Sgt. Slaughter On How He Would Deal With WWE's Scripted Promos

WWE Hall of Famer Sgt. Slaughter recently spoke with Busted Open Radio about the current state of today's WWE. During the conversation, Sgt. considered how difficult it would be if he was a part of today's active roster, competing against exceptional stars like Seth Rollins and A.J. Styles.

In the ever-changing landscape of WWE, Sgt. recognizes a few top talents he would like to go toe-to-toe with to create unforgettable matches. Never one to shy away from pushing boundaries, Sgt. also named Becky Lynch and Charlotte Flair as the two top female stars that he would enjoy stepping in to the ring with.

"Seth Rollins could be someone that I would really enjoy having a match with as me being a villain," Sgt. said. "As a hero, Brock Lesnar would be a tremendous match. A.J. Styles, what he does in the ring is pretty incredible. I could just see him jumping up on that top rope and going to do something and I just go to clothesline him, you know? Just the way he works, he's in ring savvy. He's just incredible. Of course, I wouldn't mind wrestling Becky Lynch or Charlotte. There as good as some of the guys, maybe better!"

Sgt. believes that the added pressure of memorizing scripts along with delivering quality wrestling matches on a nightly basis would make the job of WWE superstar more challenging than it was during his stints with the company. Sgt. remembers a simpler time, when he and his fellow wrestlers would travel from hotel to hotel and practice delivering their next promos.

"It would be tough [in today's WWE]," Sgt. explained. "I look at it now and I go, 'I wonder if I could do that?' Because we weren't scripted. As you said, we were told a point to get to and we always knew where we wanted to get out at. We would just ask how much time do you want and we would just ad lib whatever we had to say, who our opponent was, where we were gonna wrestle that night. At that time, as you probably did Bubba, we would go to hotels when we would land and do promos all day long before we would go to the arena to wrestle. And you would do one right after the other, and all you had to do was change the opponent or change the event."

Sgt. also gave an example of the level of input WWE stars once had over the scripts they were given. He recounted a funny story where, after refusing a script he was handed, Vince crossed out the content on the page and told him to perform it his own, original way.

"I see some of these guys – every time I see Paul Heyman, I bow to him," Sgt. admitted. "And I say, 'It's incredible what you have to do. I mean, you're the master. You're out there 15/20 minutes sometimes'...I see these guys like Seth Rollins, and A.J. Styles, and all these guys that have to do these promos. And I just wonder, 'Could I do that?'

"Because when we would go back, guys like Roddy Piper and I, we would go back to do promos and they would give us a script. And I would look at it and tell the writer, 'I would never say anything like this. It's not what the Sgt. would say.' So he would say, 'Well, let me go talk to Vince.' He'd come back and it would have a big 'X' on it and he'd say, 'Vince said just do the promo whatever you do.' So, that's how we would do it and probably still do it today, I don't think I would have a script if I went to do promos now."

You can listen to the full interview in the video above. If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit Busted Open Radio with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.