Image courtesy of Wetherbee/Kelly.

Brightest Young Things Managing Editor Brandon Wetherbee got hooked on Wrestlemania last year when he felt torn up about the ethics of watching his favorite athletic teams, from allegations of rape against Chicago Blackhawks star Patrick Kane to the questionable political donations of the family that owns the Cubs.

“Well, fake sports it is,” he remembers thinking. But he found that Wrestlemania offered no respite from the political. Instead, the decision he and and freelance journalist Chris Kelly made to view every Wrestlemania, in order, grew into something else—a front row blueprint of Donald Trump’s campaign for president.

“If you are familiar with wrestling, not a thing has been shocking” about this campaign, Wetherbee says.

Now, Wetherbee and Kelly have published a book documenting how the Republican nominee’s connections with wrestling explain his campaign, interweaving the professional histories of Trump and World Wrestling Entertainment CEO Vince McMahon.

“This is not a conspiracy theory,” reads the introduction to The Donald: How Trump Turned Presidential Politics Into Pro Wrestling. “Donald Trump is actually in the WWE Hall of Fame, and Donald Trump is actually the Republican nominee for president of the United States.”

Wrestling lingo is nothing new in politics (think of debates being called rumbles or bouts), but The Donald looks at tropes like The Heel—the villain in a match—and applies them to events we’ve seen played out during the course of the campaign.

For instance, when Wetherbee attended the Republican National Convention, he watched Senator Ted Cruz give his “vote your conscience” speech, and felt the room turn against him as it became clear that he wasn’t going to give his endorsement (Cruz ultimately endorsed Trump in late September.)

“Cruz went from hero to villain in one speech,” says Wetherbee. “That’s a heel turn. Trump became the face and he turned Cruz into the heel.”

Or take the concept of “kayfabe,” which the industry uses to describe the alternate reality that audiences buy into when watching a match. (The Rock, for instance, exists in kayfabe, while Dwayne Johnson lives in the real world.) Trump has created a kayfabe for his supporters, where stop and frisk is an effective policing tactic and immigrants commit more crimes than the population as a whole.

As recently as this week, Trump defended his statements about women by saying he said them while he was in character as the host of The Apprentice. Essentially, people didn’t understand his kayfabe.

Trump’s competitors for the Republican nomination “thought it was boxing, but it’s wrestling,” says Wetherbee. “Athleticism is not what matters. Getting over is what matters.” In WWE parlance, “getting over” means generating reactions from the crowd, but precisely which reaction depends on your character. A heel successfully gets over when the audience boos.

The Donald book release party is timed to coincide with this Sunday’s second presidential debate. Before the 9 p.m. bout begins, there’ll be trivia. (Wetherbee says the answer to one question is that 2008 Republican nominee John McCain’s plan to get rid of Osama bin Laden involved introducing him to WWE character The Undertaker.) For $9.99 (a price that’s an in-joke for WWE fans), folks get an orange USB wand with a digital and audio version of the book.

But even though the book focuses on Trump, the next president will inevitably be a WWE participant, if not a hall of famer. Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton has her own history with pro wrestling and the current White House occupant, President Barack Obama, addressed the WWE Monday Night Raw audience, asking, “Do you smell what Barack is cooking?”

Perhaps that shouldn’t surprise us. After all, the main criticism levied against pro wrestling is the same as the one politicians get—that everything is scripted and they’re all a bunch of fakes.

The Donald book release party/debate watch is happening at Black Cat (1811 14th St NW) on October 9. Party begins at 8 p.m., trivia at 8:15 p.m., and debate at 9 p.m. No cover.