"Dirty" Dick Slater was a bruising brawler, notable for his fierceness both inside and outside the professional wrestling ring. From bar fights to backstage brawls, one of his most famous—and controversial—altercations was with a young up-and-comer named Sting. The result? A shocking one-sided beatdown that ended in humiliation for the future "Icon!"
"Dirty" Dick Slater and Sting – The two wrestlers had an infamous backstage encounter that left Sting humiliated. Photo Credit: WWE. Artwork by Pro Wrestling Stories.
The Relentless Toughness of "Dirty" Dick Slater
Dick Slater briefly wrestled as "The Rebel" during his stint in the WWF. Photo Credit: WWE. Photo Credit: WWE.
In the words of Slater’s idol Terry Funk, “Dirty” Slater was “one of the toughest guys you’d ever want to meet.”
There is a cache of tales about Slater’s toughness, and his hot temper and short fuse were bad news for anyone who crossed his path.
For example, when Wahoo McDaniel once pistol-whipped a man outside a bar, Slater was shot in the leg. Despite the bullet blowing “a hole the size of a tennis ball at the back of my knee and about the size of a quarter in the front,” as Slater once told Mid-Atlantic Gateway, he would be back in the ring within three weeks.
Slater’s Knockout of NFL Giant John Matuszak
Former NFL player John Matuszak was on the losing end of a confrontation with Dick Slater. Photo Credit: Raiders on Film.
While at the University of Tampa, Slater got into a dispute with future NFL Super Bowl winner John Matuszak- apparently over a woman.
After Matuszak referred to Slater as a “phony wrestler,” Slater did not take too kindly and reportedly knocked out the 6-foot-8 giant with a single punch. Slater then left a note in his hotel telling him not to leave his room until he apologized.
Jim Ross, when re-telling the story, claimed that Matuszak had to write a note “asking Slater’s permission if he could come out of his room!”
Bob Roop Meets Slater’s Fury
Wrestling technician Bob Roop once felt the wrath of Dick Slater during a backstage altercation. Photo Credit: ICW.
Yet the most infamous of his altercations is with Sting.
The Backstory: Slater’s Relationship With Dark Journey
Dick Slater with valet Dark Journey, whose relationship with Sting fueled tension. Photo Credit: WWE.
In Mid-South, “Dirty” Slater drew heat through his relationship with wrestling valet Dark Journey.
Slater reportedly met “Dark Journey” Lynda Newton in a strip club. Slater brought the beauty into Mid-South after convincing her to enter a business she knew nothing of.
The couple were massive heat magnets, and Dark Journey was regularly spat on, called racially insensitive names, and even groped by fans while making her way down to the ring.
After the couple split up in the summer of 1986, Slater took business into his own hands when a young newcomer by the name of Steve Borden appeared to be getting too close to Dark Journey.
Carpool Drama: The Dark Journey That Changed It All
Sting (right) with The Bladerunners, Dutch Mantell (center), and the future Ultimate Warrior (left). Photo Credit: NWA.
Still needing transport to attend shows, Dark Journey reportedly started hitching a ride from “Sting” Steve Borden, then a member of The Bladerunners tag team alongside Ultimate Warrior.
It was hinted, albeit never confirmed, that there was more to this relationship than simple sharing rides.
Bushwhacker Luke, who claimed to be present on the night of the assault, recalled on with Wrestling Shoot Interviews, “Someone spread the rumor they were an item. You know what I mean when Dark Journey was [Slater’s] girl: not only in his management but in real life.”
Dark Journey has since denied that she would be driven in Sting’s car. Instead, they would carpool together, as Sting did not even own a car during that period.
Nonetheless, Slater saw it as a violation.
In the words of R.D. Reynolds: “Sting got his rocks off, and then he got rocked.
The Baton Rouge Incident: Slater’s Intentions Revealed
Before his encounter with Sting, Dick Slater was seen with taped hands, ready for the confrontation. Photo Credit: People / WWE.
Taking place in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Tracy Smothers remembered how he knew something was awry when the normally isolated Slater was playing cards with Terry Taylor, whom he hated.
Smothers recalled how Slater already had his hands taped, a precaution to let him punch harder without breaking them. Ron Fuller (aka Col. Robert Parker) described Slater as having “the best right hand I’ve ever seen.”
In Bill Watts’s Mid-South (later the UWF), the locker room was divided between face and heels. Slater crossed the threshold to find Sting, whom Shane Douglas, Ricky Morton, and Missy Hyatt confirmed was putting on his face makeup before a match that night.
“The Franchise” Shane Douglas, in the locker room, stated that Slater walked in as casually as he walked out. He recalled seeing Slater leaving remarkably calm, saying it was as if “he was taking the garbage out.”
Shane Douglas also noted how Slater commonly taught the rookies a lesson, adding, “Bill [Watts] would let things like that go on, and if somebody were getting a little too big for their britches, Bill would book them with Slater.
Sting and Slater: A Brutal Bathroom Brawl
“Dirty Dick Slater. Photo Credit: WWE.
Missy Hyatt, in her memoir First Lady of Wrestling, documented the encounter between Sting and Slater.
“Slater beat the living crap out of him. Sting didn’t even put up a fight. He just let himself get beat up.”
Hyatt continued, “First, because [Sting] knew he’d been caught, and second because he had just started out the business, and Slater had a lot of buddies who could have screwed with his career.
“Sting never talked about what happened, not to me, but I heard from a couple of wrestlers in the dressing room that night that he came staggering out of the bathroom with his eyes swollen shut and, his mouth busted up, and cheekbones bruised.
