WWE's Biggest Booking DISASTER Every Year (1986-2026)
38. The WWF Is Obsessed With Zeus (1989)
IT'S NOOOO HOOOOOOLDS BAAAAAAAAAARRED.
Reportedly, both Hulk Hogan and Vince McMahon himself locked themselves away in a hotel room to pad out the script for 1989's No Holds Barred. This was a huge deal to both - it was a chance for the WWF to branch out into Hollywood, and who knew where things could lead if their initial project was a rip-roaring success?!
Unfortunately, rather than becoming the next Marlon Brando and taking Hollywood by storm, McMahon could've been called Marlon Brandy. He and Hulk must've been hitting the bottle to come up with some of the nonsense in NHB. OK, so Brando only directed one flick and was more of an actor than anything else, but you get the gist.
Incredibly, the movie's main villain came to life via WWF TV and pay-per-view. Zeus teamed with Randy Savage to face Hulk and Brutus Beefcake (has anyone lucked out more than Brutus when it comes to main events he only bagged because he was pals with someone important?) at SummerSlam '89.
"Feel The Heat", boomed the PPV tagline. The only heat hitting management would've been from the rest of the locker room once they realised that a non-wrestler was going to make bank on a main event payoff.
Again to everyone's astonishment, the Zeus character was billed as the product's top heel throughout the latter half of the year. Being fair to Tommy Lister, the dude playing the gimmick, he did his best with it. Even so, the fed's narrative about a movie villain peeved by doing the job to Hogan so wanting to beat him in "real life" fell flat.