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Hoyt Richard Murdoch (August 16, 1946 – June 15, 1996) was an American professional wrestler, better known by his ring names "Dirty" Dick Murdoch and "Captain Redneck". He was best known for his time in the NWA, WWE and New Japan Pro-Wrestling.
Murdoch started his wrestling career in 1965, and three years later, he began teaming with longtime partner Dusty Rhodes as the Texas Outlaws. After they split up, Murdoch wrestled for several territories including the National Wrestling Alliance's Florida Championship Wrestling, and Mid-South Wrestling, also touring overseas. He joined the World Wrestling Federation in 1984 and teamed with Adrian Adonis to form the North-South Connection, winning the WWF Tag Team Championship.
In 1981, Murdoch gained international exposure by joining New Japan Pro-Wrestling and stayed there until 1989. He later wrestled for Jim Crockett Promotions, engaging in feuds with the likes of Ric Flair, Nikita Koloff, and Dusty Rhodes. He also worked for World Championship Wrestling in 1991 as part of a tag team with Dick Slater until going into semi-retirement, while making appearances at , the 1995 Royal Rumble and Slamboree 1995.
In 1982, Murdoch returned for the MSG League 1982 tournament, finishing 4th place with 41 points, scoring victories over wrestlers like The Iron Sheik, Seiji Sakaguchi, Tatsumi Fujinami, Don Muraco and Tiger Toguchi. He also engaged in a few encounters with Hulk Hogan, which ended in double count-out or with Murdoch being disqualified. He once again entered the MSG Tag League, this time with the Bill Eadie with the team finishing 4th place with 21 points, scoring victories over teams such as El Canek and Perro Aguayo, Tiger Toguchi and Killer Khan and Dino Bravo and Murdoch's future tag team partner Adrian Adonis.
In 1983, he mainly feuded with Riki Choshu's Ishin Gundan, mainly wrestling Choshu, Killer Khan, Animal Hamaguchi and Yoshiaki Yatsu. He would once again enter the MSG Tag League of that year, this time teaming with Adonis, with the team reaching the finals with 27.5 points, in a losing effort against the winners Antonio Inoki and Hulk Hogan. A year later, after his team with Adonis officialized while both were in the WWF, they started regularly to team up against New Japan's top tag-team contenders and having encounters against Inoki, Fujinami, Andre The Giant, Gerry Morow, Strong Machines (Junji Hirata and #2) and other top threats. Both men individually entered the MSG League, in which Murdoch finished 5th place with 30 points, defeating Ken Patera, Big John Quinn, Otto Wanz and even his own partner Adonis. The team of Murdoch and Adonis entered the MSG Tag League of that year, once again reaching the finals with 23 points, but again coming up short against the winners Inoki and Fujinami.
In 1985, Murdoch entered the IWGP League, a single-elimination system-styled tournament, defeating Kengo Kimura in the first round, advancing to the quarterfinals in which he defeated Seiji Sakaguchi, until losing to Andre the Giant in the semifinals. He and Adonis were wrestling in Japan while both were WWF Tag Team Champions, at one point successfully defending both belts against Kengo Kimura and Tatsumi Fujinami. After both men left the WWF, they wrestled full-time with New Japan Pro-Wrestling, once competing for the vacated WWF International Tag Team Championship against the team they defended their national belts, Kimura and Fujinami, in a losing effort. They tried to gain them in a rematch, but both men came up short. After failing to win the belts, Murdoch and Adonis parted ways and each man went singles competition. Murdoch would resume his singles career by feuding with Inoki and Fujinami, and also having bloody encounters with Abdullah The Butcher and Bruiser Brody. He reunited with the Masked Superstar to compete in the IWGP Tag Team League of that year, with both men finishing 4th place with 19 points, defeating the Kelly Twins (Mike and Pat), Dos Caras and El Canek, and Kazuo Sakurada and Mr. Pogo. In 1986, Murdoch started to feud with the new breed of wrestlers, such as Keiji Mutoh, Shinya Hashimoto, Tatsutoshi Goto and UWF crusaders Akira Maeda, Nobuhiko Takada, as well as veterans like Osamu Kido and Yoshiaki Fujiwara. Murdoch participated in the IWGP League of that year, wrestling his way to the finals, where he lost to Inoki. Later, he and Masked Superstar took another shot at the IWGP Tag Team League tournament, reaching the semifinals where they lost to Akira Maeda and Osamu Kido.
The following year saw Murdoch not having much exposure, as he was wrestling often in tag team action alongside younger foreign wrestlers, such as Scott Hall, Owen Hart, Matt Borne and Fidel Sierra. Later, he found an uncommon tag team partnership with Inoki as both men competed in the Japan Cup Tag Team League together. They wrestled their way to the finals, where both men lost to Kengo Kimura and Tatsumi Fujinami.
