\u201cThe speeches, the pageantry, the peacocking, the larger-than-life personas you see in government and politics all lean heavily into pro wrestling.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat ability to tap into an audience and make them feel something \u2013 that actually ties into politics,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Mulipola said years of pro wrestling, the violence and theatre of it, have taught him how to connect with people and understand a crowd. <\/p>\n
Green Party candidate Michel Mulipola puts on his \u201cLiger\u201d mask. Photo \/ Corey Fleming<\/p>\n
He is also one of New Zealand\u2019s top Pasifika comic artists \u2013 he\u2019s worked as an illustrator for Marvel Comics, and Disney<\/a>, including helping shape the look and authenticity of Moana 2<\/a>. <\/p>\n Closer to home, his work in the New Zealand School Journal is familiar to children all over the country. <\/p>\n Mulipola told the Herald his political colleagues have embraced his talents.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Green Party is aware of my shenanigans as a professional wrestler and some of them have been very interested to see me in action.\u201d<\/p>\n The Herald asked Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson about Mulipola\u2019s activism and wrestling career. She said he brought a \u201ccolourful and diverse background\u201d to his candidacy.<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s an outspoken advocate for his community, drawing on a family history of activism to fight racism and injustice,\u201d Davidson said.<\/p>\n \u201cI also doubt we\u2019ve ever had a professional wrestler in Parliament, so he\u2019d be the first.\u201d<\/p>\n Mulipola recently attracted controversy after past social media posts were found referring to police as \u201cpigs\u201d and describing a member of the coalition Government as a \u201cpiece of s***\u201d.<\/p>\n He also copped criticism from Act last month after posting a now-deleted joke that made light of the death<\/a> of right-wing US commentator Charlie Kirk on social media. <\/p>\n Mulipola told the Herald this week that he now planned a more restrained public approach. <\/p>\n \u201cThe standards of behaviour expected of me as a Green Party candidate are different from those I had as an activist.<\/p>\n \u201cMy usual agitating activist ways have definitely been curbed \u2026 at least until after the election,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Mulipola has spent more than 20 years wrestling and has shared the ring with some of the sport\u2019s biggest names, including Tongan legend King Haku \u2013 with whom he won the New Zealand Tag Team Championship in 2017.<\/p>\n Seeing Polynesian wrestlers succeeding on the world stage had a profound impact on him growing up.<\/p>\n \u201cAs a kid, there weren\u2019t many brown people on television<\/a>, particularly people who could travel the world, beat people up and speak their native tongue<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n Both politics and wrestling are ultimately about storytelling and connecting with an audience, Mulipola said.<\/p>\n \u201cIn politics you\u2019re telling stories, selling a story, and in pro wrestling you\u2019re selling a match.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd because wrestling doesn\u2019t shy away from what it is, there\u2019s an honesty we have, that politics can learn from.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cThe speeches, the pageantry, the peacocking, the larger-than-life personas you see in government and politics all lean heavily…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":486204,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[1443,243948,19956,21323,4187,156,2518,134,13840,4188,9862,52229,3025,243947,111,139,69,90,21941,4762,301,223,241,23366],"class_list":["post-486203","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-about","tag-bodyslamming","tag-candidate","tag-candidates","tag-cost","tag-entertainment","tag-green","tag-health","tag-like","tag-living","tag-meet","tag-michel","tag-most","tag-mulipola","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-on","tag-opponents","tag-party","tag-talks","tag-the","tag-unemployment","tag-weekends"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/486203","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=486203"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/486203\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/486204"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=486203"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=486203"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=486203"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}The 130kg Green Party candidate flies through the wrestling ring. Photo \/ Corey Fleming<\/p>\n
Green Party candidate Michel Mulipola gets punched by fellow wrestler Kauri. Photo \/ Corey Fleming<\/p>\n