Searching for Sgt. Slaughter (a.k.a. Bob Remus)

When Herman Melville wrote “Moby Dick,” he made a white whale the object of Captain Ahab’s relentless – but ultimately unsuccessful – quest.

When author and professional wrestling fan Brad Balukjian wrote “The Six Pack: On the Open Road in Search of Wrestlemania,” which chronicled his search to connect with wrestlers prominent during his youth, the object of one of his quests remained nearly as out of reach as Ahab’s whale.

That wrestler? Sgt. Slaughter, otherwise known as Bob Remus, is a 1966 Eden Prairie High School graduate.

Other wrestlers agreed to meet with Balukjian for his book, but Remus would not. The reasons why remain a mystery, but Balukjian has theories related to money, privacy, and even the military.

When I called Balukjian to talk about the book and Remus, he was on the road, driving through Delaware, having finished his book tour.

“Travel by yourself, driving by yourself, is very meditative,” he said.

Sometimes, traveling takes you directly to your destination. Then there are cases, like Balukjian’s pursuit of Remus, where the path meanders.

Eden Prairie roots

Remus is not a complete mystery.

He was born in 1948 and was on the wrestling and football teams at EPHS. He was named all-conference as a tackle in his senior year. As Balukjian writes in the book, there is an EPHS school newspaper story that includes a tale of Remus’s exploits at the end-of-the-year wrestling banquet, when wrestlers who have starved themselves all season have a feast.

“‘Big Bob’ Remus was the last to finish, along with eating the most,” the story read.

Balukjian also discovered that Remus’s first job was as a barber. Friends and former coaches described him to Balukjian as “a polite young man,” “a person of heart,” and someone for whom anger did not come easily.

Remus got his start in professional wrestling when a friend invited him to watch others train under famed wrestler and trainer Verne Gagne. One day, he was invited to step into the ring.

“Bob held his own against (Ric) Flair and another student, Ken Patera,” Balukjian writes. Both Flair and Patera would go on to be stars. Gagne put a trainer in against Remus, and the trainer gave Remus a cheap shot.

“Bob fought back and impressed everyone while defending himself,” Balukjian writes.

Remus embarked on a professional wrestling career, eventually settling on the Sgt. Slaughter in-ring persona. And that’s where things get tricky, separating Bob Remus from Sgt. Slaughter.

Real vs. fake

Wrestling, the grappling sport seen at the high school, college and Olympic levels, is an unscripted athletic contest in which one wrestler tries to win by overpowering the other. They are opponents, not collaborators. Professional wrestling matches are scripted – participants know beforehand who is to win and, in general, how that will happen.

However, for a long time, the professional wrestling industry pretended its wrestling was real. The term “kayfabe” (fabe rhymes with babe) refers to the illusion that what the audience was seeing was real – that the wrestlers were their characters, that the “good” wrestlers (called babyfaces) really didn’t get along with the “evil” wrestlers (called heels). This way of doing business was the norm during the 1970s and ’80s, the period during which “The Six Pack” wrestlers were most popular.

Balukjian’s theory is that Remus bought into kayfabe and wants to keep a clean line between Bob Remus and Sgt. Slaughter.

“He wants to be the one to author his own story,” Balukjian said of Remus. “He wants to control his own narrative. Every moment he was in public, he was Sgt. Slaughter.”

Balukjian writes that Remus’s agent asked how much money Remus would get for an interview, but Balukjian wouldn’t agree to pay.

Balukjian talked to a former professional wrestling colleague of Remus’s and also to one of his boyhood best friends, both of whom referred to Remus as “Sarge.” The colleague said Remus would contact Balukjian. That never happened. The best friend initially agreed to talk to Balukjian, then backed out when Remus asked him not to talk.

“I think they were trying to protect his privacy,” Balukjian said.

Stolen valor

Balukjian believes there is more to Remus’s refusal to talk to him than just a desire to protect his privacy, though that is certainly part of it.

Balukjian thinks Remus doesn’t want to talk about the stolen valor accusations.

Over the years, Remus has said in several interviews that he served in the military and was in the Vietnam War. As Balukjian recounts in the book, Remus said those things in an interview as recently as 2019. In those interviews, Remus was in character as Sgt. Slaughter.

“I would have asked him about the stolen valor,” Balukjian said.

Balukjian writes that, in response to Remus’s 2019 interview, the Marine Corps Times published a story confirming that Remus never served.

“Even when these articles came out and were posted all over social media and the internet, Remus never admitted his military service was a work,” Balukjian writes. A “work” is wrestling jargon for something staged as part of the show.

That could be the end of the journey: Remus wouldn’t talk to Balukjian, so Balukjian couldn’t see what one of the wrestlers of his youth is really like. 

But journeys don’t always take you directly to your destination, and the bends in the road were about to take Balukjian on a detour.

A destination

“The Six Pack” began as Balukjian’s collaboration with Khosrow Vaziri (wrestling name: The Iron Sheik) on Vaziri’s autobiography.

The Iron Sheik was Balukjian’s favorite wrestler as a child. The autobiography didn’t pan out. But Balukjian decided to write about – not with – The Iron Sheik. He also wrote about The Iron Sheik’s contemporaries. Sgt. Slaughter was a kayfabe rival of The Iron Sheik.

And when Vaziri died last year, Remus spoke at his funeral.

After the service Balukjian approached Remus and said he liked what Remus had said about Vaziri.

“Thank you. That’s the thing, when you ad lib, you end up forgetting some of the things you were going to say,” Balukjian quotes Remus as replying in “The Six Pack.”

“I appreciated what he said in his eulogy and wanted to acknowledge that,” Balukjian said to me.

But wait …

Balukjian talked to Remus this year at a convention in conjunction with WrestleMania, professional wrestling’s marquee event. Remus was appearing in character as Sgt. Slaughter. Balukjian gave Remus a copy of the book and told him there was a chapter about him, and they chatted a little.

“From what I can tell, Bob Remus is a really nice guy,” Balukjian said.

And that is where the journey ends. Or perhaps “stops” is a better word. After all, who’s to say how far you have to go to find what you’re looking for?

For more on Balukjian and his work, visit bradpack.com.