Going Ringside With The Local Station

Wrestling legend Sgt. Slaughter on becoming the face of G.I. Joe and threats for becoming an 'Iraqi sympathizer' during Gulf War


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There are few wrestlers ever who have made the impact that Sgt. Slaughter did throughout his career. The first major splash for Slaughter happened in the 1980’s when he made the extremely successful decision to leave wrestling and become the face of G.I. Joe. The massively popular cartoon and toy line thrust Slaughter into every home with children in America. It put him on a level only Hulk Hogan had achieved in the industry.

In this interview we discuss the impact of that business move. But we also discuss his other major decision when he returned to wrestling. That was to start a storyline where he became an “Iraqi Sympathizer” during the Gulf War and publicly backed Saddam Hussein on WWE (then WWF) television. This was an era when many fans still believed WWE storylines as reality.

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Going Ringside With The Local StationBy News4Jax and Graham Media Group