Legends of Wrestling Roundtable: Patriotism

One of the fastest ways to get a crowd reaction is to make it personal to them. Witness Elias mocking Seattle for losing their NBA franchise, and you can see the effectiveness in getting specific with the crowd. However, doing so doesn’t necessarily make them hate you; after all, what was said could’ve been said by anybody. Thus, it’s called “cheap heat” (or its Foley-esque inverse, the “cheap pop”). And nothing works faster or better than locality cheap heat.

That’s why wrestling has always entertained the idea of patriotism. It doesn’t matter whether the US is in the doldrums or riding high, there’s always a visceral reaction coming when someone not from the US denigrates it. Conversely, while blind jingoism is unappreciated in real life, someone proud of their homeland will get the cheers. As a lower-card pick-me-up, this kind of cheap heat gets the crowd hot. But some do it better than others.

This we explore today. This is the Legends of Wrestling Roundtable episode: Wrestling with Patriotism. Recorded in 2009, it features Gene Okerlund (RIP) speaking with wrestling longtimers Sgt. Slaughter, Michael PS Hayes, Jim Ross, and (in what should be a unique perspective given his outsider status) Pat Patterson. Let’s walk down memory lane on the history of America and wrestling. As always, I will use the Scott sez format if I feel the need to interject.

Sarge starts it off as Gene talks about how he’s been on both sides of it. He asks how Sarge became Sgt. Slaughter. Sarge talks about being a heel when he started in Allentown and in the Midwest territories. But he started as a Beautiful Bobby in the 70s in the Portland territory (complete with photos). It stopped when his opponent was mocking him by blowing kisses at him, so “Beautiful Bobby’s going in the closet”.

Gene basically says “moving on” and goes to Jim about how pro wrestling started with patriotism. JR notes the usual villains were the ugly ones, but it was World War II where it changed, especially with the DuMont network out of Chicago. With the scars of WWII still fresh, DuMont took Guy LaRusse and made him German villain Hans Schmidt, and he was their top heel, going against #1 babyface Verne Gagne. Schmidt was so well-known that other territories would book him with a piece of the gate. Basically, the first “evil foreign heels” were from Germany or Japan as a result — World War II was a big deal in literature and movies, so why not wrestling?

Gene asks Patterson to go over some Japanese stars. He mentions Prof. Togo (aka Oddjob) and Kenji Shibuya. But Patterson says it didn’t matter how good you were as long as you played into the stereotypes. JR and Gene then clarify what they mean by “popular” when it comes to villainy: the ones you pay to see lose. JR points out it went both ways: in Japan, Mike Sharpe Sr was playing the foreign heel, as was NFL player Leo Nomellini, taking on Japanese heroes like Rikidozan. (Okay, Rikidozan is from Korea, but still.)

Gene then brings up Fritz Von Erich to Hayes. Hayes points out Fritz was a minor star as himself, but after a stint in upstate New York, he re-invented himself and made a name for himself in Dallas. Hayes believes he’s the best “German” wrestler of his day. JR points out his deep, gravelly voice helped out. Waldo is mentioned in passing. A bug says that Waldo was Fritz’s tag team partner and alleged brother. Patterson says that there was some fear with Fritz and Waldo because they didn’t know if the crowd would let them leave alive. Sarge mentioned Waldo talking about being attacked with rocks by the fans for his act.

Fast-forward to the 1950s and the Cold War, and suddenly we have Russia! Patterson loves Nikolai Volkoff, but the best was the Canadian-born Ivan Koloff. JR talks about Koloff ending Bruno Sammartino’s stranglehold on the WWWF Title in 1971 putting Russian heels on the map. Even in San Francisco, which was a hub for Japanese heels, the Cold War supplanted World War II and everyone created a Russian. As long as you could shave your head.

Hayes talks about making the Russian Assassins out of Dave Shelton aka Angel of Death and Jack Victory. Sarge brings up the Kalmikoffs tag team. JR mentions that Barry Darsow starting as Krusher Kruschev. But it was Nikita Koloff who was probably the most successful. Nikita had an incredible physique and stage presence and trained himself to do the broken Russian accent. It helped that he got to go against the big names like Dusty, Flair, and Magnum TA.

