10 Oldest First-Time WWE World Champions
3. Sgt. Slaughter - 42 Years, 4 Months, 23 Days
Robert Remus played many characters early in his wrestling career, but when he became Sgt. Slaughter - a crazed drill instructor based on his real-life experience as a U.S. Marine - he found his calling. Slaughter became a hated heel in wrestling, bouncing back and forth between WWE and other territories, but his career really took off when he became a babyface.
As a good guy, Sgt. Slaughter's character was incorporated into the G.I. Joe cartoon and toy line, making him a national phenomenon and a household name. He leveraged that fame into a run atop the AWA, but when the league started to show signs of imminent closure, Slaughter contacted Vince McMahon about a return to WWE. McMahon agreed, but with a catch - Slaughter would have to play an anti-American heel.
Slaughter returned to WWE in 1990, playing the role of an Iraqi sympathizer. Though the "ripped from the headlines" character didn't draw the way that McMahon thought it would, it did lead to a WWE World Championship run for Slaughter, who beat The Ultimate Warrior to win the title at the 1991 Royal Rumble.