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The Libertarian Wrestler
The education of Val Venis
by
Bill Winter [August
31] As World Wrestling Federation star Val Venis prepares to face off
against "The One" Billy Gunn in a televised match on Sunday
Night Heat, he's planning to do something very libertarian. It
isn't the neck-breaker or the Russian leg sweep. Venis tries those moves
during the match, but Gunn kicks out each time, to the delight of the
sold-out audience. It
isn't the Octopus submission hold, which Venis attempts after Gunn drops
him to the canvas with a thundering tilt-a-whirl slam. It isn't the series of right-hand jabs to his opponent's head, which Gunn counters with a clothesline off the ropes, leaving Venis flat on his back. And it isn't
Venis's dejected walk out of the arena at the end of the match, after Gunn
pins him with his signature finishing move, the One and Only, and then
struts around the ring as flashbulbs glitter and the crowd roars in
approval. No, as Val Venis
-- the larger-than-life alter ego of professional wrestler Sean Morley --
leaves the Skyreach Center in Edmonton, Alberta, on May 29, he is planning
to get surgery on his hip to repair the damage from almost two decades of
professional wrestling. But not in
Canada, where, as a Canadian citizen, Morley is entitled to
"free" health care. He is going to
the United States for the surgery. Because Morley – perhaps the only
proudly public libertarian in the WWF -- scorns the "socialistic
health care system" of his native land. "I'm against
the public health care system here in Canada," he says. "It's
slowly starting to show deterioration, they're making cuts to it, they're
trying to find funding for it... Expensive and inefficient are only some
of the problems. How does a six-month waiting list for an MRI sound to
you?" It's typical of
Morley: Mention any political topic -- whether it's politicians, gun
control, censorship, the War on Drugs, welfare, or health care -- and he's
got an opinion. He's also got a polished delivery, honed by years of
playing to wrestling crowds around the globe. As you watch him,
you realize: He is Val Venis. He is 6'3"
and 250 pounds of muscle. He is a bad guy
turned good guy turned bad guy in that money-making, trash-talking,
ratings-grabbing, controversy-inspiring behemoth known as the WWF. And he is that
rarest of combinations: The wrestling libertarian philosopher. How does one
become a wrestling philosopher -- libertarian or otherwise? First, one
becomes a wrestler. In Morley's case,
it started in high school in Peterborough, Canada, where he competed on
the school's wrestling team. Standard, Olympic-style wrestling. He expected to go
on to college in the United States to study aeronautic science. He wanted
to become a commercial helicopter pilot. But Morley was
already bitten by the professional wrestling bug, and started training on
weekends with Dewey Robertson, a former wrestler known as "The
Missing Link." There, Morley
learned the basics: How to fall (to take a "bump," in wrestling
lingo). How to execute the vast arsenal of pro wrestling moves without
hurting himself or his opponent. How to develop a character the crowd
could love or hate. He showed immediate promise, and was offered a job in the British Wrestling Federation the day after he graduated from high school. For the next
seven years, Morley was a pro-wrestling nomad, fighting in the United
States, and Puerto Rico, and Japan, and Mexico. He performed as Scott
Borders in England, and as the mask-wearing Steel in Mexico. Then, in late
1997, he got a call from the "big leagues" -- from Vince
McMahon's WWF. For wrestlers,
that's like getting a call from God. A word about the
WWF. In the
competitive world of professional wrestling, the WWF towers above all
else. It's got the top-rated program on cable television (Monday night's
Raw Is War on TNN) and the top-rated show on the fledgling UPN network
(Thursday night's Smackdown). It's got arguably
the two most popular stars in the "sports entertainment" field:
The Rock and Stone Cold Steve Austin. Its pay-per-view
programs generate millions in revenue, as does its merchandising arm --
which slaps the WWF logo on everything from tee shirts to key chains to
sunglasses. Its live shows sell out across the country. It is so
dominant, in fact, that it recently bought its two main competitors: World
Championship Wrestling (WCW) and Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW).
