Richard Van Slater was born in Albany, New York. At age 9 he and his mother moved to Tampa, Florida. He went on to attend the University of Tampa and competed as a collegiate wrestler. He wrestled in the south and Mid-atlantic, competing on the Georgia Championship Wrestling, Mid-South Wrestling and Mid-Atlantic Wrestling circuits in the 1970s and 1980s. He eventually teamed up with WWE Hall of Famer Bob Orton and cultivated a rivalry with WWE Hall of Famer Jake "The Snake" Roberts. After his work in the regional wrestling world, Slater broke through in the WWE and WCW in the 1980s. Later, he would go international, wrestling in Japan.Slater had to retire from wrestling in the 1990s due to a back injury. In 2004, he was convicted of stabbing his ex-girlfriend with a butcher knife. He claimed to have been under the influence of heavy pain medications for his persistent back injuries, saying, "It was all drug related ... most of it all. I mean, I couldn’t tell you what happened ... if I didn’t know what happened...I really don’t know what actually took place, other than I was ... I woke up in Intensive Care in the hospital. I had gone to the hospital by ambulance the night before ... ". He was eventually sentenced to a year of house arrest for the incident. In 2012, Richard went on to write an autobiography and he focused on his childhood and his wrestling career, with emphasis on going against celebrity wrestlers.
Richard Van Slater was born in Albany, New York. At age 9 he and his mother moved to Tampa, Florida. He went on to attend the University of Tampa and competed as a collegiate wrestler. He wrestled in the south and Mid-atlantic, competing on the Georgia Championship Wrestling, Mid-South Wrestling and Mid-Atlantic Wrestling circuits in the 1970s and 1980s. He eventually teamed up with WWE Hall of Famer Bob Orton and cultivated a rivalry with WWE Hall of Famer Jake "The Snake" Roberts. After his work in the regional wrestling world, Slater broke through in the WWE and WCW in the 1980s. Later, he would go international, wrestling in Japan.Slater had to retire from wrestling in the 1990s due to a back injury. In 2004, he was convicted of stabbing his ex-girlfriend with a butcher knife. He claimed to have been under the influence of heavy pain medications for his persistent back injuries, saying, "It was all drug related ... most of it all. I mean, I couldn’t tell you what happened ... if I didn’t know what happened...I really don’t know what actually took place, other than I was ... I woke up in Intensive Care in the hospital. I had gone to the hospital by ambulance the night before ... ". He was eventually sentenced to a year of house arrest for the incident. In 2012, Richard went on to write an autobiography and he focused on his childhood and his wrestling career, with emphasis on going against celebrity wrestlers.
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