10 Worst WWE Booking Decisions Of The '90s (Year-By-Year)

Another entry in the “why Warrior failed as a main-eventer” saga. At the height of tensions in the Middle East, WWE decided to capitalize by bringing back Sgt. Slaughter, turning him into an Iraqi sympathizer, and having him defeat the Ultimate Warrior for the WWF Championship.

By early 1991, WWE were starting to lose their momentum. Mounting scandals and ill will toward the company was steadily killing off much of their audience, and such a tasteless angle didn’t help matters. Vince’s plan was for WrestleMania VII to fill up the LA Memorial Coliseum, which can hold around 93,000 people. Perhaps they could have done that with a rematch of the widely successful Hogan-Warrior encounter, but instead, they put their faith in Hogan vs. Slaughter, despite the fact that Slaughter was well past his prime physically.

Naturally, the feud drew tickets at the pace of molasses falling down a tree, and WrestleMania was forced to move to the much smaller sports arena across the street. WWE’s decline would only continue, and while another Hogan-Warrior match likely wouldn’t have outright prevented it, it could have certainly slowed the bleeding for a time. It could have even mollified Warrior, and prevented him from holding out the company for more money before getting fired in the summer of '91, which was a huge headache for Vince.