Working the Marks: How TKO, ESPN, and Modern Politics Play the Same Room
If you want a masterclass in how to successfully work the entire internet into a frenzy, look no further than the convergence of modern media, corporate wrestling, and political staging.
We are living in an era where the lines between a total shoot and a calculated work have completely dissolved, and nobody demonstrates this better than the parallel playbooks of President Donald Trump, TKO, and ESPN.
To understand how we got here, you have to look at the old-school ties. Trump and Vince McMahon weren't just operating in adjacent worlds; they were old friends who spent decades studying each other's moves.
They practically learned from one another—exchanging blueprints on how to manipulate mainstream media, turn real-life controversies into high-drawing angles, and treat public attention as currency.
Trump ran a masterclass on the American public by campaigning on the grand illusion of keeping out of endless conflicts, only to govern right back into the machine, while TKO and ESPN continuously run that exact same play on wrestling fans forever.
How TKO, ESPN, and Modern Fans Got Lost in the Sauce
You saw the modern evolution of that shared DNA play out in real-time with the internet crusade against BJ Bethel. A massive mob of fans eagerly locked shields and rallied together, fully convinced they were fighting the good fight.
But step back for a second and look at who they actually ended up protecting: TKO. A multi-billion-dollar corporate juggernaut that practically invented the modern media stonewall and gets zero positive PR on a good day.
Look at how the same marks lost their minds over Mick Foley.
Fans spent weeks tearing into him for signing with AEW after he walked away from WWE over their political alignments, acting like a guy universally known as one of the best human beings in the business had committed a cardinal sin.
TKO Group not-so-secretly WORKS with Team Vision Dojo Owner, PDF File Chasyn Rance, Bayley’s protégé Izzy currently holds a title at his Atomic.
Not many go against the tiny demon….Foley did.
What did these geniuses want?
Foley to be a registered card-carrying conservative or just crawl away and never be involved in wrestling again? Meanwhile, TKO literally has Linda McMahon occupying a major government post, yet somehow that flies under the radar.
There's zero comparison, but the fake wrestling journalists and corporate mouthpieces feed the outrage machine so the marks have something new to scream about every five minutes.
The fans are completely lost in the sauce.
They get so caught up in the instantaneous, tribal rush of social media outrage that they become unpaid security guards for the exact corporate interests trying to milk them.
THE Best Human in Pro Wrestling.
Psychological Warfare
It’s the exact same psychological trap a political campaign lays out for voters—convince the audience that they're part of some noble resistance while they're actually just marching to the beat of a pre-scripted corporate drumbeat.
Whether it's Vince and Trump laying down the original foundation for cross-pollinating entertainment and influence, or modern TKO and ESPN executives managing public perception through carefully curated media loops, the goal has never changed: keep the marks arguing over the undercard while the office counts the gate.
That captures the Trump political parallel, drags the Foley internet discourse into the light, and puts a stamp on how twisted the fake media apparatus has made the fanbase.
