The Magnificent Seven: The Top 7 Patriotic Moments in WWE

Pro wrestling has a long history of using patriotic fervor to get over wrestlers and storylines—capitalizing on Americans’ pride or at times their fears. In honor of Independence Day, this week I’m looking back at seven times when WWE was at its patriotic best.

#7. John Cena defeats Rusev at WrestleMania 31

To head off naysayers, I recognize that Cena-Rusev was not an objectively great feud. Cena ended up far too dominant, to the point that Rusev went from looking main event bound to being firmly entrenched in the mid-card after stealing one victory over Cena, then losing far more decisively in their next three outings, and he’s only starting regain traction two years later. I will stand by the larger narrative that set up this feud, however, and particularly their WrestleMania match.

In the build, Rusev assembled an impressive undefeated streak, dominating opponents such as Xavier Woods, Jack Swagger, Mark Henry, Kofi Kingston, Big E, and Sheamus to arrive as the United States Champion—a particularly noxious title to hold for the big Bulgarian with a Russian valet. I appreciated this run because it not only gave Rusev direction and a distinctive story (contrary to the majority of mid-card talents who could claim neither), but also because it made the United States Championship feel important, setting it up to become all the more prestigious during Cena’s US Championship Open Challenge.

So we arrive at WrestleMania. The match wasn’t anything to write home about, but the theatrics were on-point from Rusev riding out in a tank to Cena sporting red-white-and-blue gear. It was a wholly reasonable effort at recapturing the magic of the American hero versus the heel foreigner of generations past.

#6. Hulk Hogan defeats Sgt. Slaughter at WrestleMania 7

The Gulf War was on and Hulk Hogan was in the twilight of the original Hulkamania run. The WWF elected to capitalize on each of these points by plugging Sgt. Slaughter into the main event scene—an iconic familiar face who had been absent in recent years, portraying an over-the-top evil turncoat Iraqi sympathizer. Slaughter won the WWF Championship off of The Ultimate Warrior at the Royal Rumble to set the stage for a collision with Hogan—a man who’d built much of his legacy off his image as an American hero—in the main event of WrestleMania 7.

There were limiting factors to this feud. Despite getting the repackaged Sheik and Iron Sheik as cronies, and despite taking the title, Slaughter didn’t get all the way over as a main event heel—getting a heated response from some (up to and including purported death threats), but not from the masses, such that he never arrived at the level of threat portrayed by guys like Andre the Giant and Randy Savage as arch-villains at preceding ‘Manias. I don’t suspect we’ll ever know for certain if the small crowd for WrestleMania 7—the choice to move from a stadium to arena—was really a security issue as WWE claimed, or a testament to Slaughter’s middling drawing power.

The match was what it was—neither man a star worker at this point in his career, but each an experienced enough veteran to work a competent match in the main event style of the day. Hogan picked up the win, clean as a sheet—his second to last world title victory at a WrestleMania (which probably should have been his last), and got to pose with the title around his waist, waving the American flag over his head.

#5. Lex Luger Body Slams Yokozuna on the USS Intrepid

I imagine readers will fall in one of two camps. The majority who will hate on Luger and this push, and say that its way overrated on this countdown. The minority who hopped on board the Lex Express and think this should fall higher on the countdown.

For that segment of readers who may not know what I’m talking about, throughout the winter and spring of 1993, Lex Luger played an arrogant heel character under the moniker The Narcissist, while Yokozuna steamrolled his way through the Royal Rumble to the main event scene and winning the world title (well, steamrolled until he needed heavy outside interference to defeat Bret Hart and then Hulk Hogan).

While I’ve heard mixed accounts of what was supposed to happen, the consensus is that the Hogan run did not work out as planned, so we were left with a super heavyweight who represented Japan without any clear cut contender to his title. In a pretty old school move, Yokozuna and Mr. Fuji arranged for a body slam challenge, inviting any American wrestler to try to bodyslam him aboard the USS Intrepid on the Fourth of July (or, you know, the day after).

After a number of guys tried and failed—Scott Steiner and Crush coming the closest—a chopper landed and out stepped Lex Luger who stormed the ring and made the slam, thus becoming one of the earliest attempts at the WWF transparently aiming to create Hulk Hogan 2.0 (muscle-bound patriot who body slammed five-hundred-pounders).

No, Luger’s big push in this new role didn’t really take in the long term, but if you watch the moment in a vacuum, it’s a feel good one, and in the context of mainstream pro wrestling still more or less existing in a 1980s mindset, it makes a degree of sense, casting Luger as a guy who’s American pride was too much to keep contained, such that he felt compelled to drop his self-absorption in favor of standing up for his country and standing against Yokozuna in a moment to replayed over and over again against the soundtrack of super schmaltzy but, again, era-appropriate “I’ll Be Your Hero.”

It’s debatable how well any of this holds up from a contemporary perspective, but I can still remember being nine years old when this all went down. I bought in.

#4. Sgt. Slaughter defeats The Iron Sheik in a Boot Camp Match

While contemporary fans remember Sgt. Slaughter’s run as a main event heel opposite Hulk Hogan in 1991, his earlier heel work, in the early 1980s, tends to get forgotten. During this time, he unsuccessfully challenged Bob Backlund for the world title until he’d been neutralized in his top heel role. Shades of a face turn began when had a run in with The Iron Sheik, who was the man to unseat Backlund (before promptly transitioning the title to Hulk Hogan—more on that to follow).

