10 Worst Wrestling Publicity Stunts
2. Exploiting The Gulf War
In 1991, it was becoming painfully clear to the then-WWF that interest in their product was waning. Hulk Hogan's popularity was receding faster than his hairline, and allegations of steroid abuse was threatening to erode any trust in the company's family-friendly product. Suddenly, hoping to fill the 100,000 seater Los Angeles Coliseum for WrestleMania seemed ambitious.
The logical solution was a re-match of The Ultimate Warrior and Hogan's epic tussle from the previous year's extravaganza. Warrior may have failed to set pulses racing as champ, and the shine had faded on Hogan's star, but the same encounter had managed to draw just under 70,000 spectators twelve months earlier. It seemed a good bet to motivate ticket sales once more.
But for Vince, the attraction just wasn't strong enough. Desperate, he instead fell on a usual crutch: flag-waving. With the Gulf War raging in Kuwait, the chairman decided to capitalise on American involvement in the conflict by turning perennial patriot Sgt. Slaughter turncoat, even going so far as to laden the new Iraqi sympathiser with the WWF title. Naturally, all-American hero Hulk Hogan was lined up to wrest the strap from the nefarious traitor.
The build was utterly disgraceful: as service personnel were fighting and dying in the Middle East, Slaughter was vehemently advocating Saddam Hussein in order to sell tickets to a fake wrestling show.
It didn't work. People were livid with WWF's crass profiteering, and the event was forced to move to the much smaller Los Angeles Sports Arena for 'security reasons'. In other words, only a fifth of tickets had been sold, no thanks to the disgusting promotional tactic.