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The new Netflix documentary series Mr. McMahon, a profile of the man who popularized professional wrestling via the World Wrestling Federation (now World Wrestling Entertainment or WWE), is a case study in the risk of blurring the line between fantasy and reality. In the late 1990s, Vince McMahon began featuring his adult son and daughter on TV. In one storyline, his daughter Stephanie dated a wrestler named Test – a relationship his son Shane was against. So Shane challenged Test in the SummerSlam 1999 Love Her Or Leave Her match. After Test beat Shane with a flying drop off the top rope, he proposed to Stephanie. But at her bachelorette party, the wrestler Triple H mickeyed Stephanie’s drink and secretly married her at a Las Vegas drive-through chapel – all of which was revealed at Test and Stephanie’s “wedding” in front of bride, groom, and guests. “I know that you can only have one question on your mind, DAD,” Triple H yelled at McMahon. “And that is, not did we, but how many times did we consummate the marriage?”
As this abduction-marriage-rape story somehow resonated with the WWE audience, Stephanie and Triple H spent more time together on screen while growing closer in real life. As on screen, Shane, was vehemently against Stephanie dating wrestlers, which McMahon played up on WWE’s Monday Night Raw. When Stephanie and Triple H decided to marry in real life, McMahon wanted to sell the wedding on pay-per-view. Although Stephanie put her foot down, McMahon put her on pay-per-view anyway: a Smackdown match between Stephanie and her father six days before the wedding which McMahon won by choking out his daughter with a lead pipe.
As the raunchy soap opera gained steam, McMahon – now a notorious heel – had an on-screen affair with a female wrestler, drugging his wife Linda and keeping her in a wheelchair to witness his escapades. It came to a head at Wrestlemania where Shane stood up for his mom by facing off against his dad. According to Shane, “I had to stand up for the abuse that was going on with my mom. I just couldn't take it anymore, which would be accurate.” According to McMahon, "the audience loves it when it looks like it's real. And sometimes it is real.” Triple H spoke for millions when he exclaimed on air: “What the hell kind of family did I marry into?”
In his own docuseries, McMahon advises not to bring family into the family business. “It's brutal. Somewhere along the line it's going to explode." So what happened to these characters off screen? Shane McMahon left the company. Vince McMahon engaged in a series of affairs (including one prominently featured on Monday Night Raw), settled claims with at least four women for more than $12 million, was sued in federal court for sexual assault and sex trafficking, and – on the basis of these allegations – is now being investigated by federal authorities. Stephanie rose to CEO before resigning last year after her disgraced father reinserted himself as Chairman. And Linda McMahon separated from her husband and was nominated to be the next Secretary of Education of the United States.
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It's been reported that the Department of Education was a consolation prize for Mrs. McMahon, who was angling for Commerce. Although she didn’t get the match she wanted, reaction to her nomination has been muted because she was a competent leader of the Small Business Administration in President Trump’s first term, because she hasn’t said much about education in general – and higher education in particular – and in no small part due to the blizzard of other controversial cabinet nominations.
No one knows for certain what the next four years will bring under Secretary McMahon. But if colleges and universities think they’ll be a continuation of the last four, they’re living in fantasyland. American higher education finds itself almost completely exposed with few defenders in the governing party. To wit:
In an era of anti-institutionalism, have colleges and universities turned heel? Is higher education about to get hit over the head with a folding chair? With Mrs. McMahon in the ring, here’s how the bout might play out.
Birth of Hulkamania: Hulk Hogan vs. The Iron Shiek
In 1984, the only Iranian more hated than the Ayatollah Khomeini was wrestling’s Iron Sheik who had taken the heavyweight championship from wrestling legend Bob Backlund. The Sheik successfully defended his title a few times before being pitted against Hulk Hogan. Although the Iron Sheik got the Hulkster in his trademark Camel Clutch chin lock, Hogan muscled out
then used an atomic leg drop to pin the Sheik for a three-count. It marked Hogan’s first title, the onset of Hulkamania, and the release of his atrocious theme song
Real American.
Americans don’t believe all foreigners are the Ayatollah or Iron Sheik. But in President Trump’s first term, that’s what many international students thought. As a result, while the UK, Canada, and Australia saw increases in international enrollment, the U.S. witnessed an unprecedented decline. While another travel ban remains possible, what’s more likely are Florida- or Texas-style executive actions conveying xenophobic messages to Chinese students along with more stringent visa processing for students from Asia, Africa, and Latin America, resulting in higher reject rates and delays. It all adds up to another drop in international enrollment, lost revenue, and fiscal challenges for U.S. colleges and universities.
