One Moment WWE Wants You To Forget From Every Year (1985 to 2026)

36. 1991 - GONE!

WWE Royal Rumble 1991 Sgt Slaughter Ultimate Warrior
WWE

The Royal Rumble's Ultimate Warrior/Sgt Slaughter WWE Championship match looked in principle to be just another routine title defence for the Champion, not least because Slaughter was so cartoonishly over-the-top as an Iraqi sympathiser heel that he couldn't possibly win the industry's richest prize. Could he?

Be it panic button or planned insanity, Vince McMahon made the choice to lean into the testing political times, transitioning the belt back from Warrior to Hulk Hogan via Slaughter, but the plan didn't work. WrestleMania VII had to be moved to a much smaller venue (under the PR guise of "security threat" of Sarge in an outside setting), the 400,000 buys on pay-per-view reflected yet another hefty decrease from the prior year despite more homes than ever having access, and Warrior, Hogan & Slaughter failed to reverse the decline at SummerSlam 1991. Their "Match Made In Hell" co-main event alongside Randy Savage and Miss Elizabeth's wedding drew 405,000 buys, which was up from 'The Grandest Stage' itself but 100,000 down from Warrior and Rude's disappointing number the 

There was only one thing for it. It wasn't just time for the "SummerSlam you thought you'd never see" but also the World Wrestling Federation Vince McMahon had never wanted to imagine. The United Kingdom was a lot smaller than the United States, and the same could increasingly be said for the roster of shrinking behemoths...

Contributor
Contributor

Michael is a writer, editor, podcaster and presenter for WhatCulture Wrestling, and has been with the organisation for nearly 10 years. He primarily produces written, audio and video content on WWE and AEW, but also provides knowledge and insights on all aspects of the wrestling industry thanks to a passion for it dating back over 35 years. As one third of "The Dadley Boyz" Michael has contributed to the huge rise in popularity of the WhatCulture Wrestling Podcast and its accompanying YouTube channel, earning it top spot in the UK's wrestling podcast charts with well over 65,000,000 total downloads. Within the podcasting space, he also co-hosts Benno & Hamflett, In Your House! and Podcast Horseman: The BoJack Horseman Podcast. He has been featured as a wrestling analyst for the Tampa Bay Times, Fightful, POST Wrestling, GRAPPL, GCP, Poisonrana and Sports Guys Talking Wrestling, and has provided in-person coverage of some of the biggest pay-per-views and Premium Live Events in wrestling history, including WrestleMania, Survivor Series, All In & Double Or Nothing in destinations such as New York, New Jersey, Chicago, Dallas, Las Vegas, Philadelphia, London and Cardiff. Michael's background in media stretches beyond wrestling coverage, with a degree in Journalism from the University Of Sunderland (2:1) and a series of published articles in sports, music and culture magazines The Crack, A Love Supreme and Pilot. When not offering his voice up for daily wrestling podcasts, he can be found losing it singing far too loud watching his favourite bands play live.