Sgt. Slaughter was a recent guest on the Notsam Wrestling podcast where he opened up about his relationship with Andre The Giant, “Andre was good. He lived in North Carolina. I live in North Carolina, right now. I used to live there a lot more. He would have a little party, once in awhile. He had this house that was made for him – a giant’s house. His gazebo was probably the size of most people’s homes. All the doorways were 15 feet high and he had a double king put together, and chairs were made for him. If Andre liked you, you were fine. If he didn’t like you, it was a pretty rough night.”
Slaughter remembers Big John Studd as one of the people Andre wasn’t so fond of, “He hated John Studd. He hated Johnny and John Studd was terrified of him. Once in awhile, I had John in my car and we’d be traveling. He’d talk about it and get tears in his eyes, ‘I don’t know why he doesn’t like me.’ I said, ‘It’s because you’re trying to slam him. He doesn’t want to be slammed.’”
Once Andre wrestled Sgt. Slaughter and had difficulty staying awake throughout the entirety of their match, “We came back from Japan and headed out on the road to a little town in New Jersey. People were coming out of the wood works and I come to the arena and Andre’s not there yet. His plane is late. Finally, one of the guys said, ‘Just go out. He’s on his way. Go rile up the people. When he’s here, I’ll send the referee.’”
The referee made his way to the ring and informed Slaughter, “You’re in for a good time. Andre just made his way off the plane and he’s in a great mood.”
Slaughter remembers their match, “Here he comes and I get him in the ring and he’s kind of playing around with me. I got him in a front facelock and he’s got this hair like a lion. I get him in this front facelock and we put some pressure on it pretty heavy a lot of times just to kid around with some of the guys we like. I tell the referee, ‘Ask if he wants to give up to the Sarge?’ The referee picks up his paw and he drops it down and there’s no movement. He lifts it up again, ‘Ask him if he wants to give up?’ Down goes the paw again. All of a sudden, I looked at the referee and said to myself, ‘Something’s not right.’ All of a sudden there was [snoring sound]. Andre fell asleep. He was so tired from the trip that he fell asleep. Now, I’m trying to wake him up. We’d only been in the match five minutes.”
Andre The Giant did not want to be bothered while he slumbered, “He wakes up and now he’s mad at me. He starts chasing me like a grizzly bear and I started running around the ring and he’s coming after me. I jumped over the top rope, he’d come over the top, run around, and finally I headed back to the dressing room. I ran around to the lockers and he’s chasing me around. I said, ‘What do I do?’ Arnold Skaaland was the road agent back then and he’s got a cigar. He said, ‘I don’t know kid. I don’t know kid.’”
Slaughter eventually did make his escape into his camoflauged limo with a 500 plus pound irate giant in hot pursuit the entire way.
(Transcription Credit: Michael McClead, WrestleZone)
Readers may listen to Sam Roberts’ interview with Sgt. Slaughter in its entirety below:
