Sportskeeda has uploaded another clip from their interview with WWE Hall of Famer Sgt. Slaughter. The former WWE Champion talked about not being invited to The Undertaker’s Hall of Fame induction.
“Vince came to us at one time [in the 1990s] and said, ‘Guys, we’re in this deep war and I’m not sure if you guys are gonna get paychecks for a little while.’ I said, ‘It doesn’t matter, Vince. Let’s dig that foxhole and win this war.’”
“Everybody was leaving us. Everybody’s leaving us and then here comes Steve Austin. Then here comes The Rock, you know, a guy that I grew up with and he was a little boy who grew up in the locker room and you know, you wanted to see him do well and you did everything you could. Pat Patterson and I and Bruce Prichard and we all, you know, got our minds together and talked to Vince about different ideas.”
“I created Yokozuna at that time. Rodney was there. Vince said, ‘I don’t know what to do with this guy.’ I said, ‘He’s a hell of a talent. I’ve worked with him many times.’ He said, ‘Yeah, but I’ve got ten Samoans now. I don’t know what to do with him.’ So I started thinking about it and I said a sumo wrestler. He came through with flying colors. We all stayed there. We fought that war. We won the war.”
“I just feel like, you know, I found Mark Calaway in a box of tapes. As a lot of people know, my back was hurt. I had to go work in the office. One of my jobs was to go through this wannabe office. I had all these tapes and boxes and envelopes and pictures and letters from wannabe wrestlers and managers and valets and announcers. They wanted me to go through all these things. One, just one, was Mark Calaway and I brought him in. I said to Vince, ‘You gotta see this guy’. I said, ‘He’s a wrestler, he’s down in WCW, and he’s got short red hair, but man, what a talent.’ He said, ‘Well, I’ve never heard of him, so bring him in.’”
“So I called up Mark. I brought him in for a tryout in Rochester, New York. As soon as Vince saw him in the ring, he came up to the Gorilla position, takes my headset off my ear, and said, ‘Sarge, where did you find this guy?’ I said, ‘In a box of tapes.’ He goes, ‘Send him to my office.’ So Mark comes up, ‘How did I do?’ I said, ‘I thought you did good.’ He said, ‘Okay.’ I said, ‘But Vince wants to talk to you.’ ‘Oh, did I do something wrong?’ I said, ‘I think you probably did something right. Let’s go.’ So I introduced him to Vince. He comes out of Vince’s office. ‘What did Vince say?’ ‘He wants to know if I can come to Buffalo tomorrow night.’ I said, ‘Can you?’ He goes, ‘Yeah, I can come’, and he’s been there ever since because Vince had this idea of a dark character. First, he rumbled around about a pallbearer, but he finally got it right. He got The Undertaker and he went and got a pallbearer, Percy Pringle, who was actually a pallbearer and brought him in to do all of his talking for him and the rest is history.”
“If you’re listening, Mark Calaway, I just want to ask you one thing. I found you in a box of tapes. Sgt. Slaughter found you in a box of tapes and I called you three times because the first few times he hung up on me because he didn’t believe it was me. Finally I gave him the office number and I said, ‘Ask for me when you call this number.’ He said, ‘Oh, it is you?’ I said, ‘Yeah, it is me.’ Guess who he didn’t invite to his Hall of Fame? Me, Sgt Slaughter, the guy that found him, the guy that brought him to Vince McMahon and said, ‘Here’s the guy. This is your guy.’ Can you imagine not being invited? I should have been in the front row.”
“I always kidded Mark, you know, over the years I said, ‘Hey Mark, how’s it going?’ ‘Great.’ I said, ‘You know, every time I go to my mailbox I expect to see a little percentage’, and he said ‘Oh, the checks in the mail, Sarge. The check is in the mail.’ Then you know, that gives us a little bit of a haha for a while, but boy, you don’t invite somebody that kind of brought you to where you are today, not even to your Hall of Fame?’ I mean, that was a slap in the face right there, and if you’re listening to this, Mark Calaway, I don’t understand it. I really don’t understand it.”
If you use any portion of the quotes from this article please credit Sportskeeda with a h/t to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription.
