During one of the more entertaining moments on “Wheel of Fortune,” host Pat Sajak “tackled” the show’s winner, playfully putting him in a headlock. It was obviously just for entertainment but took the internet by storm, with some even going so far as to criticize Sajak for the playful wrestling move.
Watch the incident here:
Joking about the incident in an interview and defending Pat Sajak, the winner, a pro-wrestler named Fred Jackson, said: “As a pro wrestler and as a guy of showbiz and as the guy he was putting in that hold, I loved that moment. L-O-V-E in capital letters. That was one of the biggest highlights of the show. So, for me personally to see, from my perspective, seeing the criticizing that he gets online is a little unfair.”
Continuing, Jackson added, “I was the one who was put in the hold and I was perfectly okay with it. In fact, I loved it. So I don’t think they should get any more upset than I’m getting because I was the one who was ‘affected’ in that kind of way.”
Adding to Jackson’s comments on the incident, TMZ also said:
Fred found it super funny and all done in jest, adding he understands if it isn’t everyone’s sense of humor — but he says all the backlash against Pat is taking it too far.
BTW, Fred says the moment was absolutely not staged — Pat had a really firm grip on him, and he claims he couldn’t get loose if he tried.
No injuries, though, so … no blood, no foul. Standard ‘Wheel’ rules.
That was in reference to Jackson saying that Sajak is stronger than he looks, telling TMZ, “He’s stronger than he looks. I’ve been in enough hammerlocks in my wrestling career to where I know that it really doesn’t hurt necessarily, but he did have me pretty tight and my arm was not going anywhere.”
Sajak is a conservative who drew fire from the radical left in 2022 for appearing in a photo with Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene. Reporting on his views and the leftist outrage over the picture at the time, the Daily Mail said:
Sajak, meanwhile – who splits his time at his homes in Maryland and Los Angeles – is a Republican, but is decidedly more moderate, being a self-professed skeptic of climate change and serving on the board of a conservative publishing company that released works from the likes of Rush Limbaugh and Anne Coulter.
Despite these divisive views, Sajak – who has presided over Wheel of Fortune for more than four decades and is an outspoken conservative – has remained largely apolitical, focusing on his hosting duties in his waning years.
However, once the aforementioned photo began circulating over the weekend, showing a grinning Sajak with Greene and the reporter at his side, a slew of triggered liberals emerged from the figurative woodwork to express their disdain toward the aging icon.
Eliciting a series of severe reactions such as accusations that Sajak is keeping company with Nazis and is a ‘MAGA fascist’, the photo has sparked an unmistakable furor, despite it showing no more than Sajak alongside two relatively famous fans.
Featured image credit: screengrab from the embedded YouTube video
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