He was known for entering the ring with his trademark chain attached to a dog collar, headlining cards that drew large crowds and regularly sold out the Louisiana Superdome and other major venues.

[4] In late 1977, Ritter moved to Nick Gulas's NWA Mid America promotion and adopted the ring name "Leroy Rochester".

[6] He feuded with some of Mid-South's top heels, including a now infamous angle with the Fabulous Freebirds where they blinded him with hair cream.

A masked man physically resembling JYD, known as "Stagger Lee", subsequently appeared in the region and began to defeat the competition, one by one, including DiBiase.

Stagger Lee disappeared once the loser-leave-town clause in the JYD-DiBiase match had expired, and JYD returned and reclaimed the North American Heavyweight Championship.

He used Queen's "Another One Bites the Dust" as his theme and made a habit of interacting with the growing number of young people in attendance, often bringing them into the ring after matches and dancing with them.

[11] On November 7, JYD won The Wrestling Classic tournament by defeating The Iron Sheik, Moondog Spot and Randy Savage by countout in the finals.

[17][3] Ritter made his debut for the National Wrestling Alliance at Clash of the Champions IV on December 7, 1988, during an altercation between The Russian Assassins and Ivan Koloff, saving the latter.

[3] Following his surprise return at Capitol Combat on May 19, 1990,[20] JYD began a main event run and quickly became embroiled in a feud with Ric Flair for the World Heavyweight Championship, garnering several non-title victories.

[3] On February 17, 1991, he teamed with Ricky Morton and Tommy Rich, defeating Dr. X, Dutch Mantell and Buddy Landel to win the WCW World Six-Man Tag-Team Championship.

[22] After dropping a significant amount of weight to improve his conditioning, Junkyard Dog returned on February 29, 1992, at SuperBrawl II, saving Ron Simmons from an attack by Abdullah the Butcher.

[1][7] He was returning home from his daughter LaToya's high school graduation in Wadesboro, North Carolina when his car rolled three times after he fell asleep at the wheel.