Michael Gossett, better known as Mike Graham and the son of legendary wrestler/promoter Eddie Graham, was found dead this morning in Florida by his wife. Preliminary reports are that he committed suicide.
Graham had worked with Florida Championship Wrestling, the NWA and WWE and contributed to the Dusty Rhodes DVD and most recently inducted his father into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2008.
I remember he frequented Sunshine Speedway quite a bit in the '70s and '80s… Usually always came in the pits and sat in the pit grandstands… Gordon Solie made race fans out of a lot of the wrestlers back in the day…
Mike had a corvette that he drag raced back in the 70’s at local tracks including Sunshine and Twin City up in Oldsmar.
Mike went to school with my two older brothers and used to hang around my dads shop alot as a teenager. When he decided he wanted to get into racing his dad, Eddie Graham, hired my dad to build a motor for his first race car. It was kind of neat as a kid when Eddie would stop by the shop with some of his fellow wrestlers to see the progress on the engine, two that stood out were Dusty Rhodes and Lou Thesz.
Mike was always nice to me, and I am sad to hear that he committed suicide, the same as his legendary father, RIP Mike.
Dave, Remember the old Eddie Graham Sports Stadium just north of Colonial on Econ? Lots of raslin there in it’s day.