Sgt. Slaughter Discusses How Vince McMahon Pitched Him the Iraqi Sympathizer Gimmick and Wanting to Hire Security for His Family

– During the last episode of Table For 3 for 2016 on the WWE Network, WWE Hall of Famer Sgt. Slaughter discusses how his infamous heel turn in the early 1990s, where he became an Iraqi sympathizer, came about. Below are some highlights (transcript via WrestlingInc.com).

Slaughter on having met seven US Presidents: “I’ve met seven presidents and it’s incredible how the character and the patriotism and everything, you never know who your fans are when you get a call from [United States] Secret Service inviting you to The White House as a guest of President Reagan. I met President Nixon on a plane. I met President [Jimmy] Carter at an arena baseball game. I met President [George] Bush, Sr. and [Bill] Clinton at The Oval Office.”

Slaughter on Ronald Reagan being a big fan and wanting to get put in the Cobra Clutch submission: “[Reagan] was a big fan of mine,” Slaughter continued, “we were in this big room, about 200 celebrities and my wife and I were the last two to be in line and Secret Serviceman came over to me and said, ‘excuse me, will you follow me?’ So we go around the corner, and we go through this door, and there is President [Ronald] Reagan standing there, saluting me, and he said, ‘I’ve always wanted to meet you. I thank you for all the work you do for patriotism and I flew the flag over the capital in your honor’ and he handed me the flag. And he said, ‘in fact, I would like you to put me in The Cobra Clutch. Secret Service, Secret Service said, ‘no, no, Mr. President, we don’t think that’s a good idea.’ And he said, ‘well, how about a pushup?’ ‘No, no, Mr. President. How about just a handshake and a photo?’ And so we took a photo.”

Slaughter on how Vince McMahon pitched the heel turn to make him an Iraqi sympathizer after Slaughter’s contract with Hasbro expired: “I was working for GI Joe at the time, Hasbro Toys, and my contract was finished. And I got a call one Sunday afternoon. I picked up the phone, ‘Sarge?’ ‘Yes.’ ‘Vince.’ ‘Hey, Vince.’ You know who that voice is. He says, ‘I hear your contract is up with Hasbro.’ I said, ‘yeah, funny you should know that.’ He goes, ‘are you ready to go back to work?’ I said, ‘yes, sir.’ He said, ‘I’ve got an idea for you.’ And he already had a, this was right after WrestleMania 6, he already had a layout of the Los Angeles [Memorial] Coliseum that would fit 104,000 people. And he said, ‘I want you to be in that main event and we’re going to shatter the record for [WrestleMania 3].’ But he said, ‘it’s not going to be a simple task.’ He wanted me to be an Iraqi sympathizer because of the overtake of Kuwait. ‘You go home and talk to your family before we say ‘yes’ to all of this’ and, of course, I was like, ‘yeah, I’m going to do this. Of course, I’m going to do this!’ And I got back and of course my wife said, ‘you’re crazy – you can’t be an Iraqi sympathizer.’ So we went ahead and did it.”

Slaughter on how Vince McMahon wanted to hire security for Slaughter’s family during his heel run: “The night I beat Ultimate Warrior in Miami [Florida], pretty much everything kind of hit the fan. Jay Strongbow was there and he was one of the backstage talents and he said, ‘have you talked to your wife today?’ I said, ‘no.’ He said, ‘have you talked to Vince today?’ I said, ‘no.’ He said, ‘well, give them a call.’ So I call my wife. There was nobody home. I call Vince [and ask] ‘what’s going on?’ He said, ‘well, someone called the wrestling office and didn’t like the way you won the [WWF World Heavyweight] Championship and threatened to kill you and kill me and kill our families, blow up the wrestling office, blow up the studio, blow up our homes,’ and he said, ‘I took a precaution just to call your wife and to have her get out of the house till I can get security around the house.’ So I got back home and the FBI, they’ve got this truck up into my driveway, and when I got there, they all came over, they all [wore] suits, and they showed me they were packing and they said, ‘we’re going to walk the perimeter of the property 24/7, we’ll take your wife to the grocery store, and take your kids to school, and whatever has to be done.’ I said, ‘no, we’re not going to do that. We’ll be fine.'”