring fight with that organization’s now disgraced CEO, Vince McMahon.
Linda McMahon, Vince McMahon’s wife and a former WWE executive, went on to become a major Trump donor.
She served as administrator of the Small Business Administration during his first term, and now serves as Education Secretary in his second.
The Daily Beast has contacted AEW and Warner Bros. Discovery for comment on this story.
