McGraw made his professional wrestling debut in 1975 in Florida after training under
Rip Hawk, who knew him at a young age, at the gym in the basement of Hawk's house. On August 9, he took part in the
Showdown at Shea event, losing to
Greg Gagne. He defeated
enhancement talent, but mostly lost to
heels who were ready to challenge
WWF Champion Bob Backlund. In April 1981, McGraw appeared for
New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) as part of the "NJPW WWF Big Fight Series II" tour, often teaming with
Ken Patera, Backlund,
Tiger Jeet Singh and
Dynamite Kid against the likes of
Antonio Inoki,
Tatsumi Fujinami,
Seiji Sakaguchi and
Riki Choshu. Two months later, McGraw was involved in an
angle where his neck was "broken" by
Killer Khan in a match, sidelining him for six to nine weeks. At the same time, he teamed with
André the Giant, and both teams unsuccessfully challenged
Mr. Fuji and
Mr. Saito for the
WWF Tag Team Championship. Shortly after, he formed a
heel tag team with
The Dream Machine known as The New York Dolls, incorporating tuxedos and bow ties as part of their ring gear and
Jimmy Hart as their manager. They were brought to Memphis to
feud with the
Fabulous Ones (
Stan Lane and
Steve Keirn). On September 25, they defeated Huber and Regal to win the WWA World Tag Team Championship. However, they lost the titles in a rematch in December. At the start of the match, Piper threw McGraw out of the ring and twice into the guardrail. After
no-selling several punches and kicks in McGraw's comeback, Piper hit him with a
swinging neckbreaker and two
DDTs, the second prompting the referee to stop the match, declaring McGraw unable to continue. Coincidentally, the match aired the day after McGraw's death. Off TV, McGraw faced
Mike Sharpe in his final match on October 28. == Other media ==