Hulk Hogan, Jesse Ventura and a Complicated Subplot to the 2024 Race

When Jesse “The Body” Ventura faced off against Hulk Hogan in the 1980s, Mr. Ventura played the heel — the caped villain whose staged cheap shots and provocations rallied the audience to the side of the mustachioed hero, glistening triumphantly in his underwear.

Mr. Ventura, now 73, is once again circling the ring.

In a subplot that seems far-fetched even by the standards of the 2024 presidential election, Mr. Ventura — an avowed political independent, former Minnesota governor and marijuana entrepreneur who was on the shortlist to be Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s running mate — has in recent days endorsed the Democrats Kamala Harris and Tim Walz, sharply criticized the Republican ticket and touched upon a decades-old beef with Hogan over a failed effort to unionize pro wrestlers.

After Hogan — whose real name is Terry G. Bollea — made a popeyed, shirt-ripping appearance last month at the Republican National Convention, some have wondered if Mr. Ventura would appear in Chicago for the Democrats next week, scale the ropes in his feather boa and body-slam his rival, metaphorically, of course.

The answer is no. “I haven’t even been invited, and I don’t expect to be involved,” Mr. Ventura said in a telephone interview Wednesday from his home in Minneapolis.

And, frankly, the wrestling jokes are starting to bug him. “Why would they lump me in with Hulk Hogan?” Between six years in the Navy, a mayoralty and a governorship, Mr. Ventura noted, he has spent about as much time in public service as he did in professional wrestling.

“Hulk Hogan, he’s like Donald Trump,” Mr. Ventura continued. “He never did one day serving his country.” So, maybe no boa, but definitely fighting words.