From 1978 to 1982, Smith led the Slapowitz Syndicate in the NWA's Mid-South and Knoxville territories as well as many "outlaw" promotions in the Southern United States.

At various times his stable included Barry O, Bob Orton, Jr., Boris Malenko, Crusher Broomfield, James "Sugar Bear" Harris, The Mongolian Stomper, Randy Savage, Ray Candy, Rip Rogers and The Devil's Duo (Doug Vines and Jeff Sword).

The young wrestling fan was brought to the dressing room by building security after the match where he was confronted by Sullivan, Gorilla Monsoon and Arnold Skaaland.

[6] On September 16, 1978, Smith (substituting for Tamaya Soto) wrestled Burr Head Jones for an NWA Mid-America television taping at the Memorial Auditorium in Chattanooga, Tennessee.

[9] One of the first targets of the Slapawitz Syndicate was Joey Rossi who was harassed by the group, and Smith in particular, for several weeks while the Culkins were running shows in Vicksburg, Mississippi.

[14][15] After leaving Mississippi, Smith followed Frankie Caine to the NWA's Oklahoma territory[13] where he managed Oki Shikina and James "Sugar Bear" Harris.

Then NWA Tri-State promoter Leroy McGuirk felt that the "Izzy Slapawitz" name might offend the large Jewish American population in Tulsa and changed it to Ilya Zinervitch.

Initially managing Bob Orton, Jr. and Barry O, this new version of the Slapawitz Syndicate included Boris Malenko, Randy Savage, Rip Rogers, and Tony Peters.

On January 19, 1980, Smith was in the corner of Bob Orton, Jr. in a "loser gets painted yellow" match against Ronnie Garvin at WNOX Auditorium.

A brawl between members of the Slapawitz Syndicate and Ronnie Garvin at the WNOX Auditorium resulted in Smith throwing a fireball for the first time in the territory.

[19] On April Fools' Day, he led the Orton brothers to the Southern Tag Team Championship when they defeated Terry Gibbs and Bob Roop.

[18] On September 20, 1980, the Devil's Duo made their ICW television debut with an impressive win over George Weingeroff and Jim Pride.

The team's name was created by promoter Angelo Poffo who was part of the original Devil's Duo with Chris Markoff and manager Bobby Heenan during the 1960s.

[26] These theatrical hints of mock-satanism helped to put the team over with the fans but also limited their exposure, as many other territories at that time were too 'Bible Belt' for any satanism gimmick to be used.

On April 25, 1981, Smith led the Devil's Duo to the ICW United States Tag Team Championship, which they won from Lanny Poffo and George Weingeroff at Henry Clay High School.

[20] Shortly after their victory, Smith went on live TV to congratulate his team for winning the belts and bragged to the crowd about the amount of "fan mail" his champions had received.

[30] The Poffo family's feud with Jerry Jarrett and the Continental Wrestling Association had also alienated Smith and others who had friends in the Memphis territory.

On the July 25th, 1981 edition of International Championship Wrestling, Randy Savage aired a video of he and The Destroyer "taking out" Slapawitz with the masked wrestler collecting the reward.

Renesto wanted him to appear for its annual battle royal at the Olympic Auditorium where he would win the NWA Americas Heavyweight Championship.

Owned by Blackjack Mulligan and Ric Flair, the small promotion also had the backing of NWA Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling owner Jim Crockett, Jr. Smith contacted Kevin Sullivan who was booking for SCW and agreed to use him albeit on the bottom of the card.

His first GCW television appearance was a tag team match with Dave Forrester against George Wells and Steve O on the September 12th 1981 edition of Georgia Championship Wrestling.

While at the show, Smith was photographed backstage with Charlie Fulton and Mike Miller watching Big John Studd demonstrating a facerake on Doug Vines.

[41] Stu Saks later claimed that one of the few articles he had pulled from the Apter magazines was an Izzy Slapowitz story written by then columnist Steve Farhood.

[44] On December 26, 1981, Smith wrestled Abe Jacobs, the one-time "Jewish Heavyweight Champion", in Greenville, North Carolina losing via referee's decision.

When the three men returned to Knoxville the following day, they told Mulligan what had happened and the promoter drove to Charlotte where he confronted Anderson in the dressing room.

[3] The Devil's Duo remained the top "heel" tag team in SCW even after Crockett took full control of the Knoxville territory.

The trio continued to have difficulty with Ole Anderson who cancelled many of their shows scheduled by assistant booker Johnny Weaver in early 1982.

The lengthy recovery period and blood pressure medication he was put on prevented him from working as a sales rep. Smith was still receiving cardiac therapy for his heart four years after his surgery.

He also expressed concerns that younger wrestlers no longer had access to the unique training environment the NWA territory system provided to learn the craft of pro wrestling.

He revived his "Izzy Slapawitz" character for a series of YouTube videos between June 2011 and September 2012 discussing the debt ceiling crisis, free speech, right-to-work legislation, support for Israel, and U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East.