So Flair called on Wahoo McDaniel and they had some great tag matches against Slater and Orton for a few weeks, but Flair had to get ready for his Starrcade 83 match against Race, so Mark Youngblood stepped in and at Starrcade 83, Wahoo and Youngblood faced Slater and Orton and they had a good match that Slater and Orton won. Then Slater’s push would now really kick in high gear as on December 3, 1983, Slater defeated Rufus R.Jones for the Mid-Atlantic Title in Hampton, Virginia and then just 11 days later, Slater won the U.S. title by defeating Greg Valentine in Shelby, North Carolina.  Also, on the same day, Slater gave his Mid-Atlantic belt to Ivan Koloff.

1984 comes around and Slater is now the #1 contender to Ric Flair’s NWA Title, so Slater and Flair have some title and non-title matches at the house shows and at one of those non-title matches, Slater pinned Flair clean in the middle of the ring. The next week on T.V., Slater comes on proclaiming himself as the World Champ and eventually he had his own belt. Also at the time, Slater was competing in a tournament for the NWA T.V. Title, and Slater defeated Dory Funk Jr. and Greg Valentine in the first two rounds, but in the finals on March 7, 1984, Slater lost to Mark Youngblood. Also at that time, Ricky Steamboat made a comeback to the Carolinas and he eventually started feuding with Slater for the U.S.Title, and on April, 21 1984, Slater lost his belt to Steamboat in Greensboro, North Carolina. Then for the next few months, Slater ventured in and out of the area until he returned in October with Dusty Rhodes now the booker and Dusty preferred Slater as a face, so Slater turned face and starting feuding with Ron Bass for the Mid-Atlantic title and it led to a match at Starrcade 84 where Slater lost by DQ. Slater then teamed with Rhodes, Steamboat, and Manny Fernandez in matches against Tully Blanchard, Ron Bass, and Black Bart. Also at that time, J.J Dillon had a bounty on Slater’s head and guys like Ox Baker and Terry Funk, but no one collected it. Slater also started teaming with Jimmy Valiant in his war against Paul Jones and after that, Slater just got lost in the shuffle until he jumped to Mid-South in October 1985.

NEXT MONTH:

We will look at the greatest moments and matches from the first 3 Starrcades.