Why hasn’t it happened yet? Considering some of the current discussion topics and arguments that some people are using (even on this board) I would imagine the Rock beating the pulp out of a turbaned Taliban would be a great success.
I mean that’s what this is really about right? Winning, revenge, entertainment, if Hallmark gets a chance to make money out of The Attack why not the WWF?
I hope WWF, in a sudden fit of intelligent thought, didn’t start thinking about what would be inappropriate to watch.
America wants to see al Qaeda Smackdown, either in the Lakeland Civic Center in Florida or in Afghanistan.
Back when I was a wee wrestlin’ watchin’ lad in the late seventies, there was a “bad guy” wrestler called “The Arab Sheik” or somesuch. This was in Canada, though, so we weren’t able to muster more than a modicum of zenophobic hatred for the poor guy.
That’s xenophobic, *Kamandi. I think that zenophobia is the fear of the idea of continuous motion in infinitely divisible space and time, or something.
and ummm, it’s xenophobic. It’s okay, though. We’re Canadian and have no idea what said concept is all about. Unless you’re quebecois, in which case although it looks like xenophobia on both sides, it isn’t. Honest. Canadians Don’t Do That.
Yeah, he was supposed to be a former Olympic wrestler from Iran, *BOO!!! HHHHIIIIISSSSSSSS!!! Turns out he hailed from-------Cleveland!!! Which, back in those days was almost as bad as being from Iran.
He defeated Bob Backlund for the then-WWF heavyweight championship and was defeated by Hulk Hogan, which sort of kicked off the wrestling mania of the early-mid 1980’s.
He later teamed up with Nickolai Volcoff, (A Commie, obviously:p ) and they held the WWF Tag-team belts for a while.
The Sheik made a comeback of sorts during the Gulf War when Sargent Slaughter became a heel and turned on Hulk Hogan. The Sheik was Slaughter’s “manager” but he was known as Col. Abdulla or something.
The Sheik’s finishing move was the dreaded “Camel Clutch.”
I just previewed this and it’s fairly mortifying how much I know about pro wrestling from the 1980’s.
Now I must :smack: myself about the head and shoulders 12 times with a wet haddock as punishment.
The thing is that they have to build up the guy as a legitimate threat before The Rock puts him down for the count. The backlash with Sgt. Slaughter turning Iraqi sympathizer was terrible, even if the WWF tried to make a good point about US duplicity in building up Sadaam Husein.
The backlash will be easily twice as terrble, and be deemed exploitative. The (Classic) Sheik, uncle of Sabu, is a great character, but he fights a hardcore style not dissimilar to Abdullah the Butcher, and most certainly won’t be shown on WWE TV anytime soon.
capacitor–was Sgt. Slaughter really an Iraqi sympathizer or was that just a storyline? It seems like a good way of pushing your typical wrestling fan’s buttons.
ElwoodCuse, it was just pushing buttons and trying to sell tickets. By the way, Sgt. Slaughter is still gainfully employed by WWE (not the WWE), and can often be seen backstage in their shows. His gut has grown considerably, but he’s quite tall and broad and he has a chin that, as Pat Patterson once said, is just begging to be punched (by someone much bigger than me, though).
Storyline — all heels in WWE and other wrestling factions go through life as a ‘face’ (good guy) or ‘heel’ (bad guy) at least once in their wrestling life to conform with storylines. Some are so good at their jobs they stay with a persona for a loooong while. Slaughter was losing fans with his ol USA thing, so they turned him heel for a while.
Hulk Hogan has done at least 4 turnarounds from heel/face in his career and is currently a face again bringing back Hulkamania, it really all depends on the time.
Course then you got some guys that are not exactly a face or a heel and it worked cause it was different. Steve Austin was built to be a heel but they worked the ‘bad management’ angle into his persona and turned him into a anti-hero.
Being a heel though does not mean yer spit on and you suffer abuse. A good heel can get to be ‘the man you love to hate’ (back in the day some of the best were ‘Gorgeous’ George ,“Superstar” Billy Graham, and even Jesse “The Body” Ventura)