Hair vs. Hair: “Rowdy” Roddy Piper vs. Adrian Adonis
One of wrestling’s wonders was “Rowdy” Roddy Piper and his “Piper’s Pit” segment where he portrayed the first wrestler-journalist: interviewing wrestlers, then insulting and fighting them. In
one memorable segment with Frank Williams, Piper interviewed him, then beat him up, threw him off the set, and glared maniacally into the camera: “Just when they think they got the answers, I change the questions!” In 1986, Piper returned from a leave of absence to find Piper’s Pit had been replaced by “The Flower Shop” hosted by the flamboyant “Adorable” Adrian Adonis. The resulting feud led to an
assault on Piper and demolition of the Piper’s Pit set, Piper’s revenge on
The Flower Shop, then the
Hair vs. Hair match at WrestleMania III where Adonis was beaten and shorn. This was Piper’s last match before taking up acting full time and starring in the John Carpenter film
They Live where he
uttered the immortal line: “I have come here to chew bubblegum and kick ass… and I’m all out of bubblegum.”
Perhaps the greatest heel in wrestling history, “Rowdy” Roddy Piper was able to win and “turn face” (wrestling parlance for becoming a “babyface” or good guy) by taking on a gay wrestler who had taken his flower shop too far. Likewise, Republicans won in 2024 in part by taking on universities who had gone too far with DEI. And as six of seven regional accreditors mandate that higher education institutions demonstrate a commitment to DEI, Republicans have zeroed in on accreditation as a root cause. Project 2025 proposes to “prohibit accreditation agencies from leveraging their Title IV gatekeeper role to mandate that educational institutions adopt diversity, equity, and inclusion policies.” DEI appears to be the chosen provocation for a frontal assault on accreditation. The most likely tactic is the introduction of new competition through newly recognized accreditors like the Postsecondary Commission (to be recognized by executive order per Project 2025) or delegating recognition to states, thereby placing public colleges and universities in red states under strict Republican control and at risk of an Adonis-like shearing and beating.
Monday Night War: Vince McMahon vs. Ted Turner
In the 1990s, noting the growing popularity of wrestling and its success for rival USA Network, Ted Turner acquired a competing promoter, renamed it World Championship Wrestling (WCW), made lucrative offers to stars like Hulk Hogan and “Macho Man” Randy Savage, and – with the new Monday Nitro on TBS – went head-to-head against Monday Night Raw. As Raw was taped in advance, Turner aired Nitro live and opened episodes by giving away the results of Raw matches. For nearly two years, Nitro beat Raw in the ratings, This led to the Raw parody skit
Billionaire Ted’s Wrasslin’ Warroom where Turner was portrayed as a bumbling rube and Hogan and Savage as steroid-gulping has-beens. Lawsuits ensued.
Billionaire Ted invested in wrestling expecting a return on his investment. As students aren’t billionaires, they’re even more desperate for a return. Perhaps the single biggest change in higher education over the past decade is that decision-makers everywhere are now on notice of the employment imperative: from trustees and cabinets, to deans and faculty, and not least to Republicans like Mrs. McMahon. So it’s conceivable we’ll see something like Gainful Employment across the board i.e., a new economic test for Title IV eligibility: are students getting good jobs and generating a sufficient return on their investment in degree programs? In lieu of adding to the federal bureaucracy, accreditors (or states) would be charged with implementing and policing this change. While it would mean amending the Higher Education Act, keep in mind budget reconciliation bills only require 50 votes in the Senate. And even if Mrs. McMahon and Congress aren’t prepared to go this far, as everyone’s also now aware that the best predictor of a positive employment outcome is a paid internship, watch for a new mandate that Title IV-eligible institutions deliver in-field work experience as a component of degree programs. If schools are unable to arrange such with off-campus employers, they’d be obliged to jump through the higher hoop of doing so on campus. At a minimum, any HEA reauthorization is likely to mandate that accreditors provide more flexibility to grant credit for work and work-based learning, allowing Title IV to pay for it.
The Curtain Call: Heartbreak Kid vs. Diesel
“The Kliq” was a group of wrestlers who were friends in real life, including Triple H, Sean Michaels aka the Heartbreak Kid, Scott Hall aka Razor Ramon, and Kevin Nash aka Diesel. In 1996, Billionaire Ted lured Ramon and Diesel to WCW. The Kliq’s last WWE event was May 19 at Madison Square Garden. After Heartbreak Kid successfully defended his title against Diesel, Ramon – who had wrestled Triple H earlier that night and was supposed to be in a feud with Heartbreak Kid –
climbed into the ring and embraced him. Then – to the shock of fans – Triple H entered the ring and did the Kliq handshake all around. Finally, the fallen Diesel arose and joined a group hug. What is now known in wrestling as the
Curtain Call broke the fourth wall – or kayfabe, an adopted carnival term – and ushered in a new era of realism in wrestling.
In higher education, the kayfabe of college-for-all has been broken. Mrs. McMahon will be the first Secretary of Education who openly breaks the college quad’s fourth wall, promoting skills-based hiring for public sector jobs and recently writing in The Hill that “pretending college is the path for everyone is incredibly outdated.” So it’s likely we’ll see both fewer federal resources for universities and more forks in a smaller pie.
