Which Shocking WWE Star Almost Headlined WrestleMania 7

Tugboat.

Yes, it's true. Big Fred Ottman was once considered to be Hulk Hogan's opponent for WrestleMania VII before Sgt. Slaughter entered the frame as a much better alternative. Bruce Prichard claimed on his 'Something To Wrestle With' show that Tuggy would've turned heel on then-on screen pal Hulk and been renamed something like "Sheik Tugboat".

Prichard also added that the company would've come up with a better moniker than that - the "Sheik" deal was just a working title for Vince McMahon to chew on before spitting something superior out.

Eventually, McMahon decided that Slaughter turning his back on the United States was a stronger story than Tugboat doing the same. Sarge had been a huge babyface a decade or so prior, and the WWF boss saw dollar signs in a feud with Hogan.

That left poor Tugboat without a major spot on the biggest show of the year. He'd go on to be renamed Typhoon and form the Natural Disasters tag-team with Earthquake a few months later.

Interestingly enough, Ottman himself recently told Wrestling Inc that he personally knew "very little" about the whole "Sheik' idea. It seems (if it was a tentative plan at all) that nobody told Tugboat much about the gimmick change.