10 Real Life Events That Forced Wrestling World Title Changes

7. Vince McMahon Cashes In On War With Sgt. Slaughter's 1991 WWF Title Win

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WWE.com

You could easily argue that the World Wrestling Federation actually delivered two World Championship changes due to the Gulf War.

Those real-life horrors saw WWF maximise on the situation by turning the patriotic Sgt. Slaughter into an Iraqi sympathiser aligned with the Iron Sheik and Colonel Mustafa - with Sarge regularly championing Saddam Hussein in his promos.

To go all-in on this character change for Slaughter, the decision was made for him to become the WWF Champion at the 1991 Royal Rumble. There, the villain somewhat surprisingly dethroned the Ultimate Warrior due to interference from 'Macho King' Randy Savage.

The belief is that Warrior was originally intended to keep hold of the WWF Title for a little while longer, possibly for a rematch with Hulk Hogan at '91's WrestleMania VII. Instead, the ongoing war caused WWF to switch those plans.

Likewise, it was the Gulf War that was behind the call to have the flag-waving Hogan topple Slaughter at that year's Showcase of the Immortals; with the all-American good guy stepping up to take down the no-good foreign menace, in a case of classic WWF/E booking.

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Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main dayjob, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg.