Bernie Sanders: The Wrestling Candidate

Will Sanders bodyslam the field in 2016?
Photo Credit: AP

Bernie Sanders, the United States Senator from Vermont and potential candidate for President, was stumping in Iowa, as a Presidential candidate is wont to do. Iowa is one of the first states to hold its primary election, along with New Hampshire, and thus it is an important early battleground for candidates. He was at the Iowa Latino Festival when he happened upon 3XW's contribution to the events. One thing led to another, and Sen. Sanders ended up meeting up with "The Laotian Lionheart" Austin Savanh. Their encounter ended up pictured below:

STREET FIGHT! @BernieSanders vs. @LaoLionheart during the @3xwrestling show at @LatinoFestIA! #feelthebern

A photo posted by Austin Savanh (@laolionheart) on Sep 26, 2015 at 2:52pm PDT

Sanders' form on the headlock is pretty good for a guy who's spent exponentially more time on campaign trails, in Congress, or marching in protest for liberal causes than watching wrestling. Wrestling fans and wrestlers should probably be throwing their weight behind Sanders if they want to help improve the lives of performers everywhere. Sanders is a self-professed socialist, which I know is a dirty word to some. His political beliefs have pushed him to fight for things like college debt forgiveness, legalization of marijuana, and the big one, single-payer socialized healthcare. Wrestlers have a hard time getting treated, especially since exactly zero companies offer health insurance, and few can afford to pay for medical expenses incurred by talent outside of the big players like WWE and Ring of Honor. A Sanders win may be a win for pro wrestling on the whole, which is weird since most in the biz outside of a few outliers like Jim Cornette and Mick Foley tend to skew Republican.