“The worst was that afterward, [Sting went] back into the bathroom for his makeup, over cuts and bruises, and [headed] out to the ring [to] wrestle.”
Tracy Smothers later stated that Sting “looked like a truck had hit him.”
The Infamous Swirlie: Slater’s Final Humiliation of The Stinger
Sting in his early "Surfer Sting" days during his time in WCW. Photo Credit: WWE.
What follows is one of the most remembered aspects of the Slater and Sting conflict: Slater gave Sting a “swirlie” by holding his head in the toilet and flushing it.
It is said that Slater had his friend and The Hardliners tag team partner D. Murdoch guarding the door. Some versions of the story describe Murdoch as sequestering Sting’s partner, Bladerunner Rock (the future Ultimate Warrior), by under-hooking him and pinning him against the wall.
In Bill Watts’s book, The Cowboy and The Cross, he notes how such a practice was commonplace during the time.
Watts stated, “Sometimes if a guy insulted us, we’d wait until he was into the bathroom and follow him in with another guy stationed outside the door to keep anyone else from going in. The other rest of them will go in and beat up the guy, stick his face in the toilet, and walk out.”
Eddie Gilbert’s Plea for Dick Slater Not to Kill Sting
“Hot Stuff” Eddie Gilbert with The Bladerunners (Sting and Ultimate Warrior). Gilbert pleaded with Slater not to seriously injure Sting. Photo Credit: WWE.
Tracy Smothers also noted how Eddie Gilbert, who had been placed with The Bladerunners to help them get over, was “begging [Slater] not to kill him.”
Ron Fuller explained that giving swirlies was Slater’s “modus operandi;” he apparently did as such to at least two other men. Dutch Mantell has alluded to one of those men being Slater’s partner Bob Orton, whom Slater later described as the “greatest partner I ever had.”
Debating What Actually Happened Between Sting and Dick Slater
“Dark Journey” Lynda Newton was central to the Dick Sting-Slater confrontation. Photo Credit: WWE.
There is scope for debate over the validity of the lavatory-based lashing.
Dark Journey, for her part, states that no such toilet-flushing swirlie took place.
She has pointed out that Sting was in peak physical conditioning while Slater suffered from a bad equilibrium. Given these conditions, she rhetorically asks: “Who the **** do you think would have won?”
Fallacies in the Story: What Really Went Down?
Sting during his WCW days, when the events with Dick Slater became part of wrestling lore. Photo Credit: WWE.
The viewpoint that the swirlie did not take place is also subscribed to by Erik Watts, who believes the years have distorted the details of what happened, much like a game of Chinese Whispers.
Instead of a one-sided conflict, according to Watts, the two locked up with the better-built Sting able to subdue Slater.
It should be noted, however, that the perspective Watts tells comes from Sting himself.
Both those who were there and those close to the situation have backed its validity, such as Tracy Smothers, Shane Douglas, Bushwhacker Luke Williams, Ric Flair, Jake Roberts, Ricky Morton, Missy Hyatt, Doug Gilbert, and Ron Fuller, amongst others.
The Clash of the Champions: Sting and Slater’s Final Showdown
Sting and Dick Slater faced off at Clash of the Champions VIII, years after their backstage altercation. Photo Credit: WWE.
Slater was not long in the UWF and would leave the following week after the incident. He would go on to have a brief stint in the then WWF.
Sting and Slater would cross paths again many times.
The most notable run-in between the two was at 1989’s Clash of the Champions VIII: Fall Brawl when Slater was a substitution for The J-Tex Corporation’s Terry Funk as he and The Great Muta took on Sting and Ric Flair.
Tracy Smothers on Why the Beating Made Sting Better
The encounter with Slater helped shape Sting’s future in-ring work, according to Tracy Smothers. Photo Credit: WWE.
Despite being an obvious short-term negative for the future “Icon” Sting, Tracy Smothers reflected on the encounter being a productive lesson for Sting, describing the fight as the “best thing that ever happened to Sting.”
The one-time Freddie Joe Floyd notes how the brawl consequently encouraged the improvement of Sting’s in-ring work, helping him draw money.
Dick Slater’s Final Words on the Incident with Sting
Dick Slater remained largely quiet about his fight with Sting, adding to the legend. Photo Credit: WWE.
Slater remained largely quiet on the subject throughout his life.
Slater’s lack of comments on the story further fueled speculation.
He has since described Sting as a decent man he was able to get along with, and in 2005, dismissed the conflict as “just a little problem, and that was about it.”
As such, the story has transcended eras and has become the stuff of wrestling legend.
Upon the death of Slater in 2018, his fight with Sting was even reported in some mainstream media, such as the Daily Star.
Radio Silence From Sting
Despite his early backstage humiliation at the hands of Dick Slater, Sting would rise to become one of WCW’s biggest icons. Photo Credit: WWE. Photo Credit: WWE.
Considering Sting’s radio silence on the subject, Slater’s death, and the differing testimonies, like many backstage fights, we will never truly know the whole story.
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Griffin Kaye is a life-long pro wrestling fan and historian with a love for '80s and '90s WWF, the NWA, WCW, ECW, and AEW. His favorite wrestlers include Ricky Steamboat, Bret Hart, William Regal, Tito Santana, Stan Hansen, Mr Perfect, Ric Flair, and Chris Jericho. He can be reached on Twitter @GriffinKaye1, as well as on Instagram at @TheGriffinKaye and @WrestlingInTheYears.
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