Now we get footage from a squash by Koloff in which he brutalizes a jobber while demanding Ric Flair from August 1985. Koloff slams the poor guy before no-selling a bunch of chops and brutalizing him. Big lariat (Russian Sickle) ends it. We then cut to a mustachioed Tony Schiavone interviewing him. And man, is Nikita’s accent thick. He tells Ric to rest well, because he’ll need all the rest he can get. Ivan then says Nikita is destined to beat Ric Flair. And don’t worry, Ric Flair will go down in history as a great champion who lost to the greatest champion in Nikita Koloff. Flair has avoided Nikita long enough — the match needs to happen. He tells Flair to polish the title for the superior athlete.

Back to the roundtable, as Hayes points out Nikita Koloff may have extended the lifespan of Russian gimmicks, because the fans were getting sick of Russians. Glasnost and perestroika made the USSR less of a threat anyway. (For you young’uns, those were the Russian names of the diplomatic sessions that Gorbachev had with Reagan that led to thawing of tensions. Gorbachev’s resignation let to the dissolution of the USSR in 1991, essentially ending hostilities.)

Back to Slaughter’s career: one night, the McMahons and Patterson had an idea. Patterson said Sarge was a good heel, but he could be a better face if he was programmed against Iron Sheik. Vince Sr was against it, because he was too good as a heel, but VKM talked him into it. Hayes was skeptical of anyone wanting to work long-term with Sheik, but Slaughter called him “instant box office”. Anyway, the McMahons went with it, and one night in Allentown, they went for the face turn. Sheik squashed some young guy (Eddie Gilbert, as it turned out).

Here, let’s just show it to you: Sarge comes in to save Gilbert from the Iron Sheik (this is in 1984) and clears the ring. Okerlund and Vince on commentary surmise something was said that made him snap. Sarge then gets on the house mic and says he was ambushed a lot in Vietnam, and he and the US may have been down before, but they always fight back. Slaughter makes a declaration of WAR on the Sheik. He then recites the Pledge of Allegiance to show his true colors as the crowd goes nuts.

Back to the roundtable, as we switch gears to the Sheik. Patterson points out he was an amazing wrestler and was legitimately in the Shah’s entourage. They discuss the backstory of Sheik, his US Olympic coaching and studying under Danny Hodge. (Of course JR brought up Danny Hodge. It’s in his contract to name drop wrestlers from Oklahoma at every opportunity.) No one needed Khosrow Vaziri as a foreign heel because it was all Germany, Russia, and Japan at the time. Sheik worked with Gagne to develop his heel edge… which leads to a sidebar about his Hall of Fame induction speech, complete with clips of Sheik’s speech.

Patterson then says Sheik was fearless about the crowd wanting to hurt him; instead, he knew he could take anyone with his amateur skills. Patterson mentions a show in New Jersey where Sheik was late to the building from Toronto, stuck in customs, but brought a half-gallon of Crown Royal as an apology. Which he promptly drops and shatters.

Sheik talk segues into Hogan talk, as Sheik was the able to kickstart the Hogan legend. Patterson says he’ll never forget the night Hulkamania began. Hayes said that say what you will about the Sheik (and a lot of it is true), but Sheik is loyal — Sarge confirms that Sheik told him about Gagne putting a hit on Hogan. Sarge tells him to tell Vince about it, and Vince will make a counter-offer. And with that, we take a break.

Back from break as Gene talks to Sarge about becoming a major hero with wrestling going global and Sarge having a GI Joe deal. He says he was invited to Reagan’s second inaugural in 1985. He was in a group photo with Reagan, then was called aside with his wife by the Secret Service for a private meeting. Reagan was apparently a huge fan of the Sarge/Sheik feud and wanted to do some push-ups with him, but the Secret Service said a picture will be enough. Reagan even invited Sarge to be on the podium with him and namedropped him!

Sarge then mentions another anecdote of being on a Pan Am flight and was asked to move seats because the seat next to his wife was occupied by Richard Nixon. The Secret Service was marking out, while Nixon gladly traded seats with Sarge as they talked stories. Nixon gave him an autographed photo.

But when Sarge returned from his Hasbro-related hiatus in 1990, things changed. Sarge got a phone call from Vince (“There’s only one Vince”) to bring him back in. (Hayes notes that there may have been some animosity when Sarge left for the AWA, but Sarge says being the living GI Joe was worth it, though he did wish he could have done the first WrestleManias.) Anyway, Vince says pitches Sarge as the next big heel to face Hogan, with the idea that Sarge would be so disgusted by Iraq being a bully that he’d disown America.

