R.I.P Mike Graham

[nerry]

Nah... I could be wrong but I think he told Benoit something to the effect of, if he did to him what he did to Kevin Sullivan, he would be dead...something like that. And Benoit took personal issue with that and interpreted it as a threat.

That's how I remember that being told.

well I would especially the part of "would be dead" but then again maybe he was jus playin

 

[DANJ!]

well I would especially the part of "would be dead" but then again maybe he was jus playin

But there's a diff between "IF you did that to me, I'd kill you"... and "I'm gonna kill you".

Neither of which matter at this point anyway, cause Chris... well, yeah... but still.

 

[Kongo McMicheal]

Nah... I could be wrong but I think he told Benoit something to the effect of, if he did to him what he did to Kevin Sullivan, he would be dead...something like that. And Benoit took personal issue with that and interpreted it as a threat.

That's how I remember that being told.

Gully either way. A lot of people didn't like him but the guy would rock Hawaian shirts at the Roundtable, he would host a show on 24/7 and then ride away in a boat and he checked Chris Benoit.

What's not to like?

 

[TNC]

I was just checking to see what was going on, even though I don't post here, I'll still pay my respects to the inventor of professional wrestling.

Re sign that contract Makdafi, we are in sore need of some mid card heels.

Don't pull that stuff WCW headliners pulled when they got bought out.

Just expect to pay them dues before you get a ppv spot

 

[Hoss]

Good article on Mike Graham:

CANOE -- SLAM! Sports - Wrestling - Mike Graham dead at 61

Mike Graham dead at 61
By STEVEN JOHNSON - SLAM! Wrestling

Mike Graham, a fixture of the Florida wrestling scene for half-a-century as an amateur, professional and promoter, died Friday at the age of 61.

The son of legendary Florida promoter Eddie Graham, Graham -- real name Michael Gossett -- was reportedly found dead in Daytona, Beach, Fla., where he and his wife were attending a bicycling event.

Additional details were not immediately available, but the death reverberated around the wrestling industry because just about every star in the business passed through the Florida territory at some point in his career.

"He was always great to me. There's not a whole lot you can say," said longtime WWE trainer Dr. Tom Prichard. "It’s just very sad."

Graham first made a mark in Florida amateur wrestling, a venture his dad supported, becoming a three-time state AAU champion and a Junior Olympics title at 198 pounds.


"As a 3 year old toddler, he began hanging around the gyms where his dad trained and wrestled and it was about all he ever knew. As impossible as it seemed, he, too, began to hope he might someday team with his dad in the ring," Jim Selman of the Tampa Tribune wrote just before Mike’s pro debut in 1972.

He left the University of Tampa to turn pro, against the wishes of his mother Lucy. "It's a rough life, I knew -- it's no fun to see your husband come home bleeding, and I didn't want Mike's wife to put up with that," she said to the Orlando Sentinel in 1985.

Graham toured a few territories but was most known for his association with Championship Wrestling from Florida, which he took over in 1985 when his father committed suicide.

During about 18 years as an active wrestler, he held a number of titles, including the Florida tag title with close friend Steve Keirn. As a wrestler, he was a technically skilled babyface with no particular gimmick.

"I've wrestled and teamed with Mike Graham when he first started in the business. I remember that Steve Keirn and himself were inseparable at the time. They were doing scuba diving, they were both starting in wrestling, they were always together, " said Paul Leduc, who worked in the Florida territory at the time.

Terry Funk said he thought Graham was held back to some extent by his father, who was concerned fans might reject a second-generation wrestler pished down their throats.

"He had a great amateur skills as well, but his dad wasn't about to put him up there because that would mean it was nepotism with the family. And I truthfully believe that. I think Mike Graham, his dad could have pushed him up to become a superstar there, because he had tremendous ability. But he wouldn't do that," Funk said in an interview for The Pro Wrestling Hall of Fame: Heroes and Icons.

