10 Times WCW Went Too Far

Where to begin? There are so many examples of WCW going too far held within this story. Signed Hulk Hogan? Great, take the 'I'm going to end Hulkamania' trope and load it up, having The Hulkster overcome a whole group of bad guys as opposed to one or two big heels at a time. The Alliance to End Hulkamania was a shambles, a nonsensical stable that may well have featured the largest range in quality from good to bad in the history of wrestling factions. At the one end we had Ric Flair, Arn Anderson, The Barbarian, Meng and Kevin Sullivan. At the other? Zeus and The Final Solution.

Zeus had a couple of matches in WWE in the late '80s, marketing ploys masquerading as bouts, teaming with Randy Savage to take on Hogan and The Ultimate hold on a second, The Final F*cking Solution?! What?

Yes, WCW had a wrestler billed as The Final Solution.

After mountains of complaints, the company changed Jeep Swenson's name to The Ultimate Solution, with the booking team and management claiming to have no idea about the historical meaning of The Final Solution. You know, the whole 'name Hitler gave to his plan to solve the Jewish question' thing. Putting aside the absolute insanity of a group of adults claiming ignorance on the name, the idea was a debacle that should never have sprouted, let alone found its way onto television.

Excessive violence, personal insults, political snipes and misguided booking are one thing (well, four things, but you get the idea), but a wrestler called The Final Solution? The bottom of the barrel. What was WCW trying to achieve by booking Swenson under such a moniker? If the idea was to get attention, it worked, for all the wrong reasons.

Swenson went on to play Bane in Batman & Robin, only to die of heart failure just two months after its release.