Hayes asked if Sarge was nervous, but Sarge said he was happy to be a heel again and facing Hogan meant big money. But his family thought it would be career suicide. Sarge went through anyway. We now see a promo by Sarge and General Adnan in January 1991. (For those wondering, Adnan actually was an Iraqi, and yes, he was given hero’s treatment by Saddam Hussein, so that part was a shoot.) Sarge shows off the combat boots Saddam supposedly gave him and threatens Warrior entering their title match.

Gene then asks Sarge about how scary it was. Sarge tells a story about being in Philadelphia the day after the Rumble at an all-night restaurant and being refused service by the chef, who was a Marine himself. Meanwhile, the next day on Jay Strongbow’s advice, Sarge called Vince and was told that there were death threats and bomb threats against him. Vince got Sarge’s family to evacuate, and they had a full security detail throughout the title reign. Sarge had four bodyguards on 24/7 watch. (And they say the death of kayfabe is a bad thing.)

Hayes notes that some of the kids — i.e., newer younger wrestlers — are afraid of heat. Storm, Christian, and Test were scared of how much heat they could’ve gotten as the Un-Americans, although Regal was willing to milk it to the hilt. Patterson then mentions his street fight against Sarge in 1981 as an example of why you need to want massive heat. Sarge mentions the finish, with Sarge having the towel thrown in by the Grand Wizard, and credits that moment with being the seed of his face turn.

Gene then talks to Patterson and JR about how in the mid-90s, there were no “easy enemies” for patriotism. JR says that that was a time to step away from patriotism and into nationalism. So rather than go after people you’re at war with, you go after people with cultural differences… such as the Hart Foundation in Canada. Americans saw the Austin/Hart rivalry as a USA/Canada rivalry. It wasn’t a war, but it was a desire to see “your” country win.

JR then brings up the Halifax Raw where Bret slaps around Vince and a fight ensued. JR says he could feel the tension and angst within Canadian nationalism spill over and become electric. JR compared Bret to Wayne Gretzky. JR said they were staying in a hotel a block from the Halifax arena for Vince and JR — Lawler was suspiciously absent — was tense and nervous because the fans lining the way wanted to get at Vince for fighting Bret.

Gene then asked Hayes about the Muhammad Hassan character. Hayes said he was trying to deal with the realism of Muslim Americans feeling alienated by Americans jumping to conclusions. He said that when this was the focus, it worked great. Then we cut to an introductory vignette of Hassan and Daivari, with Hassan being angry at being stereotyped as Daivari screams in Farsi repeating everything Hassan says. Hassan promises he won’t take it anymore.

But, Hayes said, you have to embrace wanting to be hated. He claims Hassan couldn’t handle all the heat he was getting. JR mentions that part of the character development was how Lawler and JR treated them poorly on the microphone and how that led to angles and matches, such as the Hassan/Lawler match in Puerto Rico. Even in Puerto Rico — a US territory — people were hot for it. Sarge notes that the sponsors and networks were nervous about what was said and done (Well, yeah, that “terrorist attack” on the Undertaker was a very bad idea), and Sarge was certain he couldn’t have gotten away with what he did nowadays. As an example: he cites forcing Finkel to read Iraqi boilerplate.

JR brings up Adnan’s Iraqi history, but mentions he lost both his parents in the First Gulf War. Sarge mentions his apology tour routine, where Sarge asks for his country back. Turns out it was much easier than he thought… but he still turned on Hacksaw later that night.

And on that note, the show ends.

*****

Well, this hour just flew by, which is the good news. There were a few stories that seemed suspect (Hayes in particular claiming that newer wrestlers were too afraid strikes me as a mentality we can leave in the past), but what’s interesting is hearing about Sarge’s career and how he experienced both sides of it. There’s quite a bit of material in WWF/WWE history they could’ve covered (The Rougeau Brothers’ faux-patriotism, Del Wilkes’ run as a foil to Bret, La Resistance in general), plus with the decade since there are topics like Jack Swagger’s xenophobic spin and Rusev’s rise as Russia became dangerous again. It’s a shame this series stopped — there’s prime material for a sequel on just this topic.

If you want to see it yourself, it’s on the WWE Network in the Vault section. Thanks for reading, everyone!