Graham sold the foundering Florida business to Jim Crockett Promotions in 1987, and worked in the 1990s, he worked as an agent with World Championship Wrestling, and found it unsatisfying. "In pursuit of chasing Vince McMahon, they completely lost sight of what the wrestling business was," he told interviewer Alex Marvez in 2004.

He also sold the tape library from the Florida promotion to WWE; a reported seven-figure deal never was confirmed. Many of today's WWE fans would know Mike Graham from his appearances on WWE DVDs and roundtables discussions on the WWE 24/7 station.

WWE.com reported on Graham's death: "WWE is saddened to learn of the passing of Mike Graham, 61, son of legendary promoter Eddie Graham. While never under contract with WWE, he was part of our extended family. The sports-entertainment world lost a beloved member today. WWE extends its sincerest condolences to his family and friends."

Graham suffered business misfortunes in recent years, and a restaurant he owned in Florida closed in 2011 after about two years of operation. He and his wife had been involved in real estate, which took a beating in Florida during the recession.
"When I was 19 and got in the business, my dad said to me, ‘Son, you’re never going to have life insurance or retirement pay, so you’ve got to make what you can. Start by buying all the real estate you can," he said to Marvez. "In 1987 after I sold to Crockett, I had a lot of real estate that I started developing. I look at that as my real job now and wrestling as a fantasy."

Friends said he also had struggled with the December 2010 death of his son Steven.

Funeral arrangements had not been disclosed.

 

[Makdafi]

Re sign that contract Makdafi, we are in sore need of some mid card heels.

Don't pull that stuff WCW headliners pulled when they got bought out.

Just expect to pay them dues before you get a ppv spot

In all honesty I don't really see a need to, but let me put it like this to you. On more mainstream standalone wrestling forums around 95% to around 97% of the people approve of the quality of my posts and the level of my knowledge. On this forum with these people that number is probably around 25% to 35%.

So what conclusions can be drawn? Is it just that this small subforum that is relegated to being the underling of the "Arcadium" is just smarter? Just more hip and aware? Or can a more realistic one be drawn that the more mainstream forums are like bigger cities and TSC is like a small town. A small town where ignorance and insecurity are the tone.

Look at a guy like "The Great One", this guy is supposedly a grown adult male. And he has such insecurities in his real life that he felt the need to "negative rep" me for a post that had nothing to do with him, and then was so wanting attention he felt the need to announce that he did, in a thread that was about a wrestler blowing his brains out. For a human to have that level of narcissism it makes you wonder what happened to them as a child.

So to sum it up I really don't see a reason why I would post here on a consistent basis TNC. The quality of this forums discussion doesn't merit my posting, the size of the forum doesn't merit my posting, and ultimately the few posters who post in this subforum don't want/care about me posting.

 

[Ohnoits]

Damn. I read about this yesterday but I did not realize it was a possible suicide.

That's rough.

R.I.P.

 

[vander]

rip mike

 

[ecks12]

In related news, F4WOnline.com is reporting that Mike Graham visited Universal Studios in Orlando, Florida a couple months ago while TNA was running an Impact Wrestling event, and requested a job on the company's creative team. It's being said that Graham's request was turned down rather quickly.

Graham was said to be shocked by TNA's refusal to hire him, as he had been told by his father, Eddie Graham, that due to his family history in the business, he would likely be hired for any job in the wrestling industry.

 

[Honga Ciganesta]

Another famous incident involving him took place in 1991. Graham was at a bar in Atlanta when Brian Pillman and Sid Vicious nearly went at it. Vicious came in and started bragging about how much money he was making in WWF and it led to words between the two of them. They had already had problems in the ring because they did some matches and Vicious, who was 11 inches taller and probably 85 to 90 pounds heavier than Pillman, didn’t want to sell hardly anything because he felt it wouldn’t be believable. Pillman responded that he tackled guys in the NFL and college football who were as big as Sid was. They had words again and it looked like they were about to go to blows. Vicious then left the bar and came back with a squeegee. He went to attack Pillman with it and Graham wrestled the squeegee away from Vicious and showed no fear in being ready to go. Vicious made a remark about having an injury and it’s not worth aggravating it over those two.