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Remembering...Rick McGraw

Posted: Nov 13th 2009 By: mikeiles

"Quickdraw" Rick McGraw was a short but very built young wrestler known for two things, he was a great worker and he was one of wrestling's first, most publicized drug related deaths.

McGraw started his career in 1976 in Florida and the Mid-Atlantic area. A brief run there got him notice from the WWF and off he went to New York where he was a mid-carder who would be used best to put over talent making a run for Bob Backlund's WWF title.

Going from New York to Memphis McGraw joined with Troy Graham to for The New York Dolls, a stylish tag team who would come to the ring in top hats, coats, ties and with canes. The team of the New York Dolls would go to Indianapolis and defeat Spike Huber and Steve Regal for the WWA tag team titles. Their run in Memphis and Indianapolis would end abruptly with the arrival of Stan Lane and Steve Keirn doing the Fabulous Ones gimmick which mirrored The New York Dolls.

McGraw would return to the WWF and start a brief feud with Roddy Piper, who at the time wasn't wrestling on TV often and was challenged my McGraw with the famous words "if you're so good, why aren't you on TV." That prompted a match between Piper and McGraw that was so brutal many fans believed that the beating Piper gave McGraw was a factor in his death when McGraw died a few days after the match aired.

McGraw's drug abuse was well known, Bret Hart even made mention of how bad McGraw's addiction was in his autobiography saying "Every night he'd swallow a handful of Placidyls and wind up passed out face down in his dinner...The cause of his death was labeled a heart attack, but we all knew his heart had given out under deadly dosages of downers."

McGraw will long be remembered for being a scrappy fighter and solid worker in the ring. He will be most remembered for the circumstances of his death, being one of the first in a long line of workers who have passed away for the same reason as McGraw. Rick was only 30 and in the prime of his career at the time of his death and he left behind a wife and daughter.

Tags: Rick McGraw, WWF, Roddy Piper