instead he would team with local stars such as Ron Fuller and Don Carson. By the beginning of the 1980s he decided to return to his roots in Oklahoma, after having worked more or less exclusively in the south east for ten years or more. First he worked for Central States Wrestling where he teamed with both Ernie Ladd and Angel to win the local version of the NWA United States Tag Team title. He would also hold the NWA Central States Heavyweight Championship, which was the main title for the promotion. After working for Central States Hamilton switched to Bill Watts’ Mid-South Wrestling promotion. In Mid-South he teamed up with yet another “Assassin #3”, this time it was ”Hercules” Hernandez under the gold and black mask. Hernandez's run under the golden mask ended when he was unmasked by Jimmy Valiant after a match in Toronto, Ontario as part of Valiant's lengthy feud with Paul Jones’ army. In the mid 1980s Hamilton retired the golden mask and adopted a new ring identity: "The Flame", together with another masked man going by the name “Fire”, he won the AWA Southern Tag Team Championship in 1986. He would also hold the NWA Southeast Continental Heavyweight Championship on four occasions. Deep South Championship Wrestling In 1986 Hamilton started a small independent promotion in Georgia called Deep South Championship Wrestling. He worked both backstage and in the ring under his “Flame” ring persona. One night in 1988 he was thrown from the top rope during a match and landed wrong, the fall caused him to break the lumbar vertebrae in his back. Because Hamilton was in no shape to run a wrestling promotion he sold it to someone else, only to see that person go out of business without ever putting on a wrestling show. Retirement from the ring Once Hamilton recovered from his back injury he opened the official training center for World Championship Wrestling, the Power Plant. With Hamilton as director of the school it produced talent such as Kevin Nash, Diamond Dallas Page, Bill Goldberg, and the Big Show over the years. As well as working at the Power Plant Hamilton was also used as a manager in 1993, mainly managing Paul Orndorff, in addition to Orndorff's tag team partners The Equalizer and Paul Roma. He was inducted into the WCW Hall of Fame as part of the 1994 class on