Trump's odd 8 days as "owner" of WWE's Monday Night Raw

In celebration of the 25th Anniversary of the WWE's Monday Night Raw on 1/22/18 and the release of TrumpMania: Vince McMahon, WWE and the making of America's 45th President, let's take a closer look at possibly the most famous person to appear on the program. Donald Trump has appeared on Raw several times. The most noteworthy was the Battle of the Billionaires but let's examine a truly odd two weeks in which Trump appeared:

On the June 15th 2009 edition of Monday Night Raw from Charlotte, North Carolina, Vince McMahon announced that he had “sold” Raw to Donald Trump – something that was in fact pure storyline.  Trump was not in attendance for the big announcement that he was now the owner; McMahon was instead interacting with a video of Trump. The fans were not exactly impressed and either reacted with groans or didn’t react at all to the news. Fans had a difficult time suspending disbelief. McMahon said that Raw would be independently owned and operated. What exactly was McMahon selling in selling Raw? This was not made clear. Trump did make it clear that he would not be in attendance every week but promised to do things that had “never been done before, never been seen before.”

Similar to the satellite interactions of McMahon-Trump in 2007, the feed appeared mistimed and Trump was talking before McMahon had a chance to respond. Trump, looking very orange (likely due to an aggressive spray tan), said that he was now the sole owner of Raw and he would make sure the fans were shown appreciation. McMahon denied that he hadn’t treated the fans well. Trump, in a potential first of invoking the President at the time, Barack Obama, said that McMahon should “Give back” (which Trump repeated for emphasis, similar to previous phrases).Trump announced that the following week’s program would air commercial-free, thanks to his generosity. McMahon thought Trump had lost his mind. Trump reminded Vince of the time he shaved  his head. McMahon would be in attendance to say goodbye. Before Trump was done for the evening, he ordered a pay-per-view worthy matchup between two top competitors next week: Triple H versus Randal Orton, known as Randy Orton (a third-generation wrestler), in a Last Man Standing match. Giving away a match that could draw money on pay-per-view, along with the commercial-free episode, were both genuine expenses for the promotion: USA paid WWE $550,000 per episode and would want to be compensated for the loss of commercial revenue. This would not be the end of “giving away money” in the Trump storyline.

Most newsworthy was that USA Network sent out a press release regarding the sale, entitled “Trump buys Raw- first show commercial free”: World Wrestling Entertainment announced the sale of its ratings juggernaut, Monday Night Raw, on USA Network to Donald Trump. The terms of the deal were not disclosed. Commenting on the deal, WWE Chairman Vince McMahon stated, "This was an offer I couldn't refuse."

The storyline “sale” was considered an actual financial transaction by many business outlets. For example, on June 16th 2009, StreetInsider.com ran the headline, “Donald Trump Buys World Wrestling Entertainment’s (WWE) Monday Night Raw”. The story listed that terms of the deal were not disclosed and, as per the press release, said it was an offer that McMahon could not refuse. The article was filed on the site in the “Corporate News, Mergers & Acquisitions” category. Once the news organizations realized it was a storyline, many pulled their reports. Some business analysts wondered how a publicly traded company could provide information in this confusing manner. The USA Network had to issue an apology: “USA Network and WWE issued a press release on June 16th that referred to Monday Night Raw’s storyline of a ‘sale’ of WWE’s Raw to Donald Trump. We intended the release to be promotional for that ongoing story arc on the series. There is no such actual ‘sale’. We apologize for any inconvenience.” The stock price dipped as a result of the confusion related to the sale, at one point being down seven percent.

The following week, Donald Trump took up a significant portion of the show-opening song for Raw, as well as his properties and holdings (it was too bad that it could only be used for one week). A Trump Logo was now affixed to the Raw logo, most resembling a gold bar. Announcer Michael Cole welcomed fans to the Donald Trump era. The fans were ready this time for Trump, as there were several signs shown on screen including, “Got Trump?”, Trump Trump$ McMahon”, “Trump>McMahon”, “Raw Got Trumped”, and most curiously given the WWE’s high praise for Trump’s business acumen, “Trump finally invested in something good!”

Trump announced from the ring that all of the fans in attendance would get their money back, a return of $230,000 to paying fans (or as Trump stated, $245,000). Naturally, this led to cheers. He said that he is the only one that would do that for fans. Signs were posted in the arena as to how fans could receive the refund of their money. Trump emphasized that the fans should wait until the show is over to inquire about a refund, a line driven by a fear of many fans leaving their seats to get a refund while the show was ongoing. The return of the money did not sit well with some of the 10% of the WWE’s workforce that had been cut within the last couple of months as a cost-cutting move. Trump reminded fans that he provided a top-notch match for the night, better than McMahon would have given them.

Trump began talking about WrestleMania XXVI but McMahon’s music interrupted him. After experiencing one night of on-screen frustration (and one week of disappointing fan interest), the McMahon character was ready to wave the white flag. McMahon felt that he was being setup by Trump, in that Trump would force McMahon to financially support Raw and McMahon would eventually go bankrupt by letting fans in for free and not having any commercial television revenue. With Trump serving as the owner in the storyline, this argument did not exactly make sense but rash decisions had to be made and some sort of reason given. Vince McMahon would have to buy back the show.

In order to demonstrate his sharp business acumen in the storyline, Trump did not agree to a sale until McMahon offered double the purchase price (in a conversation that stretched on with offers to Trump of the price he paid plus 25% interest, 50% interest and so on). Trump was not willing to take a lowball offer as he said that since he bought Raw, he could do whatever he wants. The fans were quiet when Trump shook McMahon’s hand on the deal. McMahon invoked Trump’s best-selling book once again, The Art of the Deal, in saying he knew Trump has to negotiate but it wasn’t fair.

Once both parties had agreed on a price, the McMahon character felt emboldened again and threatened Trump. He told him that if he ever saw him again (or any affiliated Trump logos), he would knock him on his billionaire butt. McMahon than told Trump, “You’re fired!”, a phrase that they both made famous on different programs. The storyline was left open ended as Trump slapped McMahon in a final act of defiance. The fans, despite being given up on by Trump in pursuit of a solid return on his investment, chanted his name in unison. Trump slapped McMahon. This would make a total of three physical attacks by Trump on McMahon, without any retaliation. The announcers were quick to point  out that, “We’ve just seen the Art of the Deal!” The June 22nd show was a rating success with a 4.53 Nielsen rating and 6.8 million viewers. It was the highest rated show since March of 2004. Viewership increased to 7.8 million viewers by hour two.Variety credited Trump for the ratings success, and did not mention that the episode being commercial free might have helped with the overall rating. Despite the rating success, the decision was made before the second episode featuring Trump to end his involvement as the owner of Raw. The original storyline was scheduled for much longer than one week but McMahon was not impressed with the reaction that it received from the fans. The storyline as originally planned might have carried the company for six months (or even into WrestleMania XXVI, as Trump briefly alluded to).

This is an excerpt from TrumpMania: Vince McMahon, WWE and the making of America's 45th President. The full version of this story appears in Chapter 5, "Donald Trump: Owner of Raw".