As the 1980s drew to a close, Ted Turner’s Atlanta-based World Championship Wrestling found itself laden with a roster of aging tough guys, many from the South and Southwest, who had enjoyed their greatest fame during the territorial era. “Dirty” Dick Slater, who died last week at age 67, was one such rugged misfit—a bruiser who had appeared to be in his late 40s since his early 20s, with his paunchy midsection spilling over his too-tight trunks, W.C. Fields nose square in the midst of his hard-drinker’s face, and hundred-yard stare striking fear into the hearts of the mulleted enhancement talents that then–head booker Ric Flair and his assistants threw at him.