That One Time in 2008 When The Presidential Candidates Appeared on WWE Television

One magical Monday evening in the spring of 2008, Presidential hopefuls Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, and John McCain recorded messages to be aired on WWE's flagship show, Monday Night Raw. Each candidate threw out their best attempts to appeal to wrestling fans by borrowing their lingo and altering famous wrestling catchphrases. It's as cringe worthy as hearing your parents say "Netflix and Chill." So here are those promos ranked:

Barack Obama

Only three wrestling references and they bookend his actual campaign stance. Remember that this is the 2008 Obama who didn't have the need to be on every podcast, talk show, or web series. This is the hope and change Obama with all the right charisma to end with, "Do you smell what Barack is cooking?" 

Hillary Clinton

Hillary references King of the Ring and Last Man Standing to play on the fact that she was the only woman running. She sprinkles in some generic phrases like "opening bell" and "go to the mat" to get her point across but then reaches when she talks about dropping The People's Elbow if needed.

John McCain

This one is just sad and has the most total references. John McCain tries his hand at The Rock's "Finally..." intro, as though people were really excited for the return of McCain. Then McCain borrows Ric Flair's, "To be the man, you gotta beat the man." Not even halfway into his promo does he coin the term "McCainiacs" a la Hulkamaniacs. He goes off the deep end and says that he'll put The Undertaker to beat down Osama Bin Laden. Finally, he screws up The Rock's "Do you smell..." with "Can you smell..." and closes with Stone Cold Steve Austin's "That's The Bottom Line..."