Sgt Slaughter vs The Iron Sheik

Sgt Slaughter

Sgt Slaughter

On the heels of Sgt. Slaughter being laid off by Vince McMahon last week as a backstage road agent for the WWE, I’d like to rewind back to June 1984 in Madison Square Garden NY, when Sgt. Slaughter was in his prime as one of the most popular wrestlers in the WWF, if not the world.

Slaughter had recently turned good (wrestling terminology is “face”) and defended the U.S. against the evil Iron Sheik, who was one the hated men in wrestling thanks to his pro-Iran stance. The Sheik’s manager was Freddie Blassie, one of the most notorious former wrestlers.

The match is historic for a few reasons: 1) A boot camp match is a hardcore match. Back in 1984, the level of violence in the WWF was rare, and taken very seriously by the fans. Faces rarely broke the rules during the era, so this match had no rules. 2) Slaughter’s patriotism helped land him a deal with GI JOE, and become one of the most famous wrestlers of all time.

Special notes:

Sgt Slaughter was fired by Vince McMahon in late 1984 for working out the GI JOE toy licensing deal with Hasbro, and talking about unionizing wrestling. If Hogan never went to the WWF, Sgt may have reached his level of popularity, and taken the top spot. The Sarge got screwed by Vince.  He wrestled in the AWA, was featured in the GI JOE cartoon, and eventually returned to the WWF in 1990 as an evil turncoat American who supported Saddam Hussein during the Gulf War. Slaughter cheated to win the WWF World Championship from The Ultimate Warrior in 1991. Slaughter would face Hulk Hogan, who in many ways replaced Slaughter as an American icon, and dropped the title to him.

The marine at the beginning of the match is Private Jim Nelson, who was a jobber whom Sgt. Slaughter trained to be competitive and fight communists.

The time of this clip is over 20 minutes. I highly recommend this excellent match: http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xuvfk_sgt-slaughter-vs-the-iron-sheik-684_street

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  6 comments for “Sgt Slaughter vs The Iron Sheik

  1. December 29, 2011 at 4:22 PM

    class=” ” dope track yo…good looks on the shout.

  2. John
    October 10, 2011 at 3:29 PM

    Terry Daniels, not Private Nelson. Private Nelson was Sarge’s guy in Mid-Atlantic. Ironically, he would go on to become the America bashing Boris Zhukof.

  3. danielle_1DBrat
    September 24, 2011 at 2:27 PM

    79. Strike while the iron is hot.

  4. mike4asianwoman
    September 17, 2011 at 11:35 PM

    Sorry Jani Lane never sang with slaughter

  5. hcjc57
    May 23, 2011 at 6:10 PM

    yeah he was pvt jim nelson is the early mid atlantic championship wrestling

  6. April 11, 2011 at 6:57 PM

    It Couldn’t Happen Here –

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