12. Not The Last Time Sgt. Slaughter Would Change Sides
Funny thing: Some fans of Sgt. Slaughter aren't even aware he was a wrestler, and this gap of knowledge extends all the way back to the mid-80s. During that time, Sarge appeared as a member of Hasbro's daring highly-trained special mission force, G.I. Joe (A Real American Hero). He not only received an action figure as a part of the Joe team, but also appeared in the cartoons, comics, and animated movie, even taking on the role of a live-action host for a time. As a kid, it was rather incredible to see such a cartoon character appear as the real deal in the flesh on your television screen. He-Man and Lion-o never did anything like that!All the while, however, not a single word was uttered about his wrestling career. As Sarge was one of the bigger faces in the company at the time- some would say second only to Hulk Hogan- Vince didn't want to share with anyone, and that included the natural military-themed match-up with Hasbro. Between that and no-showing an event in protest of not receiving six weeks of paid vacation, Slaughter and the WWF parted ways for a time, and as a result, he would not appear in LJN's popular Wrestling Superstars line of figures. But that isn't to say that one wasn't made; instead, the tooling for the figure (said to originally be remolded from Jimmy Snuka) was purchased by Hasbro and incorporated into their G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero line as a mail-away offering in which proof of purchases were sent with a small fee to receive an exclusive toy. Whether contracts are different now or Vince has simply decided to play nice, a new Slaughter figure was released in the resurrected G.I. Joe line in 2006 as an Official G.I. Joe Collector's Club convention exclusive, while a special edition (seen above) was made available in two variants at Comic-Con in 2010, complete with a "G.I. Joe" branded title belt. What's more, the 2006 exclusive was apparently popular enough for the 2007 version of the convention to introduce a rival for Slaughter: "Rowdy" Roddy Piper, who became trainer for the Iron Grenadiers and appeared at the convention to sign autographs.