10 Fascinating WWE WrestleMania 7 Facts
1. Tugboat Was Once Considered For The Role Of Hogan's Iraqi Nemesis
You may wanna sit down for this one.
Unless Bruce Prichard is just pulling our leg for his own amusement, he claimed, in a February 2016 podcast with Ric Flair, that Fred "Tugboat" Ottman was originally considered to be the turncoat that would align with Iraq, vanquish Warrior for the WWE Championship at the Royal Rumble, and fall to the patriotic hands of Hulk Hogan come WrestleMania 7.
Prichard notes that Ottman is a "sweetheart of a guy", but laughed as he told the story of how he would have been redubbed, I kid you not, "Sheik Tugboat". Prichard adds that it was virtually a godsend that McMahon crossed paths with Sgt. Slaughter and went with him as the villain in the story.
Not that it was a great story, but it was probably better than it would've been had Tugboat been cast as the next great foreign menace.