10 Stupidest Gimmick Changes In WWE History

25 years later, it's hard to imagine what made Vince McMahon turn Sgt. Slaughter into an Iraqi sympathizer. It may have been one of the biggest misfires in WWE history and they certainly paid for it when Wrestlemania VII rolled around.

Even though Sarge had played a heel multiple times during his career, Slaughter was always a faithful US serviceman. When he returned to the WWF in 1990, Vince didn't want an All-American babyface since he had that in Hulk Hogan, he wanted the total opposite.

Slaughter became an Iraqi sympathizer during a time when tensions in the Middle East were extremely high. Slaughter proclaimed his love of the Iraqi regime because they were "brutal" whereas the United States had gone soft. He even won the WWF title at the Royal Rumble in 1991 just as the US invaded Kuwait and began the Gulf War.

It was even planned that Sarge would burn the American flag on WWF television but that was changed to a Hulk Hogan t-shirt at the last second when cooler heads prevailed. Slaughter faced death threats and had to travel while wearing a bullet-proof vest.

This was clearly the wrong kind of heat that makes people angry and doesn't draw a dime. The backlash was furious and ticket sales for Wrestlemania VII were so poor that the WWF was forced to move the event from the 100,000 seat LA Colosseum to the much smaller LA Sports Arena.

It was a disaster of epic proportions.