Michael Davis (born November 1, 1945), best known by the ring namesBugsy McGraw and The Skull, is an American retired professional wrestler.[1] McGraw is known for his long beard and for his philosophical, crazed rants during wrestling interviews. He was a major star in significant territories during the 1970s and 1980s, including major runs in Vancouver, Australia, Florida, Dallas and Memphis.
Professional wrestling career
Early career (1967–1981)
Davis started his career as "The Big O" in 1967 in Florida, Detroit, and Central Areas Wrestling, wrestling under a mask. In 1971, he competed in Florida as "Beautiful Brutus", first managed by The Great Malenko, who he would go on to feud with after firing Malenko as his manager. Beautiful Brutus went on to defeat Malenko for the NWA Brass Knuckles Championship. Their feud led to a bloody series of matches across the Florida territory. In the mid 1970`s he wrestled as The Brute in Gene Kiniski`s All Star Wrestling in British Columbia and held their version of the Canadian Heavyweight title.
For part of his run as a heel, he was part of the heel stable of wrestlers managed by the managerial team of H&H (Armand Hussein and Gary Hart). McGraw made a face turn once again after both of his H&H managers turned on him, later defeating them in a handicap match at Wrestling Star Wars in August 1982.
McGraw returned to the promotion he had the longest and most prominent run in, Championship Wrestling from Florida, and would start off in a big angle with the Fabulous Freebirds turning heel right away and jumping Mike Graham only to have him make the save and get the feud rolling often teaming with Mike Graham and Brian Blair and later Wahoo McDaniel. The Freebirds would eventually leave Florida and along with Blackjack Mulligan would feud with Percy Pringle, team of The Missing Link, The Assassin, and Abdullah the Butcher. He would have one more feud with Rip Rogers that would have Rip Rogers valet giving him a bottle with something in it to blind McGraw in early 1986. He would not be seen for over a year and would return in 1987 once again with Blackjack Mulligan feuding with Kevin Sullivan only to have Sullivan become a babyface to feud with Oliver Humperdink and Dory Funk Jr. and Terry Funk. Florida would later on merge and be absorbed by Jim Crockett Promotions and even with a brief teaming with Jimmy Valiant he would not be held on to by The Crocketts and would be let go.
Later career (1987–1991, 2004-2005)
He would show up for several independent promotions and would even join the reformed Florida Championship Wrestling as a heel and feud with old partner Blackjack Mulligan. He would retire from active competition in 1991. He would return to the ring a few times. On October 30, 2004 U of Virginia Children’s Medical Center Benefit Show Bugsy McGraw beat Masked Superstar. And January 29, 2005 at WrestleReunion participated in a Legends Battle Royal that was won by Greg Valentine.
After retiring from full-time wrestling, Davis enrolled in nursing school in 1988 and subsequently worked as a registered nurse for more than 20 years before retiring from nursing in 2014. While working as a nurse, he assisted with the care of Jack Brisco during the former world champion's health difficulties following open-heart surgery.[2]
Autobiography
On March 26, 2019, the release of Bugsy McGraw's autobiography was announced through a partnership between WOHW Publishing and the Darkstream Press imprint. The book was coauthored by Ian Douglass, the writer of Dan Severn's autobiography and a contributing writer of Hornswoggle's autobiography. It also included a foreword by Rocky Johnson and an afterword from Brian Blair. Davis insisted on using the two-G spelling of his wrestling name on the cover of the book, which he said he always tried to use in place of the one-G spelling for the sake of "being different."[3]
The book finished sixth in the voting for the Wrestling Observer Newsletter's Best Pro Wrestling Book of 2019. In the process, it received the highest number of votes of any independently published pro wrestling autobiography released during that year. [4]
^Royal Duncan & Gary Will (2006). "NWA United States Title". Wrestling Title Histories (4th ed.). Archeus Communications. pp. 295–296. ISBN0-9698161-5-4.
^Royal Duncan & Gary Will (2006). "NWA Brass Knuckles Title". Wrestling Title Histories (4th ed.). Archeus Communications. pp. 159–160. ISBN0-9698161-5-4.
^Royal Duncan & Gary Will (2006). "NWA Florida Title". Wrestling Title Histories (4th ed.). Archeus Communications. pp. 158–159. ISBN0-9698161-5-4.
^Royal Duncan & Gary Will (2006). "NWA Florida Tag Team Title". Wrestling Title Histories (4th ed.). Archeus Communications. pp. 160–161. ISBN0-9698161-5-4.
^Royal Duncan & Gary Will (2006). "NWA Television Title". Wrestling Title Histories (4th ed.). Archeus Communications. pp. 159–160. ISBN0-9698161-5-4.
^Royal Duncan & Gary Will (2006). "NWA United States Tag Team Title". Wrestling Title Histories (4th ed.). Archeus Communications. p. 163. ISBN0-9698161-5-4.
^Royal Duncan & Gary Will (2006). "NWA Atlantic Coast Tag Team Title / NWA Mid-Atlantic Tag Team Title". Wrestling Title Histories (4th ed.). Archeus Communications. p. 115. ISBN0-9698161-5-4.
^Royal Duncan & Gary Will (2006). "NWA Canadian Tag Team Title". Wrestling Title Histories (4th ed.). Archeus Communications. pp. 332–333. ISBN0-9698161-5-4.
^Royal Duncan & Gary Will (2006). "NWA Pacific Coast Title". Wrestling Title Histories (4th ed.). Archeus Communications. p. 334. ISBN0-9698161-5-4.
^Royal Duncan & Gary Will (2000). "Texas: NWA / World Class American Heavyweight Title [Von Eric]". Wrestling Title Histories. Archeus Communications. pp. 265–266. ISBN0-9698161-5-4.
^Royal Duncan & Gary Will (2006). "NWA American Tag Team Title". Wrestling Title Histories (4th ed.). Archeus Communications. pp. 267–268. ISBN0-9698161-5-4.
^Royal Duncan & Gary Will (2006). "World Class Brass Knuckles Title". Wrestling Title Histories (4th ed.). Archeus Communications. p. 270. ISBN0-9698161-5-4.
^Royal Duncan & Gary Will (2000). "Texas: WCWA Television Title". Wrestling Title Histories. Archeus Communications. p. 396. ISBN0-9698161-5-4.
^Royal Duncan & Gary Will (2006). "North American Title / MSWA Mid-South Wrestling Association North American Title". Wrestling Title Histories (4th ed.). Archeus Communications. pp. 231–232. ISBN0-9698161-5-4.
^Royal Duncan & Gary Will (2006). "NWA United States Tag Team Title". Wrestling Title Histories (4th ed.). Archeus Communications. pp. 232–233. ISBN0-9698161-5-4.
^Royal Duncan & Gary Will (2006). "NWA Austra-Asian Tag Team Title". Wrestling Title Histories (4th ed.). Archeus Communications. pp. 425–426. ISBN0-9698161-5-4.