Earlier this week, the World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) challenged conservative commentator Glenn Beck to come to Monday night "Raw" to explain why he used the phrase "stupid wrestling people" when he was criticizing one of the WWE wrestlers that he finds offensive to the Tea Party.
Beck made the comments during his show on Wednesday in regard to a character named Zeb Coulter who is a conservative, tea-party-like villain that doesn't like immigrants and talks about deporting them without specifying if they're documented or not. Coulter is juxtaposed with Latino star Alberto Del Rio who is hero. In the ring, Coulter went on a rant attacking immigrants that can't speak English while standing in front of flags commonly seen at Tea Party rallies. As a result, Beck accused the wrestling company of "demonizing the Tea Party" and alienating their conservative fan base. "The WWE now has put a new character out that is demonizing the TEA Party," Beck said. "I can take it from a lot of people. I can't take it from the stupid wrestling people."
In turn, the WWE invited Beck to tell a WWE audience why he called them stupid in person.
"WWE has extended an invitation to talk show host and political commentator, Glenn Beck to appear live this Monday on Raw, in response to a segment that aired on TheBlaze TV," WWE announced in a press release. The statement continued: "WWE is creating a rivalry centered on a topical subject that has varying points of view. This storyline was developed to build the Mexican American character Del Rio into a hero given WWE's large Latino base, which represents 20 percent of our audience."
On his show on Friday, Beck declined the invitation saying, "Unfortunately, I am currently booked doing anything else."