Remembering Tampa wrestler

Dirty Dick Slater’s tough-guy routine wasn’t just an act, columnist David Whitley says.

Dick Slater died Thursday. Wherever he is now, watch out.

“Nobody messed around with Slater,” Ric Flair said in a YouTube video.

During his long and colorful professional wresting career he was known as “Dirty” Dick Slater. But the Tough Guy routine wasn’t just an act.

Slater was perhaps the gnarliest hombre to come out of Tampa’s golden era of wrestling. In the late 1960s and early 1970s future stars like Hulk Hogan, Jack and Jerry Brisco and Mike Graham came of rasslin’ age.

Slater went to Robinson High, where he wrestled and played football. He went to the University of Tampa to play football, but it didn’t take long for him to decide that pro wrestling was his calling.

Maybe he was inspired by a run-in with John Matuszak. “The Tooz” was a 6-foot-8 defensive end and a future No. 1 draft pick of the Oakland Raiders.

According to Flair, Matuszak was hitting on Slater’s girlfriend one day at the beach.

“Slater beat the crap out of him,” Flair said in the video. “He went up to (Matuszak’s) hotel room and Slater said, ‘Write me a note and apologize to me before you come out.’ Nobody messed around with Slater.”

A lot of young brawlers aspired to become wrestlers back then. Most tried out for Eddie Graham, a legendary wrestler who promoted the “Championship Wrestling from Florida” TV show.

Graham weeded out the weaklings by having them wrestle established pros like Bob Roop. After a couple of minutes in the ring, most wannabe wrestlers changed career plans.

When Slater came in, the roles

reversed.

“They told Roop to soften him up,” Flair laughed. “Roop was lying in a pool of blood. Slater was that tough, man. The rest is history.”

Slater became a fixture on “Championship Wrestling from Florida” and the National Wrestling Alliance circuit. He was a frequent tag-team partner with Dusty Rhodes.

“I gave him the nickname of Buford as in Buford Pusser, the famous sheriff from ‘Walking Tall,’” Rhodes told the Sentinel in 2000. “He was a rugged SOB.’’

They were buddies away from the ring but often played enemies inside it. Rhodes once tossed Slater into Biscayne Bay as part of a show in Miami, the Miami News reported.

Those were some wild days. Slater was at a Tampa lounge one night having drinks with Andre the Giant, Chief Wahoo McDaniel and Tommy Rich.

In an interview with MidAtlanticWrestling.net, Slater recalled how McDaniel got into an argument with a guy at the bar.

They went into the parking lot and the man got out a knife. McDaniel got out a pistol, pushed the guy against a wall and smacked the guy with the gun.

“He pistol-whips the guy and the gun goes off,” Slater said. “And I catch the bullet.”

When police arrived, Slater told them that he’d been shot by a sniper. Then he went to the hospital.

“He shot me with a nine millimeter. Went in the side of my leg and came out the back of my knee,” Slater said. “It blew a hole the size of a tennis ball at the back of my knee, and about the size of a quarter in the front.”

He was back in the ring three weeks later.

The rough-and-tumble life took its toll. A back injury ended Slater’s career in 1996.

“I could hardly move,” he told the Sentinel in the 2000 story.

Slater was arrested for aggravated battery in 2003 after stabbing his girlfriend, according to news reports. He said he had overdosed from pain medication, and he was sentenced to two years’ probation.

Slater was 67 years old when he passed away. The cause of his death has not been released.

“He had charisma. He had ring savvy,” legendary announcer Gordon Solie told the Sentinel in 2000. “Dick Slater was as tough as they come.”