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Heath Slater

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Heath Slater
Born (1983-07-15) July 15, 1983 (age 41)[1]
Pineville, West Virginia[1]
Professional wrestling career
Ring name(s)Heath Miller[1]
Heath Slater[1]
Heath Wallace Miller Esq.[1]
Sebastian Slater[1]
Billed height6 ft 2 in (1.88 m)[2]
Billed weight232 lb (105 kg)[1][2]
Billed fromPineville, West Virginia[2]
Trained byCurtis Hughes[1]
Pez Whatley[3]
Rocky King[3]
DebutAugust 2004[1]

Heath Miller (born July 15, 1983) is an American professional wrestler working for World Wrestling Entertainment. He performs on the Raw brand under the name Heath Slater. He was a contestant in the first season of WWE NXT, where he finished fourth. He is a former FCW Florida Heavyweight Champion.

Professional wrestling career

WWA4 Pro Wrestling School (2004–2006)

Miller trained under Curtis Hughes at the WWA4 Pro Wrestling School in Atlanta, Georgia before debuting in August 2006. While training, he appeared on a two part episode on the sketch comedy show Blue Collar.[4] He soon began competing in Northeastern independent promotions, including NWA Wildside. While wrestling for NWA Wildside, Miller won the GCW Columbus Heavyweight Championship after defeating Scotty 2 Hotty.[5]

World Wrestling Entertainment (2006–present)

Developmental territories

In December 2006, Miller signed a developmental contract with WWE and was assigned to its Deep South Wrestling (DSW) territory in Atlanta, Georgia. When the WWE ended its relationship with DSW in the spring of 2007, WWE created Florida Championship Wrestling (FCW) in Tampa, Florida to be run by retired wrestler Steve Keirn. Miller was one of over twenty developmental wrestlers to relocate from Atlanta to Tampa for further training. At a June 2007 FCW show, Miller appeared as the manager of fellow developmental talent Shawn McGrath under the name "Heath Wallace Miller Esq." However, Miller reverted to using his real name and resumed his singles career while continuing to manage McGrath.

In 2007, Miller was given a talk show called the "Happy Hour" during some FCW shows.[6] During one segment, Billy Kidman was the guest; Miller claimed to idolize Kidman but then commented that Kidman's career was declining. This created a feud and led to a series of matches between the two.[6] In January 2008, Miller started defending the FCW Southern Heavyweight Championship on behalf of the champion Ted DiBiase, Jr., who was injured.[7] DiBiase soon forfeited the belt and Miller was declared the champion.[8]

Miller and his tag team partner Steve Lewington lost to John Morrison and The Miz for the WWE Tag Team Championship on February 15, 2008 at a Florida Championship Wrestling show. Miller and Lewington then advanced to the finals of a tournament for the inaugural FCW Florida Tag Team Championship in February 2008. Miller and Lewington defeated Brandon Groom and Greg Jackson and The Thoroughbreds (Johnny Curtis and Kevin Kiley) to reach the finals.[9][10] On February 23, 2008, Miller and Lewington lost to The Puerto Rican Nightmares (Eddie Colón and Eric Perez) in the finals.[7] On September 11, teaming with Joe Hennig, he won the FCW Florida Tag Team Championship. As champion, he would change his ring name to "Sebastian Slater". On October 30, 2008, Slater and Hennig lost their tag titles to The New Hart Foundation (Harry Smith and TJ Wilson) in Tampa, Florida. He returned from injury in the 26 episode of FCW where he defeated Justin Angel. On August 13, 2009, at the 50th FCW TV taping, Miller defeated Tyler Reks to become FCW Heavyweight Champion.[11] Miller lost the FCW Heavyweight Championship to Justin Angel in a two out of three falls match at the September 24, 2009 TV taping.[12]

NXT and The Nexus

See also: The Nexus
Slater (right) with Michael Tarver in The Nexus.

On February 16, 2010, Slater was announced as one of eight FCW wrestlers to compete on the first season of the WWE NXT show, with Christian as his storyline mentor.[13] On the inaugural episode of NXT, Slater won his debut match as he and Christian defeated Carlito and Michael Tarver in a tag team match.[14][15] Two weeks later, Slater defeated Carlito, becoming the first NXT rookie to beat a WWE pro in a singles match.[16] On the March 30 episode of NXT he came fourth out of eight rookies in the first ever Pros' Poll.[17] On the April 6 episode, Slater won a keg-carrying contest against all other rookies. This resulted in him being in the main event that night, a match against Kane, that he lost.[18] In an upset victory on April 20, Slater defeated Chris Jericho in the main event of NXT.[19] However, Slater remained at fourth in the second Pros Poll, revealed on May 11.[20] He was eliminated from NXT on May 25, coming in last in the Pros' Poll.[21]

On the June 7, 2010 edition of Raw, Slater, along with the other NXT season one rookies interfered in the main event match between John Cena and CM Punk, attacking both competitors as well as the announcing team before dismantling the ring area and surrounding equipment, turning him heel.[22] On the June 14 edition of Raw the rookies attacked General Manager Bret Hart, when he refused to give them contracts.[23] The following week on Raw, Vince McMahon fired Hart and announced the hiring of a new General Manager, who had signed all seven season one NXT rookies to contracts.[24] The following week, the group was named The Nexus.[25] On the July 12 edition of Raw, The Nexus, sans Darren Young, competed in their first match together, defeating John Cena in a six–on–one handicap match.[26] At SummerSlam The Nexus faced Team Raw in a seven-on-seven elimination tag team match. Slater eliminated both Chris Jericho and Edge from the match, before tapping out to former Nexus member and surpise member of Team Raw, Daniel Bryan. In the end Cena managed to win the match for his team.[27] The following night on Raw he managed to beat Edge and keep his place in The Nexus. On the 900th Episode of Raw, The Nexus, minus Skip Sheffield, faced Cena, Edge, Randy Orton, Sheamus & Chris Jericho in a 5-on-5 Elimination match. Slater was the fourth man eliminated, and the first member of the Nexus eliminated, by Cena. Slater had eliminated Sheamus earlier in the match.

