Heath Miller (born 1983) is an American professional wrestler working under a World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) developmental contract in its Florida Championship Wrestling territory under the ring name Heath Slater. He is a Former FCW Florida Heavyweight Champion. He will also be competing on the reality television series WWE NXT where he finished the contest as the 4th.
Career
WWA4 Pro Wrestling School (2004–2006)
Trained by Curtis Hughes at the WWA4 Pro Wrestling School in Atlanta, Georgia, he competed as a backyard wrestler while growing up in Wyoming County, West Virginia. Following his professional wrestling debut in August 2004, he competed in Southeastern independent promotions, including televised appearances in Georgia Championship Wrestling and NWA Wildside. During 2004, while a student at WWA4 Pro Wrestling School, he appeared on a two part episode on the sketch comedy show Blue Collar TV.[1][2] While wrestling for NWA Wildside, Miller won the NWA/GCW Columbus Heavyweight Championship by defeating Scotty Beach.[3]
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 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." Since then, Miller has returned to using his real name and competes as a wrestler as well as McGrath's manager.
In 2007, Miller was given a talk show called the "Happy Hour" during some FCW shows.[4] 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.[4] In January 2008, Miller started defending the FCW Southern Heavyweight Championship on behalf of the champion Ted DiBiase, Jr., who was injured.[5] DiBiase soon forfeited the belt and Miller was declared the champion.[6]
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 his partner Steve Lewington 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.[7][8] On February 23, 2008, Miller and Lewington lost to The Puerto Rican Nightmares (Eddie Colón and Eric Perez) in the finals.[5] 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. Miller lost the FCW Heavyweight Championship to Justin Angel in a "best two out of three falls" match at the September 24, 2009 TV taping [9]. On October 5th, 2009, Slater competed in a dark match before an edition of Raw against Jamie Noble and cut a promo before the match saying that WWE was "starting out with the best" and insulting the crowd, Slater went on to lose the match.
WWE NXT
On February 16, 2010, Slater was announced as one of eight FCW wrestlers to compete on the WWE NXT show, with Christian as his storyline mentor.[10] Heath won his debut match on NXT with Christian in a tag team defeating Carlito and Michael Tarver.[11]
In wrestling
- Finishing moves
- Miller's Crossing (Hangman's neckbreaker)
- Sweetness (Jumping Russian legsweep) – 2008–present
- Signature moves
- Diving elbow drop
- Flapjack
- Spinning spinebuster
- Nicknames
- "The Thriller" Heath Miller
- "Handsome" Heath Miller
- "One Man Rock Band"
- 'Florida Championship Wrestling'
- FCW Florida Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
- FCW Florida Tag Team Championship (1 time) – with Joe Hennig
- FCW Southern Heavyweight Championship (1 time)[6]
- 'Georgia Championship Wrestling'
- NWA/GCW Columbus Heavyweight Championship (1 time)[3]Online World of Wrestling Profile
See also
- Heath Slater's event history
- Heath Slater's gimmicks