10 Most Tone-Deaf WWE Moments
6. The (Low) Road To WrestleMania
Returning to WWE in the Summer of 1990 after a five year hiatus from the company, former American hero Sgt Slaughter turned on fans and the country overall for going "soft" and "weak" due to their acceptance of new babyface Nikolai Volkoff.
Relatively harmless in the middle of the card, it became the polar opposite when war broke out in the Middle East. Iraq's hostile invasion of Kuwait around the time triggered USA-lead coalitions entering the fray. As human beings were dying for their country, former patriot Slaughter sided with Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussain. The heat was simultaneously white hot and the dirt worst.
Vince McMahon steered into the Desert Storm. Slaughter dethroned WWE Champion Ultimate Warrior, whilst McMahon doubled down by having his crack production staff knock together a shot of him and Hussain-alike General Adnan with Saddam himself on Photoshop's primitive equivalent. Sarge even burned a Hulk Hogan shirt, symbolically representing America in place of the flag itself.
It was all to get to a WrestleMania VII payoff between the two, but the jingoism butchered the box office. A move down the road to the 17,000-seater Memorial Arena from the planned 100,000-sized LA Memorial Coliseum satisfied the last of the audience wishing to see 'The Hulkster' predictably take Slaughter's title at the 'Show of Shows'.