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).

Slater began wrestling with Mike Graham at Robinson High School, in Tampa, Florida.

He attended the University of Tampa with Paul Orndorff.

From there he began wrestling in Championship Wrestling from Florida and Georgia Championship Wrestling.

He worked as a booker in Knoxville, Tennessee after Ron Fuller sold his promotion to Jim Barnett.

He wrestled in Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling (later World Championship Wrestling), where he appeared on the first Starrcade.

He also worked in Mid-South Wrestling Association, where he was managed by Dark Journey.

Slater made some trips to the World Wrestling Council in Puerto Rico.

He wrestled briefly in the World Wrestling Federation as a babyface under a "Rebel" gimmick, but soon returned to WCW.

He wrestled there until receiving his back injury that ended his 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 credits 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 Ron 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 has 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 has said that the move was because he was tired of the promotion and the multiple bookings he did.

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.