Sgt Slaughter On Why Hulk Hogan Wanted To Break Ultimate Warrior’s Leg

Sgt Slaughter has divulged what happened when Hulk Hogan suggested that they break The Ultimate Warrior’s leg for real during a match.

SummerSlam 1991 was headlined by The Match Made In Hell as Hogan teamed with Warrior to face the trio of Slaughter, General Adnan, and Colonel Mustafa in a handicap match. With Sgt Slaughter having turned his back on his formerly beloved USA and aligning with Mustafa and Adnan, WrestleMania 6 opponents Hogan and Warrior were forced to put aside any differences for the good of their country.

However, an issue arising backstage was causing more cause for concern than anything in the ring. Ultimate Warrior had allegedly held Vince McMahon up for half a million dollars saying he wasn’t going to compete in the advertised match unless he got the extra cash.

Speaking to Inside The Ropes’ Kenny McIntosh for issue 6 of Inside The Ropes magazine, Sgt Slaughter recalls finding out about the messy situation with Warrior from McMahon himself in the showers at Madison Square Garden:

“When we got to the Garden I didn’t know what was going on with Vince and the Warrior—I found out later that it had been going on for about a month or so before the match, and it actually stemmed from WrestleMania VII when the Warrior and Savage had their match. I was in the locker room with Sheik and Adnan when Vince walked in and said to me, ‘Sarge, can I talk to you for a second?’ So, of course, we went to our old meeting place, the shower room, and he said, ‘I’ve got a little problem.’ I said, ‘What is it? Too many people here? Is it sold out too much?’ He laughed, and said, ‘Yeah, yeah, it’s going to be good, but I’ve got a little bigger problem than that. Warrior’s holding me up.’ I said, ‘Holding you up? What do you mean?’ He said, ‘He’s holding me up. He wants $500,000 cash today or he’s not wrestling. I said, ‘What? Is he here?’ he goes, ‘Yeah, he’s here.’”

“I asked him what he was going to do, and Vince said, ‘I’m going to pay him,’ but as soon as the match is over, he’s fired, he’s done. I said, ‘Are you sure you want to do that?’ He says, ‘Oh, yeah. I’ve got to give the people what they’re here to see, and the people that are buying the pay-per-view, I’ve got to give them what we advertised or you’re putting a notch in the coffin for the future. People start mistrusting you. I’m just paying him and that’s it. Then he’s done—he can go wherever he wants to go.’ I said, ‘Well, okay, we’ll do what we have to do.’”

As Sgt Slaughter now had the information, Adnan and Mustafa demanded to know what was going on but before they could be filled in, an apoplectic Hulk Hogan appeared with his own ideas of how to set Warrior straight:

“All of a sudden, Sheik and Adnan walked in and wanted to know what we were talking about. As Vince started telling them what happened the door bust open and Hogan stormed in. He was infuriated—he was just bouncing off the shower room walls. ‘I can’t believe that no good . . .’ “TO HAVE SOLD OUT THE L.A. COLISEUM WOULD HAVE BEEN SOMETHING THAT WENT WITH ME TO MY GRAVE” You know, calling him all kinds of names and this and that. ‘I’ll tell you what we’re going to do, brothers, Sarge and I will be doing something . . . No, no, change it. You and Warrior will be doing something in the ring and you throw him out on the floor. When you do that, I’m going to come in and I’m going to grab you, and you and I will fight off into the corner. And then Sheik, you jump down on the floor and you break his leg. You break Warrior’s leg.’ And Vince goes, ‘No, no, no. No way. You are not going to do that. I don’t need a lawsuit on top of it. Just do the damn match and we’ll worry about it later.’”

With cooler heads prevailing in that situation, McMahon had to inform Slaughter of one other wrinkle that had been personally requested by Warrior:

“So Hogan huffs and puffs and leaves, and Sheik and Adnan go back to the locker room and sit down. I said, ‘Don’t worry, we’ll take care of it, we’ll get it done.’ As I went to leave, Vince grabbed my arm, pulled me back, and said, ‘Well, there’s one other problem, it’s not as big a problem, but talk about an ego: he wants to be introduced first. His ego is so big that he wants to get the biggest pop and he wants to be introduced first.’ Sure enough, Warrior came out first because it was deafening. You couldn’t hear anything when that music played and he came running out.”

After the match, The Ultimate Warrior was suspended from the company and did not return until his run-in after the main event of WrestleMania VIII that pitted Hogan against Sid Justice.