That's like Coke buying Pepsi and Seven-Up. The WWF is also a
lightning rod for controversy. As the designated "bad boy" of
pro wrestling, it has been criticized for its over-the-top violence, for
parading buxom WWF Divas around in skimpy attire, and for vulgar language.
For groups like the Parent's Television Council, the WWF is the
Anti-Christ in wrestling tights, corrupting the youth of America. But Morley has
little sympathy for the WWF's detractors. "We're here
to entertain people," he says. As for
impressionable children who might want to watch wrestling, "it's
something that the parents have to control" -- not the critics who
"feel they have a right to censor all of North America, and decide
what we can or cannot watch." Morley's
libertarian views on censorship developed slowly -- like his views on most
political topics. He started out, he says, as a typical leftist Canadian. "I was
educated by the public school system in Canada -- a breeding haven for
liberty-robbing liberals," he says. "All through my public
education years, I was taught to be stupid. So by the time I finished high
school, liberalism had taken a chokehold on my bleeding heart. "Hell, here
in Canada we have an extra year of high school just to make sure that the
government has liberalism deeply embedded into its slaves." That began to
change when he started having political discussions with a
libertarian-leaning uncle. "Sometimes
the debates would last for hours," says Morley. "We would debate
issues such as abortion, income tax, welfare, health care. The debates
sometimes got out of control with a lot of yelling and screaming. "Funny thing
was, I was the only one screaming. My uncle always kept his composure.
Needless to say, my debating skills were very shallow because of my public
education. Public education had taught me to think with my heart, not my
head." At the same time, Morley became exposed to libertarian talk show host Neal Boortz, conservative talk show host Alan Keyes, and author Harry Browne. The impact was profound. Meanwhile, in the
WWF, Morley was thinking with his groin. Or, at least, his character was. When he signed
with the WWF in 1998, Morley sat down with CEO and mastermind Vince
McMahon to discuss the character he would play. McMahon had a
proposal: Val Venis, a former porn star-turned-wrestler. It was typical
WWF: A combination of sex and wrestling. Titillations and body slams. Morley agreed,
and started working on the character. Val Venis was transformed from
theory to reality. And Morley was transformed into Val Venis. At matches, Venis
would saunter into the ring wearing a towel around his waist. He would
suggestively remove it, to the wolf whistles of the women in the audience. He formulated a trademark greeting, a growly, "Hellooooo ladies!" He developed a finishing move: The Money Shot, a wink-and-nod reference to the porn business. And along the
way, something interesting happened: Venis, who was supposed to be a bad
guy (a "heel") started winning over the crowd. They cheered for
him. They laughed at his double entendres. They loved the "Big
Valbowski." He was still a
vulgar, trash-talking, former adult movie star -- but he had become a good
guy, a "babyface." And then the porn star saw the light. Sean Morley had
also seen the light. As a fledgling libertarian, he was reformulating his
views on almost every issue. * On welfare:
"I used to think with my heart when it came to issues such as
welfare," he says. "Welfare to me was a right for people who
lost their job or could not work. [But] it wasn't long before I began to
understand that these social programs were really liberty-stealing
programs. "[Government]
is just pure force. 'We're going to force you to be compassionate and give
us your money.' I think that being forced to be compassionate is only good
in a communist country, not in a free country." * On
government-run health care: "A socialist health care system has never
worked on any part of the planet -- and it's never going to work." * On gun control:
"In my bleeding heart days, I firmly believed that government should
ban all guns. I believed guns were the cause of many murders. I never
would blame the murderer. NO WAY! It was all the gun's fault. "I now
believe that every person has a right to bear arms and defend themselves.
