Sgt. Slaughter will be featured in A&E's Legend's Documentary.
It’s hard to tell where Sgt. Slaughter ends and Robert Remus begins.
Perhaps it’s the very aspect that has made Sarge’s gimmick as a hard-nosed drill sergeant so timeless. Even The Undertaker—who protected his gimmick with his (Deadman) life for decades—is all too happy to break bread on a podcast as Mark Calloway. Speaking as more of an analyst of the product, Calloway waxed poetic on his “Six Feet Under” podcast, discussing his true feelings about the behind-the-scenes drama surrounding Cody Rhodes and the WrestleMania 40 main event.
These days, where content is king, breaking kayfabe is just as honored a tradition as protecting it was during Slaughter’s prime years in the ‘70s and ‘80s. And while Slaughter is happy to humor conversation about what goes on behind the curtain in pro wrestling, his perspective will always be doused with portions of his onscreen character. This dynamic will make him an interesting subject ahead of Sunday’s premiere of A&E’s latest Biography: WWE Legends series. In its latest case study of a famous wrestler, the broadcast will look to pierce through the mystique of Sgt. Slaughter and into the real life of Robert Remus.
“A lot of the things that I did as far as Sgt. Slaughter were done because of my family, my uncles who all served in the military,” said Slaughter in an exclusive interview. “I wore [his uncle’s] emblem in my hat. It was his, he gave it to me and he was in the Korean War. His name was Andy Hervin. He's passed on since. But he stepped on a landmine and lost his leg, and one of his eyes, and some of his personal property but he still fathered five children; and was a teacher and a coach and had a prosthetic limb. But he was my hero, along with my father of course, and my other uncles and all those that served.”
Hervin is, in fact, featured on the Wenner Funeral Home Obituary website, with mention of his Korean War accolades. Hervin had an influence on Slaughter’s character, but not necessarily Sarge’s military career.
Because Robert Remus never served in the military.
The fact that Slaughter has been able to convince so many people for so long of his real-life military pursuits—including legendary manager and historian Jim Cornette—speaks to his ability as a performer.
Sgt. Slaughter Remembers Ole Anderson
Like many wrestlers, Slaughter worked with Ole Anderson while cutting his teeth in the NWA: Mid-Atlantic territory. Anderson recently passed away at 81, and while he leaves a polarizing legacy, Slaughter had nothing but kind words to say about Anderson.
“[Ole] was a tremendous talent in the ring and a very good booker also,” said Slaughter about Anderson. “He was very much a no-nonsense guy, and he wanted it right down the middle, everybody pulled their weight and he helped me a lot too.”
Still spry and with most of the spark he had when he started, Slaughter isn’t opposed to giving back and helping WWE Superstars of today. Between WWE NXT, WWE’s crowded Performance Center—through its NIL program—and the youth movement of call-ups currently on WWE’s main roster, there is no limit to the amount of knowledge Slaughter can impart on a new generation. In fact, Slaughter has his eyes on two particular talents whom he refrained from naming at the moment.
“I've been watching a couple of talents there that looked like they could use someone to kind of be in their corner, help them out a little bit on promos and more in ring movements,” admitted Slaughter.
“I think there's a few of them that are kind of stuck [in WWE.] I won't name who they are, but one's a female, one's a male. And I just think that it'd be a lot of fun whether I came back as a drill instructor for one of them, it won't matter to me if they were a villain or a hero because my character's always going to be what it is, a drill instructor. He's one of those kind of characters that you don't get away from. You either like him or you don't.”
Slaughter Speaks Candidly About WrestleMania, Vince McMahon
Slaughter has been on both sides of the “like-him-or-not” coin in WWE to the most extreme degree. Slaughter was a villain during his initial run in WWE in the early ‘80s. During his return to the company, beginning in 1984, Slaughter was celebrated as an All-American babyface during a time where Patriotism in America saw all-time highs. Similar to the synergy of the Rock ‘N Wrestling Era, Slaughter’s popularity was heightened by the rise of GI-Joe action figures and cartoons, where Slaughter was a central figure.
Like a Lieutenant light switch, however, Slaughter again turned heel during his third stint with WWE in 1990. Slaughter’s embattled heel turn came at a time with rising tensions between the United States and Iraq, leading to the 1991 Gulf War. And not only was Slaughter a heel, he was an Iraqi sympathizer ahead of what was supposed to be a stadium-filling showdown against Hulk Hogan at WrestleMania VII. Unfortunately, the event was ultimately moved from the LA Coliseum to the Los Angeles Sports Arena.
Slaughter (and WWE lore) will always blame real-life “bomb threats” for the sudden change of venue. In reality, WWE was unable to move enough tickets for the main event between Robert Remus (Slaughter) and Terry Bollea (Hogan) to justify booking the 70,000-seat coliseum.
Headlining WrestleMania VII as WWF champion marked a high point for Slaughter’s career, one that would earn him a spot in the WWE Hall of Fame. As part of an ongoing tradition, WWE WrestleMania 40 weekend will feature the 2024 Hall of Fame. But it was another WWE Hall of Famer who is responsible for some of Slaughter’s favorite WrestleMania moments.
“Well, anytime the Undertaker was trying to keep The Streak going was always a fun time for me to watch, especially with some of his opponents, like Shawn Michaels and Triple H,” said Slaughter. “Those were some pretty fantastic wrestling matches. Back down with the old tour, storytelling was at its highest. And that's how I was brought into the business, the storytelling so that the people could follow it that are in the audience or at home or on pay-per-view watching it. You want to tell a story.”
“I always figure that we are artists. Professional wrestlers are artists, and inside that squared circle is our canvas. And what we need to do is to paint that picture for everybody that's watching so that they can follow it and understand what it is that we're trying to accomplish,” Slaughter continued.
“And when you get two ring generals in there, such as Pat Patterson and I, and Ricky Steamboat, Jay Youngblood, Don Kernodle, the Iron Sheik, it was something that was really enjoyable—not only to do, but I'm sure to watch. And it always made me feel really good whether you won or lost or if you were the hero or the villain, if those people stood up and gave you a standing ovation after you got out of the ring, that's like putting a medal on your chest for a job well done.”
Slaughter’s status as a former top star in WWE made it mandatory to have a close working relationship with disgraced former WWE Chairman Vince McMahon. Currently under scrutiny and investigation in the midst of a sex-trafficking lawsuit, Slaughter spoke on McMahon’s troubled legacy, choosing to remember the good times.
“Oh, no. No,” Slaughter remarked on whether his opinion of Vince McMahon has changed.
“I was hired by Vince McMahon Sr., and if it wasn't for Vince McMahon Sr. and fellows like Pat Patterson and Harley Race, Lord Alfred Hayes, Roddy Piper, I wouldn't be sitting here in front of you today.”
“They all were part of what I became and the character that I created. And Vince [Jr.] was always there to let you go full-bore. When he asked me to be the Iraqi sympathizer, I said ‘I'll do it, but I want to be able to go all the way with it. If I'm going to go do what you ask, I want you to let me do it all the way. I don't want to do it halfway.’ And he said, ‘Sarge, you take care of that character. You take it as far as you can. If you go too far, I'll pull you back. I'll get that rope and hang you back a little bit.’"
Slaughter’s documentary airs on Biography: WWE Legends this Sunday at 9/8 central on A&E, available on several streaming platforms including FRDNLY.
