5. The Confusing Love Interests
Much like Luke had his Princess Leia in the first Star Wars that would cause some confusion in later movies with the Star Wars fan base, Wayne Gretzky had his own Princess Leia, who thankfully did NOT turn out to be his sister. Janet Jones was a beautiful, talented but American by birth. Canadian hockey fans were hard-pressed to believe an American woman would know anything about hockey and their relationship was questioned by ... well, nobody really back then. Nobody cared who was married to who but their marriage, at the peak of Wayne's fame, was referred to and treated as, Canada's Royal Wedding. They went on to have beautiful, athletic and extremely photogenic kids and a daughter with
her own sort of infamy among a rabid,predominantly male fan base.
4. The Acclamation And The Double Cross
Although it gets a bit confusing here, as I'm jumping into the Han Solo/Lando double cross as a metaphor, this too happened to Wayne Gretzky. Gretzky by now was the poster boy of the New and Improved NHL. The focus was no longer on the fighting, but the scoring. A new class of talented hockey players were entering into the league and NHL owners were paying good...well, much better money for them to predominantly put the puck in the net. All looked good for Wayne and his friends in Edmonton. But then... Immediately after his Royal Wedding, Wayne was double-crossed by the owner of the Oilers and sold for a lot of money and probably some stamps to a wealthy Hollywood businessman. There was much crying over this and some Canadians tried to petition the government to have the 'trade' revoked figuring Wayne was a 'national resource'. Wayne was removed from Canada and into the clutches of the evil American overlords. Although Wayne knew he had been double-crossed, he kept this information to himself
although he did cry a little at the press conference. Because it's okay for real men to show emotion about sports-related things. And their dogs.