In response to Mattel's Barbie, Hasbro developed and released the world's first action figure, G.I. Joe, which would eventually spawn multiple animated series and live-action films. While the heroes and villains are mostly made up of fictional characters with names like Duke and Snake Eyes (for the heroic G.I. Joes) and Destro and Zartan (for the villainous Cobra), they didn't rely solely on fiction as they went out and pulled prominent personalities like professional wrestlers Sgt. Slaughter and "Rowdy" Roddy Piper and NFL star William "The Refrigerator" Perry to sell toys and deepen the rosters of their respective teams.
The real-life personas that crossed over into the fictional world fit in perfectly with the over-the-top and flamboyant personalities in the G.I. Joe and Cobra units. Slaughter kicked it off when he joined the Joes, Piper evened the score by joining Cobra, and finally, Perry bolstered the good guys' cause by joining Slaughter as one of the "All-American Heroes." This wasn't Dwayne Johnson or Channing Tatum playing a Joe; these were real-life athletes joining the ranks to go toe-to-toe.
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Sgt. Slaughter burst on the wrestling scene in 1980 as a former Marine, calling his adversaries "maggots" and using more demeaning names to tempt them into matching muscles. While he used his real name, Robert Remus, for six years before that, it was his hard-edged militaristic personality that propelled him to the WWE Hall of Fame in 2004. He went head-to-head with legends like Hulk Hogan, Andre the Giant, Ricky "The Dragon" Steamboat, The Iron Sheik, and The Ultimate Warrior.
The fictional version of Sgt. Slaughter made his first appearance as a G.I. Joe in the June 1986 issue, "Slaughter." He went on to become the hard-nosed trainer of Joes, pushing them beyond their usual limits and finding how much they can actually handle before they come face-to-face with the worst that Cobra has to offer. His appearance in the comics, the animated series, and the animated film mirrored his wrestling gear, which usually included a tank top and a drill instructor's hat. Furthermore, Slaughter also got to voice himself on the "G.I. Joe" animated projects.
The real-life personas that crossed over into the fictional world fit in perfectly with the over-the-top and flamboyant personalities in the G.I. Joe and Cobra units. Slaughter kicked it off when he joined the Joes, Piper evened the score by joining Cobra, and finally, Perry bolstered the good guys' cause by joining Slaughter as one of the "All-American Heroes." This wasn't Dwayne Johnson or Channing Tatum playing a Joe; these were real-life athletes joining the ranks to go toe-to-toe.
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Sgt. Slaughter burst on the wrestling scene in 1980 as a former Marine, calling his adversaries "maggots" and using more demeaning names to tempt them into matching muscles. While he used his real name, Robert Remus, for six years before that, it was his hard-edged militaristic personality that propelled him to the WWE Hall of Fame in 2004. He went head-to-head with legends like Hulk Hogan, Andre the Giant, Ricky "The Dragon" Steamboat, The Iron Sheik, and The Ultimate Warrior.
The fictional version of Sgt. Slaughter made his first appearance as a G.I. Joe in the June 1986 issue, "Slaughter." He went on to become the hard-nosed trainer of Joes, pushing them beyond their usual limits and finding how much they can actually handle before they come face-to-face with the worst that Cobra has to offer. His appearance in the comics, the animated series, and the animated film mirrored his wrestling gear, which usually included a tank top and a drill instructor's hat. Furthermore, Slaughter also got to voice himself on the "G.I. Joe" animated projects.
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