Mike Graham Passed Away @ 61

[EmpireWF]

Dusty tweeted about it and PWI has it, too.

Michael Gossett, best known professionally as Mike Graham, the son of late Championship Wrestling from Florida promoter Eddie Graham, passed away today at the age of 62. We don't have details at this time beyond that he was in Daytona, Florida for Bike Week with his wife and was found deceased.

Graham, a tremendously gifted in-ring performer from a technical standpoint, was trained by Hiro Matsuda, Boris Malenko and his father in the early 1970s and had a long run as a babyface in the Florida territory but made appearances for the WWF, AWA and other promotions as well. He had won just about every championship there was in the old Florida territory and had several stints as the AWA Light Heavyweight champion.

Graham closed out his regular in-ring career in the early 1990s for WCW before becoming a road agent for the company and was off and on with WCW as a trainer and producer until the company closed in 2001.

Graham was also involved in several start-up companies in the 1980s and 1990s, often trying to recapture the magic of the old Florida territory, most notably with PWF in Florida, which featured Dusty Rhodes returning to the State as its top star following his run as booker for Crockett Promotions, as well as talents like Dustin Rhodes, Big Steel Man (Fred "Typhoon" Ottman), and others. He was also involved in Rhodes' Turnbuckle Championship Wrestling and Jimmy Hart's XWF.

Graham, a staple in the Florida wrestling scene for his entire life, still appeared occasionally on legends events promoted by WrestleReunion and similar promotions and appeared on several of the early Legends of Wrestling roundtable discussion shows produced by WWE's 24/7 Video on Demand channel. He accepted his father's posthumous WWE Hall of Fame induction over Wrestlemania 24 weekend, showcasing a large photo he was giving WWE of an old NWA convention gathering of promoters.

Graham was also involved in the training of a number of talents who broke in during the 1980s and 1990s.

Graham maintained ownership of the tape library of his father's promotion and refused to sell to WWE until he got what he wanted to, often commenting and advising others that he wasn't going to let anyone back a truck up and take his family legacy away for nothing. In the end, he did sell the library with an alleged seven figure price-tag. At the World Wrestling Legends 6:05 Reunion PPV, where Graham wrestled, JJ Dillon quipped on the mic that he looked like someone who thought "he won a million dollars", a reference to the pricetag.

Our deepest condolences to the family, friends and fans of Mike Graham. We'll have more details as we receive them.

pwinsider.com

 

[Warner2BruceTD]

HE WAS 62, FIX THE THREAD TITLE YOU DISRESPECTFUL POS

Anyway, I used to love his work at the end of his career during that Jim Herd/Kip Frey era WCW. He was a jobber to the stars type, and would wrestle guys like Van Hammer or Nightstalker or PN News in a totally tongue in cheek, 'wink wink im better than this guy who is about to pin me' sort of way. It's hard to explain, but I hope that makes sense. Kinda like how Regal put on a grappling clinic before losing to Goldberg on Nitro.

 

[Warner2BruceTD]

Check out this match:

<iframe width="640" height="360" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/Jczf2eC2ZoM?feature=player_detailpage" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

This is as good of a 5 or 6 minute TV match as you will ever see. This is my kind of wrestling right here. I really miss this era of WCW, a very underrated era in my opinion, just a bunch of solid wrestlers having really good matches (check out the top ten rankings at the end of the video).

-First of all, Ross & Terry Taylor kill it on commentary. Not only do they manage to put over the Taylor/Dustin Rhodes feud, but they also call the action perfectly and put over what each guy is trying to do to win the match. After years of WWE & TNA awful commentary, you forget that announcers used to actually call the match.

-Graham was so good as a JTTS. Very good wrestler who always had good matches, and he was credible so there was always the chance in your mind that he could win (and sometimes he did). Watch him work over the leg trying to set up for his figure four. Just really good stuff.

-You almost forget that Valentine had this kind of match in him after years of being lazy in the WWF. Watching this, you almost get the idea Valentine & Graham are old buddies who are having a shit load of fun out there doing a throwback style of TV match. From about 1986 to when he left in 1991, Valentine was possibly the laziest wrestler on the WWF roster. He literally didn't have a single decent match after his feud with Tito Santana in 1985.

This is what is missing from wrestling these days, stuff like these old WCW Saturday Night shows where guys just wrestled for two hours, no bullshit, no fluff. That 8 minute video is more entertaining to me that probably any segment WWE will do all week on any of their shows. We'll probably never see a wrestling show again like the old Saturday morning TBS stuff or WCW Saturday Night, and I know things change and understand why, but I do think there is a market for something like this of somebody tried it.

 

[Warner2BruceTD]

BATTLEBOWL: THE LETHAL LOTTERY

<iframe width="640" height="360" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/VbKra6X8blE?feature=player_detailpage" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

How's that for two odd tag teams? I had this show on VHS, I must have watched it dozens of times. Just great stuff, with the babyface & heel locker rooms, and the odd ball tag teams.

Graham was a top junior heavyweight a decade earlier, and Liger was the top junior heavyweight in the world at this time, so this was an interesting match up from a nerd perspective. The match is good when they are in, and pretty terrible when the stiffs tag in.

 

[LiquidLarry2GhostWF]

This is what is missing from wrestling these days, stuff like these old WCW Saturday Night shows where guys just wrestled for two hours, no bullshit, no fluff. That 8 minute video is more entertaining to me that probably any segment WWE will do all week on any of their shows. We'll probably never see a wrestling show again like the old Saturday morning TBS stuff or WCW Saturday Night, and I know things change and understand why, but I do think there is a market for something like this of somebody tried it.

That is what WWE SHOULD do with something like WWE Main Event.

If TNA ever got an extra hour on another day that is what they SHOULD have.

In the WWE, everything is gotta be pushing angles. Every segment is an angle or dissolves into shit. Sometimes, just throw William Regal out there to wrestle Justin Gabriel for 10 minutes. Or have Dolph Ziggler versus Tyson Kidd on Main Event. Perhaps a Joe Hennig versus Kofi Kingston for another 10 minutes.

It wouldn't hurt. I mean, damn, show me the footage from the 10m match they had at a damn house show.

 

[Warner2BruceTD]

WWE Superstars goes through phases where it's sorta kinda like that, but not really.

I hear the new NXT is a lot like this, but I haven't bothered to seek it out yet.

 

[FedEx227]

I was about to say, I have a buddy that swears I need to start watching NXT because that's essentially what it's become.

All episodes are free here: http://www.hulu.com/wwe-nxt

 

[LiquidLarry2GhostWF]

I didn't know I could watch NXT on hulu+.

I think I'll start watching.

 

[FedEx227]

I will too. Let's do this together, brothas.

 

[Warner2BruceTD]

News to me as well. Thanks.

 

[Warner2BruceTD]

Now I know how people feel when I send them to www.openthedragongate.com because I have no idea where to even start.

 

[Warner2BruceTD]

Now I know how people feel when I send them to www.openthedragongate.com because I have no idea where to even start.

Speaking of which, that site is back up, and he has all of the missing Infinities (264-268) that got "lost" during the Japan drought. He hasn't posted them yet, but will. 269 & 270 have already popped up in other places but i'm glad I waited.

 

[FedEx227]

Multiple sources have said that death of Mike Graham, who was at Bike Week in Daytona Beach, FL, was due to a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head.

from f4wonline.com

 

[EmpireWF]

Just like his father.