While Hogan ran wild and entered feuds with Paul Orndorff and Roddy Piper, it was Slaughter who became the WWF’s secondary patriotic hero, engaging The Iron Sheik in a series of brawls and no-contests—fights with no winner, but that had a tendency to see Slaughter standing tall at the end, often as not reciting the Pledge of Allegiance to a rapidly expanding base of fervently patriotic fans. This all built to a no-DQ Boot Camp Match at Madison Square Garden, settled when Sarge waffled Sheik with his own loaded boot—using the Iranians literally foreign object against him to mark his own demise as a top-tier threat in the WWF landscape.

I suspect that fans like myself and younger would more readily remember this moment had the aftermath been different. However, soon after Slaughter would get into a money dispute with Vince McMahon and be told his services were no longer needed, meaning that Slaughter the American Hero was replaced by Corporal Kirschner, and wouldn’t be heard from again in the WWF until the Gulf War.

#3. Tribute to the Troops 2003

In my view, any one of these top three could justifiably land in the number one spot. Each represents WWE at its best, each in fundamentally different ways, each in service of a patriotic message.

Tribute to the Troops, as a concept, is the noblest, and most earnestly patriotic of the batch. It’s the idea of a team of WWE performers going abroad to put on a show for United States troops stationed overseas (or, later, on a domestic military base). There are some risks associated with putting on such a show; moreover it’s not a show that draws revenue into WWE directly, but rather a more selfless contribution to raise the spirits of and, well, pay tribute to the armed forces. (Yes, some will argue it’s also a PR move and one that WWE does see financial benefits from based on televised versions that get broadcasted, but I prefer to be a little less cynical in this instance and trust in WWE’s stated mission .)

The very first special took place in Baghdad and featured no lesser talent than John Cena picking up the victory in the main event, only to be followed by Steve Austin leading a cavalcade of superstars to celebrate in the ring. Thus, the standards were set. No, Tribute to the Troops would never present any five-star classics or be the platform for major storyline movement. But it would feature tip-top stars putting on a feel good show, more often than not in an outdoor venue, in front of an audience of men and women in uniform.

WWE has the benefit of being a globally recognized brand, and makes near-perfect sense as a form of entertainment for enlisted men and women, many of whom I have a hunch were at one point WWE fans (if not following the current product). This annual show represents a throwback to simpler times—before swerves and pyrotechnics, in favor of putting on a relatively simple, entertaining show for people who more than deserve a couple hours of entertainment.

#2. Hulk Hogan Defeats The Iron Sheik for the WWF World Championship

In 1984, the WWF in so many ways rebooted.

Vince McMahon Jr. was in charge and had his eyes set on national expansion—a vision that would ultimately obliterate the territory system and capitalize on the cable television and pay-per-view platforms to realize his vision of a dominant, worldwide organization.

The wheels were in motion before Hulk Hogan won his first world championship (indeed, the acquisition of Hogan is, at the least, a precursor to this turn) but this moment, when McMahon did what Verne Gagne refused to in the AWA, and declared Hogan world champ and “the guy” did mark a huge shift in the public eye, from more technically based grappling to embracing a more cartoonish, flamboyant style of entertainment, with Hogan’s bulging biceps at the fore.

Prior to this point, the W(W)WF’s top heroes included Bruno Sammartino and Pedro Morales—heroes selected to appeal to the demographics of New York City at the time. While you can certainly argue that Bob Backlund was a step toward a more general all-American boy, Hogan’s character took that branding to a whole new level as a long-blond haired, ripped young super hero who could talk people into the building, and seemed to represent less any specific demographic than an American platonic ideal for the 1980s star.

And what better way to launch Hogan’s star than by beating the evil Iranian Iron Sheik—and not in a bloody, hour-long war but in a five-minute-ish bout that, a brief heat segment aside, saw Hogan win in dominating fashion, foretelling years to follow of waving the American flag, entering the ring under his “Real American” theme music and emerging as the national hero and icon the WWF needed in that moment.

#1. The First Smackdown After September 11, 2001

On September 13, 2001, the world was reeling from the terrorist attacks from two days before. Around the country major events were canceled as the US both mourned and sought to protect against becoming targets of other large-scale terrorist actions.

It would have been simple enough for the WWF to follow suit and air a re-broadcast or best-of special in place of a new episode of Smackdown. Instead, the WWF went live from Houston for a truly special episode.

The show opened with the WWF roster filling the entrance ramp, many equipped with small American flags. Lillian Garcia sang a particularly emotional rendition of the National Anthem. From there, Vince McMahon took the ring and got on the mic to explicitly state what was happening before us—that our country would persevere and that the WWF would be a part of it.

While pro wrestling has a long and important history in so many corners of the world, well beyond the bounds of the United States, it is also part of the fabric of the USA—a working man’s diversion that captures the imagination and entertains in non-pretentious ways. It’s Dusty Rhodes’s “Hard Times” promo. It’s Hogan beating The Iron Sheik. It’s letting the men and women who love the form forget real world problems and practicalities for an hour or two in favor of losing themselves in the dream of sports entertainment.

And this was the WWF in action—putting on a show for the people–on TV and, as the company has reminded us many-a-time, in front of the largest live audience since the September 11th attacks. It’s one of the greatest moments in WWE history, and WWE at its patriotic best.

Happy Independence Day, everyone. Let us know what moments would you add in the comments.

Read more from Mike Chin at his website and follow him on Twitter @miketchin.