In 1988, Adonis returned to NJPW, immediately reuniting with Murdoch, reforming their tag team, and later forming a trio with Owen Hart. Murdoch and Adonis' only title match occurred on June 23, where they unsuccessfully faced reigning IWGP Tag Team Champions Masa Saito and Riki Choshu. The duo teamed together until Adonis' death on July 4, and after that date, Murdoch would not return to Japan for 5 months. In November 1988, Murdoch returned to NJPW, taking part into the Japan Cup Tag Team Elimination League, a round-robin tournament of trios consisting of six-man tag team elimination matches. Murdoch teamed up with Scott Hall and Bob Orton Jr., wrestling their first tournament match on November 17, defeating the six-man combination of Antonio Inoki, Riki Choshu and Kantaro Hoshino, with Murdoch last eliminating Inoki with Orton's assistance. They suffered their first loss at the hands of Masa Saito, Tatsutoshi Goto and Seiji Sakaguchi, but quickly rebounded by defeating Junji Hirata, The Tiger and Hisakatsu Oya, with Murdoch last eliminating the Strong Machine. They later defeated Kengo Kimura, Yoshiaki Fujiwara and Osamu Kido, even though Murdoch got eliminated by Kimura during the match, his team got the win after Orton last eliminated Fujiwara. Their winning streak continued when they defeated George Takano, Steve Armstrong and Tracy Smothers, after Murdoch last eliminated Takano. However, they suffered another loss at the hands of Tatsumi Fujinami, Shinya Hashimoto and Masahiro Chono, but once again quickly rebounded by defeating Hiro Saito, Shiro Koshinaka and Kuniaki Kobayashi, after Murdoch eliminated Kobayashi and Saito. After defeating Buzz Sawyer, Manny Fernandez and Kendo Nagasaki by forfeit, they once again faced the Saito, Sakaguchi and Goto combination. In what would seem to be another loss after Hall and Orton were the two first eliminated, Murdoch single handedly eliminated Sakaguchi and Saito, before finally making quick work out of Goto, eliminating him and avenging their loss. However, the team couldn't reach the finals due to the two losses they suffered.
The year of 1989 saw Murdoch's last stand with New Japan, as he briefly returned in July, facing the likes of Shinya Hashimoto, Hiroshi Hase, Vladimir Berkovich, and Evgeny Artyukhin. His last match occurred on August 5, where he defeated Berkovich.
He returned to World Championship Wrestling as one half of the "Hardliners," with Dick Slater in 1991. Once again a heel by this point, the Hardliners debuted as a team on June 12 at Clash of the Champions XV, attacking the Steiner Brothers, Hiroshi Hase and Masahiro Chono after an IWGP Tag Team Championship match between the two teams. They would feud with the Steiners, but Scott suffered an injury, so instead, they wrestled Rick and his different tag team partners throughout the summer.
He returned to Japan working for W*ING, WAR and IWA Japan from 1992 to 1994. On May 23, 1993, at , Murdoch teamed with Don Muraco and Jimmy Snuka, fighting Blackjack Mulligan, Jim Brunzell, and Wahoo McDaniel to a no-contest. He made a one-night appearance for Extreme Championship Wrestling's Super Summer Sizzler Spectacular on June 19, where he defeated Dark Patriot II. From 1993 to 1994, he worked in Smoky Mountain Wrestling, feuding with Bob Armstrong; during one match, Armstrong held him in a headlock for 23 minutes, and Murdoch worked many ways in and out of the headlock, entertaining the audience.
On January 22, 1995, Murdoch made a surprise appearance with the World Wrestling Federation as the twenty-seventh entrant in the WWF Royal Rumble, but was eliminated by Henry O. Godwinn. He also briefly worked as the manager to Bob Backlund during house shows. Murdoch was defeated by Wahoo McDaniel on May 21 at Slamboree. His last match was a victory over Rod Price at a show in Amarillo, Texas on June 6, 1996.
Murdoch appeared in four movies: The Wrestler (1974), Paradise Alley (1978), Grunt! The Wrestling Movie (1985), and Manhattan Merengue! (1995). He also appeared on an episode of Learning The Ropes and an episode of The Jerry Springer Show. Murdoch appeared in various rodeo events, ran his own bar, and did promotional work for Coors beer, as well as participating in drug awareness programs.
The claim of Murdoch being in the Klan has been disputed by Jim Cornette on his podcast, stating: "Murdoch was a redneck from West Texas. I'd be inclined to think he was probably not the most tolerant individual of anybody. But I spent a lot of time around him, and he never tried to recruit me to the Klan. I've seen him work with black guys as well as white guys, and not have any problems with any of them unless they had two left feet in the ring." Similarly, Chris Jericho said of Murdoch "As I got to know him I realized he wasn't a racist, he was just honest and fair. He hated everyone equally."
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