M With around 132 kilograms and a height of just under two meters, most of the surface covered in tattoos, Brody King is an impressive figure. The bushy beard, the large hands and the brown-black eyes round out his intimidating appearance. Yet the 38-year-old is far from evil. At least not when you look behind his role as a professional wrestler.
Since June 2025, when he appeared on a show in Mexico wearing an “Abolish ICE” shirt, the US audience has been cheering the giant. He has now become an attraction: as soon as he steps into the ring, the arena trembles to “Fuck ICE” chants. He is currently one of the most prominent figures in US sports who oppose radical immigration policy.
But when muscled athletes in professional wrestling beat each other, throw people through tables and jump from the ropes, even though victory and defeat are predetermined from the outset, that’s hard for many to understand. For others it’s top-level entertainment and a form of modern, physically expressive theater. No matter what you think of wrestling, it is always a media spectacle. The WWE, the world’s largest wrestling organization, shaped pop culture with WrestleMania like hardly any other sports event. From it arose big, albeit not unproblematic, names such as Hulk Hogan, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and John Cena.
The pro-Trump WWE long seemed unbeatable until, in 2019, the organization AEW was founded—and managed to assert itself against all expectations. Since then AEW has grown not only exponentially, but has repeatedly presented itself as queer- and migration-friendly. And the strongest advocate for AEW’s Trump-critical stance is the hulking Brody King.
Hype Has Reached U.S. Talk Shows
That the audience makes themselves heard loudly is not uncommon in wrestling. The fact that there is currently such a strong political character at its heart, however, is unusual. Yet it is an organically grown chorus that shows how quickly resistance can express itself.
The hype around Brody King and his clear stance has also reached U.S. talk shows. “Last Week Tonight,” one of the most popular late-night shows, and its host John Oliver, picked up the spectacle: “To all involved: very well done.” And since the chants have established themselves as King’s trademark, he is seen even more often on AEW shows. By now the crowd even chants “Fuck ICE” in matches without his involvement.
Sports and politics are inseparably linked just as WWE and Donald Trump were. Always chasing the biggest media spectacle, he appeared there multiple times in the 2000s, including WrestleMania 23, where after the “The Battle of the Billionaires” he was allowed to shave WWE owner Vince McMahon’s hair. AEW distances itself from this and, unlike WWE, also vehemently rejects deals with Saudi Arabia.
That Brody King positions himself as an anti-ICE giant fits the liberal orientation of the comparatively young organization. Yet the politics surrounding his person is also addressed in its shows. In one of wrestling’s typical verbal duels, another wrestler said: “Never in my life have I met someone as liberal as you, who nevertheless looks like a Nazi.”
On March 15, Brody King will make his next big appearance at the AEW Revolution event in Los Angeles. And everyone knows what the crowd there will be chanting.
