Vote WWF!

-- Broadcasting & Cable, 1/29/2001

It was inauguration, WWF style at the Insomnia Club in Washington, the night before George W. Bush was sworn in as president. The World Wrestling Federation sponsored its own ball at the downtown club to push Smackdown Your Vote!, the franchise's youth voter registration public affairs campaign. The manly WWF's unlikely partner in the campaign: the National Foundation for Women Legislators. Olympic Gold Medalist and WWF grappler Kurt Angle was designated the campaign's chairman. Asked if Smackdown the Vote was about drumming up political support, (The Rock did appear at the Republican National Convention), CEO Linda McMahon said the campaign was nonpartisan. "We offered each of the candidates 10 minutes of air time before the election," she said. " Jesse Ventura, the governor of Minnesota, was going to moderate. They thought about it but said no. I bet after Florida, they had second thoughts."