• Former WWF Champion Explains Why He Missed The First 6 WrestleManias
Old School WWF Legend Sgt. Slaughter first wrestled for Vince McMahon Sr.’s World Wrestling Federation between 1980 and 1981, before he joined Jim Crockett Promotions (representing the National Wrestling Alliance), where he became the NWA United States Heavyweight Champion.
He eventually returned to the World Wrestling Federation in 1983, after Vince McMahon Jr. took over the promotion from his father the previous year.
By 1984, Slaughter was a babyface, who had legendary Boot-Camp matches with former WWF World Heavyweight Champion The Iron Sheik, but left the company in December 1984 to join Verne Gagne’s American Wrestling Association.
There were 2 stories about why he was leaving back then, with one being that he was fired for no-showing an event as a form of protest of not receiving six weeks of paid vacations, while another story included a dispute over the WWF not allowing Sarge to appear in the popular 80’s ‘G.I. Joe’ toyline, which eventually happened afterwards.
Slaughter confirmed the latter reason recently during an interview with popular Old School Wrestling journalist Bill Apter, when he talked about his 1990 WWF return as an anti-American Iraq-sympathizer, after Gagne’s AWA closed its doors.
Below is what Slaughter said about missing the first 6 WrestleMania events:
“I got the call from Vince McMahon, I watched WrestleMania 6 – Hulk Hogan and The Ultimate Warrior. And I had stopped watching the WWE at that point because I was so angry because they couldn’t work things out with Hasbro and I, so I could be at WrestleMania 2, 3, and so on. I had to miss the first 6 WrestleManias, so it made me anti-WWE.”
The 2004 WWE Hall of Famer wrestled his first ever WrestleMania match in 1991, when he main evented the WWF WrestleMania 7 pay-per-view as the reigning and defending WWF World Heavyweight Champion. He lost the Title to Hulk Hogan on that night.
WATCH: Cathy Kelley’s Buns Exposed While Playing Golf:
• Old School Wrestling Veteran Would Have Celebrated His Birthday
Today would have been the 91st birthday of Old School Wrestling Veteran Klondike Bill (Real name: William Soloweyko).
After Klondike Bill was trained by Stu Hart in the famous Dungeon of the Hart Family house in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, he wrestled all over the territories during the 60s & 70s, performing for such promotions as Calgary Stampede Wrestling, the World Wide Wrestling Federation, Jim Crockett Promotions, NWA Tri-State, NWA Georgia, NWA Central States, among many others.
When Bill retired from active professional wrestling, he became a road agent for Ted Turner’s World Championship Wrestling.
Despite passing away in 2000, some of the younger fans also got to know him, when Old School NWA/WCW commentator Tony Schiavone continued to mention him in many episodes of his famous podcast “What Happened When”, also featuring podcast host Conrad Thompson.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY & † REST IN PEACE
December 1, 1931 – October 3, 2000
