8 Legendary Tales Of Badassery From Steve Austin And Ric Flair
3. Breaking In Dick Slater
Ric talks about how Ole and Gene Anderson made a practice of physically abusing any potential wrestlers who came to them for a tryout, including having Buzz Sawyer and several others work over Magnum TA (who almost quit after the first day of torment they put him through but stuck with it at Flair's insistence). He also talks about a young guy who came into the gym wearing a wrestling mask and accompanied by his father. For some odd reason the guy refused to take the mask off, so the seasoned veteran made it a point to beat him senseless and he was never heard from again after that day. They talk about how that was common practice in the old days, and Flair mentions that Eddie Graham used to have Bob Roop put new guys through the ringer in much the same manner. That all came to an end when Dick Slater came in for a tryout. Apparently when Roop tried his usual tactics on Slater to "soften him up", the former Olympic Greco-Roman heavyweight was left "laying cold in a pool of blood". Cold. Blooded.
Brad Hamilton is a writer, musician and marketer/social media manager from Atlanta, Georgia. He's an undefeated freestyle rap battle champion, spends too little time being productive and defines himself as the literary version of Brock Lesnar.
