Texas Johnson was trained by Ron Ellis and Ivan the Terrible. He began his career in Texas in the mid-1980s, where he appeared for
Southwest Championship Wrestling /
Texas All-Star Wrestling as "Silky" Slim Johnson. He managed
Madd Maxx and
Lord Humongous. Soon after, he purchased a "half interest" in
"Classy" Freddie Blassie's heel stable. The aging Blassie was experiencing declining health and was being slowly phased out of storylines. Slick eventually took over all managerial duties from Blassie, initially managing
Nikolai Volkoff and
The Iron Sheik. During this time, Slick also (
Kayfabe) sold the contract of
Hercules (another wrestler of Blassie's former stable) to fellow heel manager
Bobby "The Brain" Heenan for a "pile of money". Slick's biggest success as a manager came when he took
Akeem (previously known as the One Man Gang) and the
Big Boss Man, the Twin Towers, to main event matches against
Hulk Hogan and
WWF Champion "Macho Man" Randy Savage,
The Mega Powers. The theme song "Jive Soul Bro" (written by David Wolff, Vernie "Butch" Taylor, and Jeff Batter) was the subject of a music video featuring him. Slick would also manage
The Bolsheviks (Volkoff and
Boris Zhukov),
Rick Martel,
Power and Glory (Hercules and
Paul Roma), and
The Warlord. While Slick's billed height was only 5'11, he was actually 6'4. In later shoot interviews, Slick mentioned that he was often as tall as (or, in the case of Power and Glory, taller than) the wrestlers he managed, which created some backstage tension as both managers and referees were generally smaller so as to make the wrestlers seem bigger and more imposing to the public. In November 1991, Slick went on an extended leave of absence after being powerslammed by
Davey Boy Smith. He returned a month later as the face "Reverend Slick", denouncing his shady past and striving to become a better man. This gimmick was a take on his real life, as Johnson was a
born-again Christian. He sometimes appeared on WWF programming to give a "sermon" that was usually a simple, uplifting message. Then later in November 1991, he joined the crew on
Prime Time Wrestling as a regular full-time panelist, providing commentary and insight on storylines and matches until the show ended in 1993, as well as the co-host of
WWF Wrestling Spotlight with Gene Okerlund. After
Prime Time ended, his main storyline under this
gimmick was to take Kamala from the hands of
Harvey Wippleman and
Kim Chee to convince him that he was not just a Ugandan monster who deserved constant berating, but a man, and he tried to instill Kamala with self-respect (including a memorable segment where Slick and Kamala went bowling).
Late career After leaving the WWF, Johnson graduated from
Campbellsville University. He received a bachelor's and master's degree On April 1, 2007, Johnson, reprising his role as Slick, appeared at
WrestleMania 23, dancing with various WWE wrestlers and legends. The lawsuit was dismissed by US District Judge
Vanessa Lynne Bryant in September 2018. In September 2019, when asked on a podcast if he has any regrets of being a part of the lawsuit, he stated, "Of course not." In September 2020, an appeal for the lawsuit was dismissed by a federal appeals court. ==Awards and accomplishments==