Trump's Hair on the Line in WWE Wager
Mar 28, 5:24 PM (ET)
By CLIFF BRUNT
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) - Imagine The Donald - without the hair. It could become reality, thanks to World Wrestling Entertainment owner Vince McMahon.
On Sunday, he and Donald Trump will have a wrestler compete on each's behalf in the "Battle of the Billionaires" at WrestleMania 23 in Detroit - the WWE's biggest annual pay-per-view event.
If
Umaga beats
Bobby Lashley, McMahon will give Trump what some might call a long-overdue buzz. If Lashley, Trump's rep, wins, McMahon will sport a new look.
Trump, the real estate mogul and star of NBC's "The Apprentice," knows his 'do isn't popular with some fans.
"A lot of people want to see it shaved," he told The Associated Press in a phone interview from his New York office. "I do get criticized, there's no question about it, although I've never had any problem with it. It certainly has seemed to work."
Trump deserves to be humiliated, McMahon said during an interview before an edition of "WWE Monday Night Raw" in Indianapolis.
"Hopefully, I have really dull scissors so I can yank the rest of it out that I can't cut," McMahon said. "But I may be surprised how much Mother Nature has already beaten me to the punch. I won't know that until I start cutting."
McMahon credited Bonnie Hammer, president of the USA and Sci-Fi networks, with the idea to get Trump involved in WrestleMania.
"Donald Trump, to a certain extent, represents a great deal of Americana," McMahon said. "He's larger than life, which really fits into what the WWE is."
Trump, 60, was hesitant to participate. He said the 61-year-old McMahon persuaded him by making a "sizable" donation to charity. Both Trump and McMahon will donate their checks, an amount McMahon said should exceed $5 million.
"When he wanted me to be on, I thought about it," Trump said. "Actually, it was hard because I prefer not having my head shaved."
If the 6-foot-3, 273-pound Lashley loses to Umaga, a 6-foot-4, 348-pound "Samoan Bulldozer," before an expected 70,000 fans, he'll likely hear these words: You're fired.
That's sure to annoy his real boss, McMahon, who takes exception to Trump using that phrase.
McMahon argued he first used it with his wrestlers a few years ago, long before Trump popularized it on "The Apprentice."
"I'll take credit for that line," Trump said. "I didn't know Vince used that line."
That reaction was no surprise to McMahon.
"Why would he?" McMahon said. "He's such an elitist, he wouldn't watch our product. He wouldn't know what's going on in the real world."
He does know WWE. WrestleMania IV in 1988 and WrestleMania V in 1989 were held at Trump Plaza Hotel and Casino in Atlantic City, N.J.
Now, the partnership is paying off again. WrestleMania 23 already has topped $5 million in ticket sales, making it the highest grossing one-day live event in WWE history.
