[1990-07-21-WWF-Superstars] Sgt. Slaughter vignette

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

Here we go. Sgt. Slaughter does his first vignette. He used to be proud of his country, but not anymore. We are maggots. He calls Nikolai Volkoff a pinko commie and is skeptical of Gorbachev. He sounds like a militant right-winger at this point, which will change.

[PeteF3]

Something else from 1990 that absolutely floored me when I saw it. I was no insider but I knew Sarge had disappeared from WWF television rather suddenly and that it was a departure on bad terms. But he was back--and as a heel, no less. I think "'80s relic who can't handle the fact that the Cold War is over" was actually a brilliant gimmick and it's really too bad they had to ruin it by hitching him to the Gulf War.

[Dooley]

Given Vince's political views, I'm almost surprised this version of Sarge wasn't pushed as a babyface.

[PeteF3]

Eh, different time periods. Reagan was the one who got credit for ending the Cold War--the Big Bads were in the Middle East now. Besides, I've never gotten the vibe that Vince cared about Conservatism in any form other than how it affected his tax rate.

[soup23]

Surprised to see these start up so early. I do think this was a kind of interesting character and want to see how it is portrayed over 1990 and 1991. Volkolff is his first target.

[shoe]

I like how they don't pretend that the audience doesn't know who Slaughter is.

[Kevin Ridge]

Sgt. Slaughter at the gun range. He is no longer proud of his country as it has gone soft. He doesn’t like the US embracing Volkoff. These started earlier than I expected. The really did build up guys with vignettes back in the day.

[ajtroma]

I wonder what the GI Joe people thought of this run. Anyone know?

 

In return for this information, I'll spare you my Fox News jokes.

[Wolfman]

I wonder what the GI Joe people thought of this run. Anyone know?

 

In return for this information, I'll spare you my Fox News jokes.

The strangest part of this angle was that the Iron Sheik became his ally and was given a different name and a different country (Iraq over Iran). I can't remember, but did they mention anything of the two of them having any history going against each other?

[garretta]

I think this version of Slaughter could have gotten as much heat as the one we all knew and despised. You could still have built him up as an eventual challenger for Hogan, who would be on a personal mission to "get Sarge's head right". He'd go through guys like Volkoff and Duggan, just as he really did. He might not have gotten the title, but that whole thing with Warrior was a horrible idea anyway. I even think Hogan/Right Wing Slaughter could have main evented Mania VII if they'd wanted it to badly enough. The only difference would be Heenan in Sarge's corner instead of Adnan. (I've always been a Heenan fan, but as we get toward the end of the Hulkamania era in the WWF, if you give me a heel to challenge Hogan and ask me to give him a manager, my answer will inevitably be Heenan over anyone else around, even if the fit's not the best. No one else has any credibility left with me right now except Sherri, and she's off by herself with Savage.)

 

At any rate, if Sarge had stayed this way, I'd have had no problem with him whatsoever (though he could have screamed just a little less). Unfortunately, he didn't. We'll be discussing this ad infinitum over the next two years, so I'll leave it there for now.

[GSR]

Drill Sgt. Slaughter is shooting some rounds of ammunition on the firing range. He says that he used to be proud of his country, but not anymore. These maggots have opened their arms to that pinko commie Nikolai Volkoff, and they believe the crap that he and Mikael Gorbachev are feeding them. He’s here to tell everyone that America has gone soft, not only physically, but in the head too. They say the Cold War is over, but over his dead body! We then get a side profile of the Sarge and his almighty chin.

[Beast]

Yep, just as Volkoff's embracing of America was the perfect way to acknowledge the evolving World outside WWF, Slaughter's return as the unbeliever stuck in the pro-USA Cold War mindset is amazing. Like so many of you said above, this is a surprisingly forward thinking angle by Vince that all fell apart once they attached it to the Middle East turmoil.

In this guise, Slaughter was checking off the Mick Foley heel tip of believing what you're saying. And while I don't know if he would have gotten to the main event of WrestleMania VII without the Saddam connection, I think this run would be much more fondly remembered today. His '80s heel stuff with Patterson and Backlund was as good as a heel was in that pre-Hogan era. Add in some jealousy of Hogan taking his fanbase in 1984 and they could have had a feud that matched the quality of their matches and didn't touch on anything distasteful.

Lots of "What If?" scenarios to throw around here.