Claim: Sgt. Slaughter never served in the military

Jan 10, 2020 - by Steve Gerweck

WWE Hall of Famer Sgt. Slaughter is facing a new round of accusations that he is falsely claiming in non-kayfabe interviews that he served in the military. The accusations began making the rounds on social media after being brought back up on the Wrestling Observer Newsletter message board (WrestlingNews.co).

Slaughter, real name Robert Remus, has a gimmick of being a US Marine drill instructor. Slaughter has repeated his claim in non-kayfabe interviews, claiming that he has served two tours in Vietnam, with the website (not the wrestlers) SoCal Uncesored noting that he most claimed this as recently as February of 2019 in an interview with Sam Roberts and Jim Norton. In this interview, Slaughter says that he went into the military in 1968 and got out in 1974 and did two tours in Vietnam where he served as infantry. He goes on to say about whether he came back with issues like PTSD:

“Well, we never really talked about it much. It was something were we weren’t acknowledged as, you know, being heroes or anything like that. So we never talked about it, and there’s some bad experiences and did a lot of things I normally wouldn’t have done or — unless I was ordered to do it.”

WWE also has an article on their website of “Superstars who served in the U.S. military” which says of Slaughter:

Former WWE Champion Sgt. Slaughter’s persona as a tough-as-nails Marine drill instructor was no fluke. After graduating from high school, young Robert Remus joined the United States Marine Corps where he earned the moniker “Sgt. Slaughter.”

It was after his time with the Corps that Sarge began his in-ring career in AWA. Initially, he wore a mask and competed under the name Super Destroyer II. In 1980, he let his military pride shine through and became Sgt. Slaughter — one of the most popular competitors in WWE history. In addition to his WWE Hall of Fame induction, Sarge was immortalized in cartoon form as part of the G.I. Joe Universe.

These are not new allegations; in fact, the Baltimore Sun reported back in March of 1985 that the Marines wrote a letter to Slaughter asking him to stop pretending that he was a Marine but he and his agent never responded to them. Of course, Slaughter comes from a time when the line of kayfabe was much stronger and wrestlers pretended to be who their gimmicks portrayed them as, but with that era passed and Slaughter still giving interviews, it’s garnering criticism online.

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