Yesterday I posted a thread about the main event for SummerSlam 91. Sgt. Slaughter, Col. Mustafa, and Gen. Adnan participated in that main event. For those of you that dont know, Col. Mustafa is the Iron Sheik. He returned to the WWF after WrestleMania VII and aligned himself with Sgt. Slaughter in his feud with Hulk Hogan. One thing Ive always wondered is why he changed his name and didnt just return as Iron Sheik.
I think the Hogan vs. Slaughter feud was pretty much dead after WrestleMania and bringing in Mustafa did not really add anything. Mustafa was treated as a new wrestler and wasnt much of a threat. I dont know that it would have made a significant difference but I think it would have been better if he just returned as Iron Sheik. Sheik had a history with both Hogan and Slaughter. Slaughter already had ridiculous heat with his shocking heel turn and teaming with his one time arch enemy would have been another layer to that. Instead Sheik was just treated as a new wrestler that nobody cared about. Why not capitalize on a well known name from the past? I know the WWF had a history of ignoring wrestlers past when coming from another promotion but Iron Sheik was a WWF name. He was a former WWF champion. Maybe they made the change because Sheik was from Iran and Slaughter was sympathizing with Iraq. Considering this is professional wrestling I dont think that was a hard obstacle to overcome. Its not like WWF went out of their way to disguise Mustafa. He wasnt wearing a mask or anything. It was clearly Sheik. One of the announcers even alluded to it during SummerSlam.
Its not like Iron Sheik was going to light the WWF on fire in 1991 but I dont understand why they would change a known name that had a history with the people he was working with and create a character that nobody knew or cared about.
I think the Hogan vs. Slaughter feud was pretty much dead after WrestleMania and bringing in Mustafa did not really add anything. Mustafa was treated as a new wrestler and wasnt much of a threat. I dont know that it would have made a significant difference but I think it would have been better if he just returned as Iron Sheik. Sheik had a history with both Hogan and Slaughter. Slaughter already had ridiculous heat with his shocking heel turn and teaming with his one time arch enemy would have been another layer to that. Instead Sheik was just treated as a new wrestler that nobody cared about. Why not capitalize on a well known name from the past? I know the WWF had a history of ignoring wrestlers past when coming from another promotion but Iron Sheik was a WWF name. He was a former WWF champion. Maybe they made the change because Sheik was from Iran and Slaughter was sympathizing with Iraq. Considering this is professional wrestling I dont think that was a hard obstacle to overcome. Its not like WWF went out of their way to disguise Mustafa. He wasnt wearing a mask or anything. It was clearly Sheik. One of the announcers even alluded to it during SummerSlam.
Its not like Iron Sheik was going to light the WWF on fire in 1991 but I dont understand why they would change a known name that had a history with the people he was working with and create a character that nobody knew or cared about.