7 Times WWE Used Wrestlers To Capitalise On US Foreign Policy
When the world was often on the brink of nuclear armageddon, WWE saw a chance to make a fortune.
WWE is often accused of being behind the trend these days in a lot of ways. AEW is now on the cutting edge and has taken over from WWE as the more innovative wrestling company and even as an entertainment brand WWE’s dropping viewership shows that the current product built on toilet humour, repetitious booking, and overly scripted promos does not mesh with the modern audience. However there was a time when WWE was on the forefront of the entertainment industry and the example of PPV instantly comes to mind.
Perhaps less well known is the fact that WWE arguably (and controversially) built its empire from the use of real world politics in storylines. This was something that the entertainment industry cautiously adopted in the late 20th century while WWE was diving in head first.
From Communist to Middle Eastern heels WWE did not shy away from using their wrestlers and foreign events to capitalise on US foreign policy.
7. Ivan Koloff
All wrestling fans are aware of the basic premise of the face/heel dynamic within wrestling. Good guy versus bad guy. In the fifties and sixties, German and Japanese heels were getting stale and a new heel was needed. The Cold War was gripping America and the easiest way to create a new wrestling heel was to make them a Russian communist. One of the then WWWF’s first examples of this was Ivan Koloff. “The Russian Bear” Koloff came complete with a thick Russian accent (despite being Canadian) and a hammer and sickle tattoo on his bicep.
In Madison Square Garden in 1971 Koloff shocked the crowd in attendance by ending the legendary title reign of the heroic babyface and embodiment of the American Dream Brunno Sammartino. Sammartino recounted that he thought he had gone deaf as a result of a knock to the head in the ending sequence of the match. He soon realised after a conversation with the referee that he could hear perfectly and that what he had experienced was the deafening silence of the crowd.
Koloff's title reign was short lived as he was also one of the first examples of a transitional champion. He lost the belt within a month to Pedro Morales but his return bouts with both Morales and Sammartino over the decade drew huge houses and capitalised from the growing tensions between the US and the USSR.
His status as one of the top foreign heel helped build Vince Sr's WWWF into the financially stable promotion that Vince Jr would be able to use to go nationwide in the eighties.