WWE WrestleMania Flashback: ‘Battle of the Billionaires’
By Luke Norris
Twenty years after WrestleMania III and the biggest match in the history of professional wrestling, the “Showcase of the Immortals” returned to Detroit in 2007 for another marquee matchup, Bobby Lashley vs. Umaga.
Wait, what? Lashley and Umaga are phenomenal athletes and were very capable of putting on a good match with no extra fanfare, but that certainly was not the case when WrestleMania 23 rolled around. No, the focus here was the rivalry between Vince McMahon and Donald Trump. Yes, the current President of the United States of America.
In reality, Vince McMahon and Donald Trump had been great friends for years. Trump hosted WrestleMania IV and WrestleMania V back in the late 80s in Atlantic City, and it’s not a surprise that these two became pals. Trump also made an appearance at WrestleMania XX in an interview with Jesse “The Body” Ventura, who asked him if he would support a Ventura run to the White House. Pretty funny, right? What’s even funnier was Jerry Lawler wondering out loud if there would ever come a day where we might see Donald Trump’s name on a ballot. Add psychic to the list of The King’s accolades.
So when Trump found his way back into the pop culture scene with the success of The Apprentice, Vince saw the dollar signs and decided to bring The Donald back into the WWE mix 10 years ago. Celebrities have always been a big part of WrestleMania, and it’s funny to look back on things a decade later and realize that the future leader of the free world is now the biggest celebrity to ever take part in the biggest live event in entertainment.
The whole thing got started when two local wrestlers impersonated Trump and his real-life rival, Rosie O’Donnell, in a match on Monday Night RAW. Not taking too kindly to the stunt, Trump showed up in late January on the TitanTron on “Fan Appreciation Night” and proceeded to drop loads of cash into the arena after McMahon had insulted the live audience, thus sparking the feud that would come to be known as “The Battle of the Billionaires.”
Trump finally showed up live on RAW a few weeks later and challenged Vince to a match at WrestleMania, but McMahon declined, saying that doctors had told him that he should never wrestle again. But that didn’t mean that they couldn’t make things interesting, and they agreed to find guys to fight for them and added a stipulation to up the ante. Whomever’s wrestler lost had to shave their head. Both Trump and Vince had long been known for their respective manes, and this actually sounded kind of fun. Donald picked ECW Champion Bobby Lashley (yes, this is during the WWECW thing), whom he once called “Bobby Lindsay, a black gentleman and the strongest man I’ve ever seen” and Vince went with Intercontinental Champion Umaga. And in case you’re wondering, neither title was on the line for the match.
A contract signing was bound to happen, and it did, and the two actually started talking poll numbers about who the WWE Universe and celebrities wanted to win. Yep, Trump was talking numbers even back then. They traded jabs at one another in what was more than a 20-minute segment, and it was official. And have I forgotten to mention that Stone Cold Steve Austin was named as the guest referee? So there’s that as well, and that comes into play a little later.
WrestleMania 23 finally arrived and “The Battle of the Billionaires” was on. Umaga and Lashley were just pawns here, and it’s unfortunate because as I mentioned earlier, they were both very good athletes and could have put on a hard-hitting match without all the bravado. But the crowd was there to see a rich guy get his head shaved and a few Stone Cold Stunners, and they would get all of that eventually. There was still a match to get through, and Lashley and Umaga did the best they could with the environment they had. The entrances for this match took forever, but the action was decent once the match got started. Lashley got the upper hand at the start, but Umaga fought back and started to fight a little dirty, which got Stone Cold involved as he even pulled Umaga’s hair to get him to break a chokehold. Tension was building.
Umaga still had the edge, and Trump looked completely out of place at ringside but was able to muster some “let’s go, Bobby” and “get up, Bobby” encouragement at his guy. Vince, on the other hand, was being Vince and getting involved. He made his faces and got up on the apron, which of course he was knocked off of, which brought Shane down to the ring. Umaga was beating Lashley in the corner and once again wouldn’t break, so Austin again got himself involved and received a Samoan Spike for his troubles. That brought Shane into the ring ,and after some of his trademark jabs (which have never looked good) and his coast-to-coast trashcan spot (that’s always looked good), he took off his shirt to reveal that he was sporting a referee shirt. Umaga hit a big splash and Shane went to count but was pulled out of the ring by Austin, who was back in the mix but took another shot from Umaga.
Vince was now barking at Stone Cold, but from out of nowhere, Donald Trump ran over and hits a massive clothesline on the chairman. Okay, maybe it wasn’t massive but it was …something. He followed it up with some of the worst punches in WWE history, but the crowd was going crazy at this point. Maybe that’s why Trump won Michigan in the election. Austin then hit a Stunner on Umaga and Lashley finished it off with a spear. Trump had won “The Battle of the Billionaires,” but Vince wasn’t quite ready to get his head shaved. He tried to sneak away but Lashley ran up the ramp after him and literally carried him back to the ring, at which point the 80,000 people at Ford Field got what they really came to see.
The barber chair was set up in the ring and Vince was strapped in. You were almost expecting Brutus Beefcake to make an appearance, but it wasn’t to be. Lashley and Trump took clippers to Vince’s dome, and this was actually happening. But this wasn’t one of those quick jobs with just a little bit taken off here and there. They really took all of his hair off. Shaving cream was added and they even got razors to finish the job.
This is what I’ve always loved about Vince McMahon. He’s willing to go through absolutely anything for his audience, and if that means looking like a fool in front of 80,000 people in attendance and the millions watching around the world on pay-per-view (no, I’m not really trying to rip off Michael Buffer here) just to entertain, then that’s what he’s going to do, and this really was pretty funny. But things weren’t done just yet.
McMahon was now out of the ring, and it was time to celebrate Stone Cold style so that means a few beers. So Lashley and Trump joined him, and then it happened: Stone Cold Steve Austin gave Donald Trump a Stunner. That’s right, Stone Cold Steve Austin assaulted the future President of the United States and then just walked up the ramp laughing. Incredible.
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Donald Trump would show up again in WWE a couple of years later in an angle where he bought Monday Night RAW out from under Vince, and while that whole thing was fun enough, it never matched the coverage, the shock value and the overall entertainment that was “The Battle of the Billionaires.”