10 Times The Wrong Wrestler Won

With tensions between the United States and Iraq on the rise and Operation Desert Storm growing near, WWF thought a Saddam Hussein sympathiser was just what the promotion needed.

The Ultimate Warrior had defeated Hulk Hogan for the WWF Title at WrestleMania VI in a wildly popular classic and many fans anticipated a rematch one year on for WrestleMania VII. While Warrior’s title run had not set the world on fire the way WWF management had hoped it might, it was clear there was still major drawing potential for a Hogan rematch.

Instead, Warrior dropped it to the newly heel turned, anti-American Sgt Slaughter at the Royal Rumble. WrestleMania VII was headlined by Slaughter vs. Hogan instead and WWF’s initial plans to run the 100,000 seat Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum were changed to the much smaller Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena due to security and sales concerns respectively.

Slaughter’s character and story drew a lot of negative reception at the time for its distasteful, cheap heat-ridden content. Warrior and Hogan’s rematch wound up being an overbooked WCW mess several years later.

Bad for business and fan interest all around, this whole debacle could’ve been avoided had it been Warrior dropping the title to Hogan at WrestleMania VII instead.