Posted on by bdamage1
Brian Damage
Years before Bradshaw and Ron Simmons opened up the Acolyte Protection Agency in the WWF, there was the Hardline Collection Agency or Hardliners for short in WCW. They consisted of the “Dirty Dicks” of Dick Murdoch and Dick Slater. The gimmick was very similar to the APA’s in that they went out and hurt people for a price. The only difference was, that the APA lasted a whole lot longer than the Hardliners ever did.
The Hardliners made their debut at the Clash of Champions XV show in Knoxville, Tennessee on June 12, 1991. They made an immediate impact by attacking the then reigning WCW world tag team champions the Steiner Brothers after a match against Masahiro Chono and Hiroshi Hase. Scott Steiner tore his bicep during the earlier contest and the bookers made it seem that the Hardliners “broke” his arm during the assault after the match. With Scott Steiner out of action…the tag team titles were made vacant and a tournament was set up.
The Hardliners participated in the tourney…facing the Freebirds in the first round. The two teams went to a double count out and were both eliminated from advancing. Slater and Murdoch would reveal in interviews that they are in WCW for blood, money and to win the tag team titles. They would go several weeks beating up on enhancement talent on all of WCW’s programs. Jim Ross would hint that the team were like bounty hunters and would hurt people for a price.
Because Scott was sidelined with a bicep injury, the feud with the Steiners was altered. Rick Steiner faced off against the Hardliners in a series of matches across the country teaming with different partners like ‘The Z Man’ Tom Zenk, Bill Kazmaier, PN News, El Gigante, Ron Simmons and Sting. The feud had less of a punch to it, because Scott was not involved and the tag team titles were no longer at stake.
The very last match the team had in WCW was at a house show in Norfolk, Virginia in September of ’91. Their careers would be seriously altered after a chance meeting with WCW executive Jim Herd. According to Terry Funk, Herd was having a meeting with several wrestlers about how bad WCW’s business was doing at the time. Dick Murdoch was walking past the dressing room when Herd spotted him and stopped him in the hallway. Apparently, Herd knew Murdoch was a veteran and Jim Herd asked him why WCW wasn’t doing well.
Dick Murdoch, who had absolutely no filter…blamed Herd and “jokingly” called Herd a “dumb son of a bitch.” Days later, Murdoch was fired by WCW leaving Dick Slater to fall down the card as a low to mid card singles wrestler. The Hardliners were no more, after a little less than three months with the company. Would the Hardliners have been more successful if Scott Steiner didn’t get legitimately hurt? Could the team of Murdoch and Slater become WCW tag team champions? What would have been if Murdoch didn’t openly criticize Jim Herd? One thing was for sure, they would have lasted a lot longer in the promotion.