Fewer Resources
The first Trump administration’s final budget included an 8% ($5.6B) cut to the Department of Education, including ending public service loan forgiveness, reducing Pell Grants, and shifting other grant programs to loans. Meanwhile, House Committee on Education and the Workforce Chairwoman Virginia Foxx’s
College Cost Reduction Act would cap federal loans at $50K for undergraduates and $100K for grad students in addition to requiring schools to repay loans if students don’t earn as much as predicted.
Preston Cooper has calculated that USC could be on the hook for an annual penalty of $170M. The most likely change, however, is elimination of Grad PLUS and Parent PLUS loans, tarred by critics as government predatory loans with rates over 9%. PLUS loans are targeted in
Project 2025 and – as private loans wouldn’t come close to filling the gap – subtracting PLUS would sink
unnecessary masters programs and drive holes in the budgets of hundreds of institutions.
More Competition
As Mrs. McMahon’s one definitive higher education policy statement is a September 2024
op-ed in support of short-term Pell, it’s likely we’ll see some version of allowing Pell Grants to apply to short work-related programs. And since Mrs. McMahon’s first public statement after being nominated concerned
apprenticeships, look for apprenticeships and other “earn and learn” models to gain their first access to Department of Education dollars. It all means less federal funding for each accredited postsecondary institution.
Montreal Screwjob: Bret Hart vs. Shawn Michaels
It’s always been a dream of mine to write about the Montreal Screwjob. Thanks to Mrs. McMahon’s nomination, fantasy becomes reality. In 1997, Bret Hart became the latest star to leave for WCW. McMahon’s problem was that Hart held the WWE championship and couldn’t leave with the belt. McMahon decided Hart needed to lose to Shawn Michaels, the Heartbreak Kid who had jettisoned his monicker and was now wrestling under his real name. Unfortunately, Hart despised Michaels in real life and refused to lose to him. Hart entered the ring in Montreal under the impression the result would be a “schmoz” i.e., a melee where others enter the ring and the match is thrown out. But
after Michaels got Hart in Hart’s “sharpshooter” finishing move, McMahon at ringside ordered the ref to ring the bell and declare Michaels the winner. Hart, a Canadian, especially incensed that McMahon screwed him at home, spat in McMahon’s face, smashed the monitors, then – back in the dressing room – knocked McMahon out cold.
McMahon’s double-cross might only be exceeded by our next president who loves touting his Wharton degree and proudly announced his choice for Vice President’s Yale Law School pedigree. Given that the first Trump administration established the first-ever tax on endowment income – 1.4% on colleges with 500+ students and endowments > $500K per student – the next screwjob would be to raise the rate from nuisance-level to punitive. Last year Vance himself introduced a bill to raise the rate to 35% for schools with endowments over $10B. Making the double-cross even sweeter, the tax on the 14 $10B+ institutions – Penn, Yale, four other Ivies, and eight other usual suspects – which have been hesitant to launch degree programs online, would fund a new tuition-free national online college. Only one thing’s for certain: assuming the Secret Service does its job, Penn and Yale won’t get Bret Hart’s chance to spit in the face of their double-crossing alumni.
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At the merciful conclusion of the worst drama in higher education history – i.e., student loan forgiveness theater – the curtain is rising on a new show. But whichever match is on offer, as in the WWE, it’s unlikely to be a fair fight. As last year’s Congressional hearing on antisemitism demonstrated, and as Steven Brint noted in The Chronicle of Higher Education:
Those who advance to top positions in universities are generally expert managers. Many also have the capacity to charm donors. They are less likely to be practiced politicians… Most of the time this managerial approach works. But when it comes to combating a well-organized political party determined to degrade academic institutions, managerialism invites disaster.
One change we’re unlikely to see: the ballyhooed elimination of the Department of Education. Recall the effort to combine Education and Labor in President Trump’s first term. And in his announcement of Mrs. McMahon’s nomination, President Trump didn’t mention it, focusing instead on his goal of sending education “BACK TO THE STATES.” Even if there is a reorganizational effort at ED – perhaps led by the tag team of Elon and Vivek – no one seems to think it will have a material impact on colleges and universities. The functions and funding will remain. And the people managing them will remain at 400 Maryland Ave. even if the building has a different sign on the door.
But job security for Department of Education employees is cold comfort for the colleges and universities they oversee. The next few years will be a steel cage match against a federal government seeking a screwjob in every college town – not just Montreal. Although there’s more reality in the above scenarios than the imbroglios for which they are named, as Mrs. McMahon enters the ring – strange as it seems – we now live in a world where higher education leaders who wish to avoid getting bodyslammed would do well to familiarize themselves with seminal moments in professional wrestling.