| Smasher Sloan | |
| Birth Name: | Eldon Lee Whittler |
| Birth Date: | 7 July 1935 |
| Birth Place: | Alton, Illinois, U.S. |
| Death Place: | Tampa, Florida, U.S. |
| Height: | 6 ft 2 in |
| Weight: | 275 lb |
| Billed: | Butte, Montana |
| Debut: | 1956 |
| Retired: | 1994 |
Eldon "Eddie" "Don" Lee Whittler (July 7, 1935 - January 29, 2001), better known by his ring name Smasher Sloan, was an American professional wrestler. He wrestled for the World Wide Wrestling Federation from the 1960s till early 1970s, where he achieved his most success being a 1-time WWWF United States Tag Team champion along with Baron Mikel Scicluna.
Whittler was born on July 7, 1935, in Alton, Illinois. He was the oldest of three children of Margaret Laura (née Harsh; 1916–1995) and Eldon "Whitey" Lee Whittler (1913–1983), who was also a professional wrestler. He made his debut in 1956 as Don Whittler. He initially competed in Championship Wrestling from Florida.[1]
He started performing for the World Wide Wrestling Federation by the early 1960s, where he wrestled as Smasher Sloan.[2] Here he formed a successful tag team with "Baron" Mikel Scicluna. They challenged the reigning champions, Johnny Valentine and Tony Parisi, on September 22, 1966, on a house show in Washington, D.C., in a traditional 2-out-of-3 falls match. Valentine and Parisi won the first fall, but then Johnny suddenly turned heel in the second round when he turned on Parisi and threw him out of the ring. As such, the team of Scicluna and Sloan were the new champions.[3] [4] They eventually lost the championship to the team of Antonio Pugliese and Spiros Arion in a house show on 8th December 1966.[5]
By 1968, Sloan had left WWWF. He then joined the NWA Big-time Wrestling based in Dallas, Texas, which was then managed by Wrestler and promoter Fritz Von Erich. Sloan (Spoiler #2) teamed up with Don Jardine (Spoiler #1) becoming the team known as the Spoilers. They were managed by Gary Hart and went on to win the NWA American Tagteam Championship from the team of Fritz and Billy Red Lyons in 1968. He was eventually unmasked at a house show and left the territory.[6] He also went on to win the NWA Tennessee Tag Team Championship in the NWA Mid-America territory with The Spoiler in 1970.[7]