Wrestling's New Heel, "The Progressive Liberal"

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Wrestling's New Heel, "The Progressive Liberal"

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From this morning's Washington Post. Seems there's a new heel on the indy circuit, The Progressive Liberal, with his finishing move, The Liberal Agenda. The guy's a genius. He's gonna sell a lot of ticket...if he doesn't end up getting himself killed !


Wrestling’s new villain named himself ‘Progressive Liberal.’ Hillary’s on his shirt.
By Travis M. Andrews

It was a strange sight, even for the “sport” of professional wrestling. A wrestler holding a microphone faced an Appalachian crowd before a match and began unleashing a torrent of insults, the nature of which seemed out of place at a pro wrestling tournament.

“I understand now why you all identify with country music. It’s slow and it’s simple and it’s boring, just like each and every one of you.” As the crowd grew increasing hostile, the wrestler’s remarks became more politically-tinged.

“You know what, I think Bernie Sanders would make a great Secretary of State. I want to exchange your bullets for bullet points. Bullet points of knowledge.” He even called Donald Trump a “con man.” The crowd exploded in jeers. “Shut up,” someone yelled. Strange, indeed. But then, the muscular man’s shirt read, “Not My President.”

Meet the wrestler who goes by the name “Progressive Liberal” Dan Richards, the most hated character in Kentucky’s Appalachian Mountain Wrestling (AMW) program, a small professional wrestling circuit.

Professional wrestling has long included villain characters called heels, someone for the audience to cheer against. Traditionally, though, these are burly, angry men who do “evil” things such as pledging allegiance to the devil or sneak-attacking other wrestlers with chairs and ladders. He’s burly enough, at 6 feet 5 inches tall. But he praises not the devil but Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders. This might be the first case when a character became a villain by espousing liberal dogma. And it seems to be working — he’s caught the attention of Deadspin, Sports Illustrated, even the right-wing Breitbart.

The latter called him “a wrestling heel for the Trump era,” and wrote, “His moves include smugness, condescension, and whining.”

His shtick is simple. He plays a smug liberal elitist who lectures the audience on political matters. His enemies are “Fox News maggots.” His fictional character hails from Washington, D.C. His wrestling shorts bear a donkey. He insults his fans’ Appalachian accents, correcting them — “Do you live in a holler? No, you live in a hollow.” He even calls his finishing signature wrestling move the “Liberal Agenda.”

In one promo video, he wore a shirt patterned with dozens of photos of Hillary Clinton’s face, patched together in a strange collage, and he addressed AMW’s fans: “You people need to be reprogrammed. You continually vote against your own interests. You put people in Congress and the White House that aren’t going to help you. They’re not going to bring your jobs back.” These may not sound like the most scathing of insults, but at a time when politics are a breeding ground for intense, burning emotion, it seems to work brilliantly.

Regardless of how much Richards plays up the left-wing politics to crowds in Kentucky and nearby states, it works. Look no further than the videos to see that those crowds despise him. There’s a kid in the crowd telling him to shut up, and relentless jeers, or Trump masks worn by attendees. And even the occasional death threat. …, at a 2016 show in West Virginia, where Richards spoke about taking everyone’s guns, a patron displayed a pistol in a holster on his right hip and started rubbing it. Another time, one fan threatened that if “that f — king liberal” showed up at a different show, he’d bring his gun.

The “Progressive Liberal” is really Daniel Harnsberger, a 36-year-old real estate agent from Richmond, who had been on the indie wrestling circuit for years before conceiving of the character. Once he did, he simply waited for the prime moment to unveil it — which he found in 2015 in Sabine, W. Va.

“It was a small crowd and I had freedom to do whatever I wanted that night, so I just decided to get on the mic — and this is maybe a couple months after Trump started running. Who knew the guy was gonna be president?” Harnsberger told Sports Illustrated. “So I did this interview on the house mic and I said, ‘If he’s elected president, I hope Trump doesn’t build a wall around Mexico. Instead I hope he builds it around this town so none of you people can infiltrate the population.’”

