Knox County, Tennessee Mayor Glenn Jacobs told Newsmax on Tuesday that he has challenged Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz to a charity wrestling match after the governor said he could beat most supporters of President Donald Trump in a "WWE fight-type thing."
Walz, while joking with California Gov. Gavin Newsom during a recent interview on Newsom's podcast, said he thought he could beat "most" Trump supporters in a wrestling match akin to the WWE.
"I think I could kick most of their a**. I do think that. I know I can outrun them, but I don't know if we're going to fall into that place of, OK, we're going to challenge you to a WWE fight-type thing."
Jacobs, a WWE Hall of Fame member who performed under the ring name "Kane" for decades, said in an interview with Newsmax's "Wake Up America" on Tuesday that his "first reaction" to Walz's comment "obviously, was to laugh at the thought of Tim Walz being a tough guy. My next reaction was that that was completely inappropriate for an elected official to say something like that. If I'd said that, if Donald Trump had said that, we'd be excoriated for threatening people and trying to intimidate folks."
He continued, "Obviously with Tim Walz its a little bit different situation. But then I thought, you know, if he really wants to do this, if he really thinks that he can kick Trump supporters butts, well, here's one right here. And in the process of doing so, proving his words, we can raise a lot of money for charity."
Jacobs added, "Shockingly, I haven't heard anything yet" from Walz about his challenge, adding, "I'm still waiting, but in all seriousness, this would be a lot of fun."
Jacobs noted that he's "not in ring shape" having been retired from wrestling for about six years, but offered to "agree to a stipulation like having one arm tied behind my back or wrestling blindfolded, or really anything that would make him feel comfortable getting in the ring with me."
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Theodore Bunker ✉
Theodore Bunker, a Newsmax writer, has more than a decade covering news, media, and politics.
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