In wrestling

  • Nicknames
    • "The Thriller"[3]
    • "Handsome"[3]
    • "The One Man Rock Band"[3]
    • "The Chick from Wendy's" (dubbed so by John Cena due to his resemeblance to the mascot of the fast food chain

Championships and accomplishments

Miller as the FCW Florida Heavyweight Champion.
  • Georgia Championship Wrestling
    • NWA/GCW Columbus Heavyweight Championship (1 time)[5]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j "OWOW profile".
  2. ^ a b c "Heath Slater Bio". World Wrestling Entertainment. Retrieved 2010-06-22.
  3. ^ a b c d e f "Cagematch profile".
  4. ^ a b c d "From the Desk of Mr. V #55".
  5. ^ a b "NWA/GCW Interstate Heavyweight Championship history". Title Histories. Retrieved 2008-03-20.
  6. ^ a b "Florida Championship Wrestling: 2007". Online World of Wrestling. Retrieved 2008-04-04.
  7. ^ a b "Florida Championship Wrestling: 2008". Online World of Wrestling. Retrieved 2008-04-04.
  8. ^ a b "FCW Southern Heavyweight Championship history". Wrestling Titles. Retrieved 2008-04-04.
  9. ^ "February 19, 2008 FCW results" (in German). Cagematch.de. Retrieved 2008-02-21.
  10. ^ "February 23, 2008 FCW results" (in German). Cagematch.de. Retrieved 2008-02-24.
  11. ^ Martin, Adam (2009-08-14). "New champion crowned in FCW". WrestleView. Retrieved 2010-07-25.
  12. ^ Sept. 24, 2009 FCW TV Taping Results
  13. ^ Caldwell, James (2010-02-16). "WWE News: Complete cast of the NXT show revealed including The Miz mentoring Bryan Danielson". Pro Wrestling Torch. Retrieved 2010-02-17.
  14. ^ "An early clash".
  15. ^ Stephens, David (2010-02-24). "WWE NXT Results - 2/23/10". WrestleView. Retrieved 2010-02-24.
  16. ^ "Rookies on the rise".
  17. ^ Tedesco, Mike (2010-03-31). "WWE NXT Results - 3/30/10". WrestleView. Retrieved 2010-08-18.
  18. ^ Tedesco, Mike (2010-04-07). "WWE NXT Results - 4/6/10". WrestleView. Retrieved 2010-08-18.
  19. ^ Tedesco, Mike (2010-04-21). "WWE NXT Results - 4/20/10". WrestleView. Retrieved 2010-08-18.
  20. ^ Tedesco, Mike (2010-05-12). "WWE NXT Results - 5/11/10". WrestleView. Retrieved 2010-05-12.
  21. ^ Tedesco, Mike (2010-05-26). "WWE NXT Results - 5/25/10". WrestleView. Retrieved 2010-08-18.
  22. ^ Keller, Wade (2010-06-07). "WWE Raw results 6/7: Keller's ongoing live coverage of three-hour Viewers' Choice edition of Raw". Pro Wrestling Torch. Retrieved 2010-06-08.
  23. ^ Stephens, David (2010-06-14). "Raw Results - 6/14/10". WrestleView. Retrieved 2010-06-22.
  24. ^ Keller, Wade (2010-06-21). "WWE Raw results 6/21: Keller's report on the fallout from the Fatal 4-Way PPV event, Jericho puts his career on the line". Pro Wrestling Torch. Retrieved 2010-06-22.
  25. ^ Keller, Wade (2010-06-28). "WWE Raw results 6/28: Keller's ongoing report on NXT-McMahon attack fallout, Sheamus-Cena confrontation". Pro Wrestling Torch. Retrieved 2010-06-29.
  26. ^ Martin, Adam (2010-07-12). "Raw Results - 7/12/10". WrestleView. Retrieved 2010-07-14.
  27. ^ Plummer, Dale (2010-08-15). "Rumored return helps Team WWE fend off Nexus at SummerSlam". Slam! Sports. Canadian Online Explorer. Retrieved 2010-08-18. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  28. ^ "CALDWELL'S WWE RAW RESULTS 7/26: Ongoing "virtual time" coverage of Raw on USA Network hyping Summerslam".
  29. ^ "WWE NXT: "Wild & Young" by American Bang is the official theme song of WWE NXT". World Wrestling Entertainment. Retrieved 2010-02-12.
  30. ^ "The Nexus' theme music".
  31. ^ "FCW Florida Heavyweight Championship history".
  32. ^ "FCW Florida Tag Team Championship history".
  33. ^ ""PWI 500": 1–100". Pro Wrestling Illustrated. 2010-07-30. Retrieved 2010-07-31.
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