If you're walking city streets and a bunch of thugs swarm you and your
family, you have every right to defend yourself. Oh, wait. I forgot. [In
Canada] you're not allowed to carry a gun. [Sarcastic.] Don't fear. Big
daddy government will come to your aid." * On taxes:
"A flat tax is still a slave tax. [A] 17% flat tax seems like a good
idea, but you're still a slave; you still owe 17% of every dollar you
make. So, basically, you don't own your skill, labor, work, and
talent." * On the Drug
War: "While I was in high school, drugs were taboo for me. They would
kill your brain cells. I was totally against the use of drugs. But
drinking was fine. Hell, I didn't know alcohol was a drug. I just knew it
was socially acceptable. "However,
I am now totally against the War on Drugs. I still feel drugs are stupid
and they must do some form of damage. Fact: Drugs are dangerous. The War
on Drugs is even more dangerous. The government should not waste police
time or taxpayers' money going after anyone
who has not violated anyone's right to life, liberty, or property. Yes,
drugs are stupid. But you can't legislate stupidity!" * On crime:
"I think a criminal should be defined as someone who violates the
life, liberty, or property of another individual." Back in the WWF,
Val Venis changed his ways. The former porn
star was born again. He became a crusader against -- get this -- sex and
violence. Actually, it was
Vince McMahon's idea, says Morley. A year or so ago, McMahon became enraged at the Parent's Television Council (PTC), a conservative group that loathed the WWF as an exemplar of all that was wrong with television. The PTC launched
a boycott against the WWF, and convinced several major sponsors --
including Coca Cola -- to pull their advertisements from Raw Is War and
Smackdown. McMahon vowed
revenge. "What
happened was Vince said we need somebody to play the part of the PTC [on
television]," says Morley. "But we're not going to call it the
PTC, we're going to call it the RTC, the Right to Censor. Basically, we're
mocking the PTC." And so the Right
to Censor was born. The puritanical group would march out into the ring
and lambaste the audience for everything they loved about the WWF. The
violence. The crude language. The adolescent sexism. The crowd hated
them, and showered them with jeers. The other WWF stars, still in their
vulgar, unenlightened state, would routinely beat them to a pulp in
matches. Just as Billy Gunn did to Val Venis in the match on Sunday Night
Heat. Val Venis,
reformed porn star-turned-prude, had become a heel again. And Sean Morley,
who scorned the would-be censors of the real Parent's Television Council,
loved the political theater of it all. "We're just
mocking them," he says. "If we can get people to hate the Right
to Censor, then maybe people won't support the Parent's Television Council
either." However, the
Right to Censor may not last much longer. As a WWF story line gimmick, it
is just about played out. The old Val Venis could be back soon, in all his incorrigible glory. But Morley knows
that Val Venis -- and his career in wrestling – will eventually come to
an end. Although he's just about recovered from his recent hip surgery,
and could be back in action any time, he's already started thinking about
life after wrestling. His real "cup of tea," he says, is politics -- debating libertarianism with other wrestlers, publishing an on-and-off political newsletter called Hardball, and plotting how to turn Canada away from its "socialist" path. For example, he
says he would love to help the Canadian Libertarian Party, a struggling
group that has never managed to build the infrastructure or rack up the
political victories of its American counterpart. "I'd love to be a spokesman for the Libertarian Party and really try to get them built to where it can actually be something of a force," he says. "And not just in Ontario [where he lives], but across Canada." He would also
love to put his debating skill to work, perhaps with a radio show of his
own -- and follow in the footsteps of one of his idols, Neal Boortz. And he looks
forward to the day when he can help "tear down the Canada Revenue
building and sell pieces like we sold off pieces of the Berlin Wall." Strong words for
a former "bleeding heart" teenager who never questioned his
country's big government programs, he says, and had been "proud to be
living in Canada... "Until I saw the dark side of this socialistic system." Looking back at
his journey from liberal to libertarian, Morley can only describe it by
using a metaphor from his day job. "Wrestling
that chokehold off of my bleeding heart was hard," he says.
"Becoming a libertarian was a long, rough, bumpy, sometimes confusing
road. But I made it! I am now home. "I am a
libertarian." * Editor's note:
Some of Morley's quotes were taken from an interview conducted by Peter
Jaworski, which appeared in the January 16, 2001 issue of The Queen's
University Journal, Kingston, Ontario, Canada.
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