Sgt. Slaughter is known by many today as the almost loveable army guy who comes out to whip up patriotic sentiment and lead crowds in chants of USA! USA! However, in the eighties he was one of the most over characters, first as a dastardly villain offering prize money to anyone who could break his Cobra Clutch, then as the heroic babyface who defended America against The Iron Sheik and The Bolsheviks. Slaughters character was greatly damaged by a heel turn where he betrayed America and sided with Iraq during the first Gulf War. While controversial and thrilling in all the ways wrestling should be, it was hard to bring the Slaughter character back from that and although WWF tried it didnt take. He returned to WWF in 1997 as the first ever Commissioner, and while he was initially popular he was quickly placed in an antagonistic role opposite D-Generation X. DXs immature brand of humour was really starting to take off, so having a stick-in-the-mud boss to play off only helped them reach new levels of popularity. For a long time Slaughters only role seemed to be keeping Chyna from interfering in matches, going so far as to handcuff himself to her and even lock her in a cage suspended from the ceiling. He later became a full-on heel to help Vince McMahon and his crusade against Stone Cold Steve Austin, but was replaced as Commissioner by his former adversary from DX, Shawn Michaels.
