10 Things Nobody Has Told You About Wrestling Yet
7. WrestleMania VII Is Different To The History Written About It
The exploitation of the Gulf War was horrific, the cheapest of cheat heat.
It was reprehensible and indefensible promotion on the part of Vince McMahon - truly desperate stuff, too. He knew the glory days were over and, in an ugly, hubristic move, thought that he could unite a nation when he couldn't even unite his fanbase. It was a public relations and commercial disaster; WrestleMania VII, the site of the USA's grand friggin' victory, had to be downscaled from the Memorial Coliseum to the Sports Arena because they couldn't shift enough tickets.
If you can park all that - and it's obviously easier to do that now than it was at the time - the seventh edition might well be the best top-to-bottom WrestleMania of what is known as the 'Golden Era'.
The plotting with which Sgt. Slaughter went on to face Hogan at 'Mania, and the way in which the Randy Savage Vs. Ultimate Warrior Retirement match dovetailed around it, was exquisite. Pat Patterson worked his magic in the WWF Title match at the Rumble, Jesus Christ: the sceptre shot was unreal, Savage leading up to it has never been more intense, and the brutality of that moment was equalled by the unforgettable catharsis of the Miss Elizabeth reunion. Underneath the dreadfulness of it all, across January and March of 1991, the WWF struck the deepest veins of emotion.
The undercard ruled too, boasting two of the best tags of the era, and even Warlord Vs. British Bulldog was impossibly dynamic. Vince McMahon struck gold and plunged sh*t, all at the same time.
If ever a WWE event defined him, actually, it was WrestleMania VII.