Linda McMahon, in her campaign to unseat U.S. Sen. Christopher Dodd, has repeatedly distanced herself from the business that made her rich and propelled her aspiring political career — professional wrestling.
In TV commercials and campaign brochures, McMahon mentions that she operated a highly successful business with her husband that had once gone bankrupt. But the commercials never mention wrestling.
Now, one of the best-known champion wrestlers of the 1970s and '80s is bursting from behind the curtain, vaulting the ropes and trying to disrupt the match in progress — an annoyance and political distraction that McMahon does not need.
Superstar Billy Graham is speaking out against the woman he says made millions from the violence, sexual exploitation, blood and excesses of professional wrestling. What outrages him particularly, he says, are recent attempts to sanitize the wrestling mega-enterprise whose sexy women wrestlers once performed in "lingerie matches" and were still posing nude in Playboy as recently as 2008. He views this toning down as a huge act of hypocrisy — an attempt to graft a family-friendly face onto a business that has been anything but.
After operating the highly successful World Wrestling Entertainment empire for years with her husband, Vince, Linda McMahon has resigned as chief executive officer and is campaigning full time against four fellow Republicans for the right to face Dodd in November 2010.
Graham makes no bones about his love-hate relationship with the McMahons, which started years before Linda McMahon emerged as a candidate for public office. The WWE, an attorney for Vince McMahon and Linda McMahon's campaign all denounce Graham as a bitter former employee with zero credibility.
http://www.courant.com/news/politics/hc-superstar-mcmahon-critic-111.artnov18,0,1720312,print.story
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