Dick Slater

**Richard Van Slater** (May 19, 1951 - October 18, 2018), better known by his ring name **"Dirty" Dick Slater**, was an American professional wrestler who wrestled in the 1970s, 1980s, and mid 1990s for various promotions including Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling and World Championship Wrestling (WCW).

In June 2004, Slater was convicted for the stabbing of his former girlfriend Theresa Halbert. He was sentenced to one year of house arrest and two years of probation. He blamed the incident on influence from painkillers.

## Professional wrestling career

Slater began wrestling in 1968 with Mike Graham at Robinson High School in Tampa, Florida. Eddie Graham purchased a wrestling mat for his high school and started a high school wrestling program there. He wrestled for an organization called the AAU, a program that trained young wrestlers to go to the Olympics. Slater went to the University of Tampa where he played football in addition to wrestling (among his teammates was John Matuszak and Paul Orndorff). He had a chance to play football for the Miami Dolphins but declined the opportunity, deciding to wrestle instead.

After going to a National AAU meet, he was approached by Mike Graham, who asked him if he wanted to become a professional wrestler; Slater decided to go to the Sportatorium in Tampa to train as a professional wrestler. There, he was trained by Jack Brisco, Bob Roop, Hiro Matsuda, and Bill Watts. Slater also became good friends with Dick Murdoch around this time. Slater began working for Championship Wrestling from Florida, which was run by Eddie Graham. He stayed there for three years and won the NWA Florida Tag Team Championship (with Dusty Rhodes, Stan Vachon, Toru Tanaka, and Johnny Weaver) and the NWA Florida Television Championship.

After leaving CWF, Slater worked in California alongside the Von Brauners, Moondog Mayne, Pat Patterson, and Ray Stevens. From there, he went to Las Vegas and Reno, Nevada (traveling with Moondog Mayne frequently). Slater then went to Georgia Championship Wrestling, an organization he credited with putting him on the map.

He worked there for 8 years, winning the NWA Georgia Heavyweight Championship four times, as well as the NWA Georgia Tag Team Championship and NWA Macon Tag Team Championship with Bob Orton, Jr.. During the time period he also won the NWA Missouri Heavyweight Championship and a number of Florida titles. Slater commented that after winning the Missouri Heavyweight Title, he was in the mix to become NWA World Heavyweight Champion, but would attribute his not winning it to "politics".

In 1983, Slater was working in Knoxville, Tennessee for Run Fuller when Jim Barnett approached Slater with the idea of booking a television show in Atlanta for Ted Turner. At the same time, Jim Crockett was buying out Jim Barnett; thus, Slater started working for Crockett. Around the same time, Dusty Rhodes (one of Slater's many tag team partners) became a booker for Crockett. Slater teamed up with Bob Orton, Jr., and began a feud with Ric Flair where they attacked with an aided piledriver in an attempt to end his career.

The team collected a bounty from Harley Race, the reigning NWA World Heavyweight Champion for apparently ending Flair's career. Flair would return and attack Slater and Orton. While Flair would go on to fight Race at Starrcade for the championship, Orton and Slater were placed in a tag team match with Mark Youngblood and Wahoo McDaniel, who sought retribution on Slater and Orton for attacking their friend Flair. At the event, Slater and Orton were victorious over Youngblood and McDaniel after Orton superplexed Youngblood.

Slater said that Crockett ran one of the hardest promotions to work for; in addition to wrestling for Crockett, Slater was also booking three other promotions, Bill Watts’, Joe Blanchard’s, and Paul Boesch's. For a time in Mid-Atlantic, Slater was managed by Gary Hart. While in Mid-Atlantic, Slater won the NWA Mid-Atlantic Heavyweight Championship, the NWA Television Championship and the NWA United States Heavyweight Championship He also independently declared himself the true NWA World Heavyweight Champion during Flair's title reign, creating his own belt, and was involved in another program with Flair.

In 1985, Slater left Mid-Atlantic and went to Mid-South wrestling (run by Bill Watts). He said that the move was because he was tired of the promotion and the multiple bookings he did. In Mid-South, Slater took on his controversial valet of Dark Journey, whom he first saw dancing in a nightclub; he eventually asked her to be his valet. His relationship with her caused a great deal of legitimate heat (due to her being African-American). While in Mid-South, Slater engaged in a lengthy feud with Jake Roberts (who would DDT Dark Journey in one of their matches); Slater would also win the Mid-South North American Championship, the Mid-South Television Championship, and the UWF World Television Championship.

Slater wrestled briefly for the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) as a babyface using a Southern "Rebel" gimmick. He debuted in WWF on the July 26, 1986 episode of *Championship Wrestling* by defeating The Gladiator. While in the WWF, Slater had one match with Jake Roberts; however, this being 1980s WWF TV (where no mention was ever made of a wrestler's past) his Mid-South feud with Roberts was ignored.

In that match aired on a December 13, 1986 episode of WWF Superstars Slater cleanly pinned Roberts but decision was reversed by referee Danny Davis when Roberts put his foot on the rope after the three count. Slater was then disqualified for hitting the referee. Slater defeated Mike Sharpe at The Big Event and was squashed by Don Muraco in two minutes on the *Saturday Night's Main Event VIII*. Shortly after his match with Muraco, the WWF began to use him as a jobber. His last televised appearance in WWF was on the May 4, 1987 episode of *Prime Time Wrestling*, where he lost to Butch Reed.

After a brief run in the AWA where he was supposedly a bodyguard for AWA champion Curt Hennig, Slater returned to Jim Crockett Promotions after leaving the WWF, but was soon fired for placing a plastic bag over Ric Flair's head. However, he would come back to World Championship Wrestling for the final portion of his career. He replaced an injured Terry Funk to team up with The Great Muta at Clash of Champions VIII in a losing effort against Ric Flair and Sting. He would later team with Dick Murdoch as the Hardliners. He briefly won the WCW United States Tag Team Championship with The Barbarian, defeating The Fabulous Freebirds (Jimmy Garvin and Michael Hayes), but the belts were retired one month later on July 31, 1992.

Slater later replaced Terry Funk in the Stud Stable. The group started a feud with the Harlem Heat because of a love/hate relationship between Parker and the Heat's manager, Sister Sherri. He won the WCW World Tag Team Championship with Bunkhouse Buck on an episode of *WCW Saturday Night* on July 22, 1995, defeating the Harlem Heat thanks to interference from Col. Rob Parker. They dropped the titles back to the Harlem Heat at Fall Brawl 1995. Parker eventually dumped Slater and Buck for Martel, and the Stud Stable was finished. In 1996, in Gainesville, Georgia, Slater blew out two vertebrae in a televised match. The back injury ended his wrestling career.

## Death

WWE released a statement on October 18, 2018, announcing that Slater had died. Wrestling trainer and close friend Les Thatcher acknowledged that Slater had died on his Twitter account. His death was also confirmed by on-screen adversary Ric Flair, who paid tribute on YouTube. According to the NWA's Twitter account, Slater died due to heart complications.