Pro wrestling history is littered with second-generation (and beyond) talent, so many that someone’s wrestling dad isn’t all that special. After all, for every Cody Rhodes, Charlotte, or Ted DiBiase, there’s a David Sammartino, Greg Gagne, or Ted DiBiase Jr. Somewhere in between the two camps is Mike Graham, a successful in-ring competitor often considered a runner. .
Initially working in the NWA territories before taking a job with WCWMike Graham has a bit of infamy for trashing Jeff Jarrett that fans have been citing ever since he said it. Let’s take a look at the life and career of Mike Graham, both in the ring and behind the scenes.
10/10 eddie graham’s son
Mike Graham’s father is none other than Eddie Graham, who spent the 1950s and 1960s as a popular couples specialist alongside his kayfabe brother, Dr. Jerry Graham. In the 1970s, he made huge leaps as a promoter and booker, going on to own Championship Wrestling From Florida, and then becoming president of the National Wrestling Alliance in the mid-to-late 1970s. As a booker, one of the innovations elder Graham’s enduring qualities is what is known as “the Dusty finish.”
9/10 amateur background
However, before following in his father’s footsteps into the world of professional wrestling, Mike Graham was a successful amateur wrestler while attending high school in Tampa, Florida. In addition to winning several championships, he also competed in the Junior Olympics and, in one notable amateur match, he even managed to defeat a young Ricky Steamboat. However, in the early 1970s he decided to venture into professional wrestling, dropping out of higher education at the University of Tampa to enter the family business.
8/10 Formed a father and son tag team
Before Dominik and Rey Mysterio, there was Eddie and Mike Graham. After making his in-ring debut in 1972, Mike Graham formed a tag team with his father. Before Eddie retired in 1980, the Grahams were a capable team, putting up fights with notable opponents against other relatives, kayfabe and legit, the Andersons, the Ortons, the Briscoes and the Funks.
The Grahams also managed to capture some gold during their time as a tag team, winning the NWA Georgia Tag Team Championship and the NWA Florida Tag Team Championship.
7/10 Specialist in couples with Kevin Sullivan and Steve Keirn
However, Mike Graham didn’t just team up with his father. His first non-family tag team partner was future WCW booker and Dungeon of Doom leader Kevin Sullivan, with whom Graham captured three NWA Florida Tag Team Championships before Sullivan turned rudo. After that, Graham found an even more successful partner in Steve Keirn, later known in WWE as Skinner. Together Graham and Keirn claimed 15 titles over the course of their time together, including 10 runs with the NWA Florida tag belts.
In 1985, tragedy struck Championship Wrestling From Florida and the Graham family when Eddie Graham committed suicide. At the time, CWF was troubled territory thanks to the state of the business in the 1980s with wrestlers like Dusty Rhodes leaving for bigger opportunities, and the elder Graham experiencing various personal problems in addition to his business problems. Mike Graham tried to keep the CWF afloat, but the promotion struggled in the years that followed, and Graham ended up selling the territory to Jim Crockett Promotions, which would later become WCW.
5/10 Became a road agent and trainer with WCW
Selling CWF to JCP was just the beginning of Mike Graham’s relationship with WCW. In 1991, Graham joined the company as an in-ring performer, although he rarely appeared on television and often lost matches. His major appearances included participating in the WCW Light Heavyweight Title tournament and competing in the Lethal Lottery tournament in starrcade ’91. In 1992, Graham wrestled his last match for WCW and took on a backstage role with the promotion, becoming a tour agent and trainer at the WCW Power Plant.
4/10 He Wrecked Jeff Jarrett on DVD
The year 2009 saw the release of the documentary produced by WCW. The rise and fall of WCW. Along with figures like Ric Flair and Chris Jericho, Mike Graham also appeared, who made some questionable claims in the documentary, including taking credit for WCW hiring Hulk Hogan. But it would be his comments about Jeff Jarrett that would fall into infamy.
When the documentary focused on WCW’s excessive pressure on Jeff Jarrett in the company’s last two years, Mike Graham released an all-time high, stating that Jeff Jarrett “broke 6,000 guitars and never drew a beat.” Jarrett at one point responded to the dissent, claiming that Mike was jealous that his father loved Jeff’s father, fellow wrestler/promoter Jerry Jarrett.
3/10 He took several wrestlers out of WCW
Generally, fans don’t hear much from most tour agents, but Mike Graham managed to kick several wrestlers out of the company in one fell swoop. In late 2000, Graham’s friend Kevin Sullivan became WCW’s chief booking officer, upsetting members of The Revolution faction, including Perry Saturn, Eddie Guerrero, and Dean Malenko. When they raised their concerns, Graham physically threatened Benoit, which Benoit reported to Human Resources. As a result, all four wrestlers were granted their release and debuted in WWE as The Radicalz.
2/10 Sold the CWF video library to WWE
Although Mike Graham sold the Florida territory to Jim Crockett Promotions, he still owned the Championship Wrestling From Florida tape library. However, in the mid-2000s, WWE was working on a DVD documentary about Dusty Rhodes, and Graham ended up selling the tape library to WWE for the occasion. Following the sale, Graham made appearances on WWE’s VOD service programming, WWE 24/7 Classics On Demand, as well as in the developmental promotion of WWE Florida Championship Wrestling. He also appeared at the 2008 WWE Hall of Fame ceremony, where his father Eddie was inducted.
1/10 his tragic death
Mike Graham made occasional returns to the ring in the 2000s, but his life outside the ring was filled with tragedy and misfortune. Not only did Graham’s various business ventures (a restaurant and a real estate business) fail, but his son ended up taking his own life in 2010. At his home in Daytona Beach, in a drunken state, Mike Graham committed suicide in October. . 2012 at the age of 61, with his method (self-inflicted gunshot wound) being eerily similar to the death of his father.