[ad_1]
Soon, WWE must flip to a brand new prime man to place folks within the seats, as Anoa’i begins to eye his post-WWE profession. It shouldn’t be tough to check Anoa’i, who’s jacked and bears a resemblance to Jason Momoa, carving out a film profession as an motion star or superhero. “He’s a physical specimen,” says David Leitch, the director of Hobbs & Shaw, who’s reportedly in talks to direct Ocean’s 14, with George Clooney and Brad Pitt. “The camera loves him, the audience loves him, and the only thing standing in his way is his own ambition.”
Anoa’i receives plenty of scripts, however his WWE duties have precluded him from taking many roles. When the time comes for him to totally pursue appearing, Anoa’i plans on being selective. “I almost want to model it after Tarantino, where we’re not just doing anything and everything. I want to really plot out: I want this one, I want that one,” Anoa’i says.
As our flight makes its descent for Indianapolis, I make the half severe suggestion that he may sometime run for governor of Florida.
“You never know,” he says with a smile. “You just never know.”
He’s joking, I believe, however he’s additionally proper. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jesse Ventura made it to the statehouse, and a WWE corridor of famer presently occupies the White House. Plus, Anoa’i boasts the profile—a soccer participant turned wrestler who loves lifting weights—of somebody who may flourish in an electoral local weather presently outlined by expressions of uncooked masculinity.
Anoa’i is a registered Democrat, however he considers himself a centrist. In the newest election, nonetheless, he says the selection was “very clear.”
“One person was giving us information. One person was answering questions, so it wasn’t that hard,” he says.
When I ask if that signifies that he backed Trump, Anoa’i pauses for a number of seconds.
“I support our president. Trump is one of those guys where he’s got a vast history and a huge background. He’s been in entertainment. He’s been in big business, politics,” Anoa’i says. “At this point, I’m supporting a bright future for our country. Positive and competent leadership. For us to be what we’re supposed to be—to be a world leader and carry that respect and do what a world power like us should be doing.”
Anoa’i doesn’t again every part the president does, like his penchant for nursing grievances towards political rivals. “It’s like he needs that adversary,” he says. “He needs that opposition to bounce off of. He needs that competitive motivation or something.” Trump’s pugilistic method, in fact, shouldn’t be not like WWE’s personal template. It’s why, within the Trump period, wrestling has been held up as a Rosetta stone for understanding fashionable politics.
“To be honest,” Anoa’i says, “the world seems to be more like wrestling than any other form of entertainment.”
We land in Indianapolis on a chilly, moist night time, the form of bleak, wintry circumstances that compel you to remain inside and hunker down. And but a smattering of WWE followers, younger and outdated, are right here, gathered outdoors the personal airport. They maintain duplicate WWE championship belts over their shoulders and hoist their index fingers within the air—a nod to Reigns’s signature gesture.
Anoa’i is hungry, so we pile right into a pair of Escalades and zoom alongside the dampened streets to a steakhouse downtown. Four males of their 20s, every with duplicate title belts of their very own, loiter outdoors and look curiously towards our SUVs. With the help of his private safety guard, Anoa’i and Heyman give the autograph hounds the slip and enter the restaurant by means of the again.
“You have to, at all times, consider this could be a Mark David Chapman type of thing,” Heyman says after we take our seats in a personal room. “This could be a real fucking knucklehead.” Anoa’i is a bit of spooked concerning the group on the airport, however he decides to intensify the constructive. “Good problems,” he declares. “We call them ‘blessed men problems.’ ”
“The time to worry is not when they’re outside looking for you,” Heyman replies. “The time to worry is when they’re not.”