During his long career as an active wrestler, WWE Hall of Famer Sgt. Slaughter was billed as someone who had served in the U.S. Marine Corps before entering the world of professional wrestling. While it’s long been claimed that Slaughter did not actually spend any time in the military, these accusations have resurfaced once again, along with a past news article documenting the supposed lack of truth behind his background outside the ring.
As documented by WrestlingNews.co , the allegations were recently discussed on two sources — a Wrestling Observer Newsletter forum thread started by writer Karl Stern, as well as a series of posts on the SoCal Uncensored Twitter account that called the wrestler out for touting his purportedly made-up military background in out-of-character interviews. Both sources shared a story from the March 24, 1985, edition of The Baltimore Sun , where it was reported that USMC officials were “interested” in Slaughter’s onscreen persona as a former drill instructor.
“Government records reveal Slaughter, a.k.a. Robert Remus, never served in the U.S. Marine Corps, though he claims to have been a drill instructor from 1966 to 1973,” the article reads, as seen on SoCal Uncensored’s Twitter post. “Slaughter dodges all questions about his armed service record — for good reason.”
The Baltimore Sun story also quoted a USMC officer, who described Slaughter as being “very elusive,” adding that his office had, at that time, received 50 complaints from actual Marines who didn’t appreciate the grappler’s “abuse of the uniform.”
Additionally, WrestlingNews.co cited other posts from SoCal Uncensored, including one that featured a video of Slaughter discussing his two supposed tours of duty in Vietnam in an interview where he spoke out of character. The account’s administrators stressed in a separate tweet that they have no issue with the WWE Hall of Famer portraying a Marine on television — just with how the man behind the persona keeps “pretending” to be one while away from the ring.
Aside from the above allegations, WrestlingNews.co noted that there are some other “inconsistencies” with Slaughter’s claims of serving in the USMC. According to the outlet, the 71-year-old grappler first competed for the American Wrestling Association (AWA) in 1972 — one year before his time in the Marines supposedly ended.
This isn’t the only instance where WWE — a promotion well-known for working closely with the U.S. military through its Tribute to the Troops events — has been embroiled in controversy with regard to an employee’s actual or claimed military service. As reported by Variety , Randy Orton was removed from the cast of WWE Studios’ direct-to-video movie The Marine: Homefront in 2012, after reports of the longtime company mainstay’s dishonorable discharge from the USMC in 2000 were unearthed ahead of the film’s production.