“The ire that statement got, I knew I was onto something,” he added. “Even then, those fans were chanting, ‘Trump! Trump! Trump!’”

Part of the trick is that his character’s politics are “not much of a stretch” from his own, as he told Deadspin.

“It’s not like I’m pretending to be something I’m not,” he told Sports Illustrated. “I’m just turning it up. I hear Trump chants everywhere I go now, as soon as I walk out.” The men he wrestles alongside tend to be staunch Republicans who so hate Democrats that Beau James, an administrator with AMW, pretends to feed Harnsberger his lines. “He’s protecting me,” he said.

Despite the anger he’s provoked — or, more likely, because of it — Harnsberger plans to continue wrestling as the “Progressive Liberal” Dan Richards. After all, it kills two birds with one stone, both fueling his wrestling career and allowing him to spread his beliefs.

“I wish Democrats would be as unapologetic as Republicans are,” he said. ” just be unapologetic with your policies and who you are. That’s how the Progressive Liberal is. I’m unapologetic.”
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Re: Wrestling's New Heel, "The Progressive Liberal"

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Oops. Just realized I posted this in the wrong place. Maybe a Mod can move it to the Pro Wrestling section..............
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Re: Wrestling's New Heel, "The Progressive Liberal"

Post by Greg2600 »

Sounds hilarious, wish heels did this still. Now they're just clowns. Even funnier is how he's preaching a liberal agenda to impoverished people most in need of it, yet too ignorant to see it. Then again, when grown adults get pissed off by a wrestling character, probably earned their lot in life.
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Re: Wrestling's New Heel, "The Progressive Liberal"

Post by ICW »

As a proud progressive liberal, this is hilarious and a great idea
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Re: Wrestling's New Heel, "The Progressive Liberal"

Post by mrira »

Interesting idea, but I doubt WWE would allow a gimmick like this to go over. I think some American wrestler's in Mexico have been doing Pro-Trump gimmicks & getting good heat.
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Re: Wrestling's New Heel, "The Progressive Liberal"

Post by crowbar »

Nice... this is what wrestling used to be all about. Like Iron Shiek, get people to REALLY hate you and you'll make huge bucks.
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Re: Wrestling's New Heel, "The Progressive Liberal"

Post by 16times »

And in this corner, hailing from Washington, DC. He is........The Progressive LIBERAL !!!!

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO !!

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Re: Wrestling's New Heel, "The Progressive Liberal"

Post by Greg2600 »

Ha ha ha! Actually, I think progressives would even take issue with the Hillary shirt! Not too fond of her either. If this guy ever wants to move up, he may need to hit the weight room. Perhaps my favorite was Ravishing Rick Rude when he would get on the mic and call everyone fat and ugly!

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Re: Wrestling's New Heel, "The Progressive Liberal"

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This is an indy gimmick, I don't think it needs to be judged on how it would work in WWE, it really isn't meant to. This is pretty clever though
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Re: Wrestling's New Heel, "The Progressive Liberal"

Post by AJLe »

So many cheap heat possibilities:

-Gets pinned in a match, at the next show he files an injunction for a "recount" of the 1-2-3.

-Accuses the babyface authority figure of colluding with the Russians, leading to Nikolai Volkoff getting booked against him at the next show.

-Claims to "identify as a black man who's trapped in a white body", then accuses his opponents of being racist against him - even if they actually are black.

-Company plays the national anthem to start the show, he comes out and takes a knee

-Comes out against the company having championships, demands that the company instead issues "Participation Belts" to everybody on the roster.
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Re: Wrestling's New Heel, "The Progressive Liberal"

Post by oscargamble »

AJLe wrote: June 28th, 2017, 11:16 am -Comes out against the company having championships, demands that the company instead issues "Participation Belts" to everybody on the roster.
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Re: Wrestling's New Heel, "The Progressive Liberal"

Post by ICW »

You should tell the booing crowd, "I don't care if you boo me, you fuckers are going to be dead when the idiot president takes your health insurance away!"

He might not make it out alive.
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