A thing that frustrated me as a WWF fan in my youth was the abrupt face-turn of Sgt Slaughter after SummerSlam. I felt that it lacked any real effort to get Slaughter over as a babyface, other than Remus saying that "I want my country back". In the storyline, he had aligned himself with Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein in a war with the United States. He was a traitor, and there was no redemptive acts prior to his turn.
Because of the poor face turn I feel that Slaughter's career never recovered, and he basically went into a dead-end. Recently I thought how the WWE could have made the face-turn better, how they could have conducted it in such a fashion that Slaughter was a viable babyface going forward.
Idea
Slaughter turns on Adnan and Mustafa post-SummerSlam. There is little crowd reaction
- In weeks after he is attacked by Adnan and Mustafa. No one comes to his aid - he's a traitor shunned by every American wrestler in the locker room
- Mean Gene attempts to interview him and Slaughter gives no response
- Fall "Saturday Night's Main Event": Handicap match of Slaughter vs Adnan/Mustafa. Slaughter wins, but again overwhelmed. However Hulk Hogan come out and evens the odds, driving the Iraqi/Iranian duo from the ring. He then turns to Slaughter, and as the crowd buzzes....he salutes Slaughter and embraces him.
- A confused Mean Gene enters the ring to interview them. Hogan says that he just learned from WWF President Jack Tunney that Slaughter had been a double-agent for the US Government. Knowing that Saddam Hussein was a big proponent of Iraqi professional wrestling and that he wanted to conquer not only Kuwait, but the World Wrestling Federation, the Central Intelligence Agency had used Slaughter to infiltrate the highest levels of the Iraqi military. The intelligence that Slaughter provided had help the US in Operation Desert Storm and saved countless lives.
- Gene turns to Slaughter, who cuts a promo saying that pretending to be against America was the hardest thing that he had ever done in his life...the shame...the hate that he rightly received....but he would do it all over again if called to and regretted that he had only one life to give for his country.
- Slaughter and Hogan both lead the crowd in saying the Pledge of Allegiance..."Real American" starts playing...and you have a robust Slaughter face turn
I think this gives Slaughter real momentum as a singles star as opposed to WWE just having him tour the country, say he loves America again, have a classroom of kids embrace him for no reason, and then shuttling him off into a tag-team with Jim Duggan.
Here's what they actually did:
Because of the poor face turn I feel that Slaughter's career never recovered, and he basically went into a dead-end. Recently I thought how the WWE could have made the face-turn better, how they could have conducted it in such a fashion that Slaughter was a viable babyface going forward.
Idea
Slaughter turns on Adnan and Mustafa post-SummerSlam. There is little crowd reaction
- In weeks after he is attacked by Adnan and Mustafa. No one comes to his aid - he's a traitor shunned by every American wrestler in the locker room
- Mean Gene attempts to interview him and Slaughter gives no response
- Fall "Saturday Night's Main Event": Handicap match of Slaughter vs Adnan/Mustafa. Slaughter wins, but again overwhelmed. However Hulk Hogan come out and evens the odds, driving the Iraqi/Iranian duo from the ring. He then turns to Slaughter, and as the crowd buzzes....he salutes Slaughter and embraces him.
- A confused Mean Gene enters the ring to interview them. Hogan says that he just learned from WWF President Jack Tunney that Slaughter had been a double-agent for the US Government. Knowing that Saddam Hussein was a big proponent of Iraqi professional wrestling and that he wanted to conquer not only Kuwait, but the World Wrestling Federation, the Central Intelligence Agency had used Slaughter to infiltrate the highest levels of the Iraqi military. The intelligence that Slaughter provided had help the US in Operation Desert Storm and saved countless lives.
- Gene turns to Slaughter, who cuts a promo saying that pretending to be against America was the hardest thing that he had ever done in his life...the shame...the hate that he rightly received....but he would do it all over again if called to and regretted that he had only one life to give for his country.
- Slaughter and Hogan both lead the crowd in saying the Pledge of Allegiance..."Real American" starts playing...and you have a robust Slaughter face turn
I think this gives Slaughter real momentum as a singles star as opposed to WWE just having him tour the country, say he loves America again, have a classroom of kids embrace him for no reason, and then shuttling him off into a tag-team with Jim Duggan.
Here's what they actually did: