Wahoo McDaniel

**Edward McDaniel** (June 19, 1938 – April 18, 2002) was an American Choctaw-Chickasaw professional American football player and professional wrestler better known by his ring name **Wahoo McDaniel**. He is notable for having held the NWA United States Heavyweight Championship five times. McDaniel was a major star in the American Wrestling Association and prominent National Wrestling Alliance affiliated promotions such as Championship Wrestling from Florida, Georgia Championship Wrestling, NWA Big Time Wrestling and, most notably, Jim Crockett Promotions.

## Early life

McDaniel was born in the small town of Bernice, Oklahoma in 1938. His father worked in oil and he moved to several towns before settling down in Midland, Texas while McDaniel was in middle school.

## Professional football career

One of his baseball coaches was George H. W. Bush. The name "Wahoo" actually came from his father, who was known as "Big Wahoo". He was a problematic teenager but he was accepted to the University of Oklahoma. There he became a member of the Sigma Chi fraternity and he was also a part of Bud Wilkinson's Sooners football program.

His college career was somewhat marred by injuries early on but by his senior year, he was one of the top players on the team despite being caught drinking after games and skipping classes. He played linebacker for the American Football League's Houston Oilers and Denver Broncos but really became a star with when he was traded to the New York Jets in 1964.

He was a crowd favorite and made 23 tackles in a single game against his former Denver Broncos. He was drafted to the Miami Dolphins in 1966 as the team's major name player. During the 1968 season, he knocked out two police officers in an altercation and was traded to the San Diego Chargers. Wahoo never played a game for San Diego and started wrestling full-time.

## Professional wrestling career

Wahoo wrestled during the off-season, a common practice at the time due to low player salaries, for Dory Funk in Amarillo, Texas while he played for Houston and Denver. When he was playing for the New York Jets, Vince McMahon, Sr. brought him in for an often forgotten run in the World Wide Wrestling Federation (World Wrestling Entertainment).

During his run, he wrestled with stars like Boris Malenko, Dr. Jerry Graham and Waldo Von Erich. When he played in Miami, Eddie Graham booked him and used him as a tag team wrestler with Jose Lothario.

After leaving football, Wahoo wrestled some in Hawaii but really made his mark and had his greatest success in Houston. He feuded with Boris Malenko, eventually winning his hair, and was a frequent challenger for Dory Funk, Jr.'s NWA World Heavyweight Championship. The feud sold out the Sam Houston Coliseum on several occasion with Wahoo going time limit draws with the champ but ultimately coming up short.

After Houston, he went to the American Wrestling Association and had a very successful feud with "Superstar" Billy Graham after Graham could not defeat Wahoo in an arm wrestling challenge and attacked him. Eventually, the feud turned into a tag feud with Wahoo teaming with the Crusher (another legitimate tough guy) against Graham and Ivan Koloff.

In 1974, Wahoo came to Mid-Atlantic to wrestle for Jim Crockett Promotions and help build up the territory as a singles territory in a feud with a rival from Texas, Johnny Valentine. The feud evolved into a tag feud with Wahoo and Paul Jones taking on Johnny Valentine and Ric Flair, who Wahoo met in the AWA. The two feuded over the Mid-Atlantic title throughout 1975 and 1976 after Johnny Valentine's career was ended in a plane crash.

Flair eventually came out on top and became a major star afterwards. In 1977, Johnny Valentine's son Greg Valentine attacked Wahoo and broke his leg in an angle to establish Greg as Johnny's successor.

Other than his work in Mid-Atlantic, he wrestled in Florida, usually against then NWA World champion Harley Race. He also wrestled in Georgia and the AWA. He went to Japan several times but never really caught on although he did wrestle major names like Giant Baba, Antonio Inoki and Jumbo Tsuruta.

By 1980, he was wrestling in San Antonio in a feud with Tully Blanchard and his regular tag partner, "Georgous" Gino Hernandez. When the promoter in Houston broke away from the National Wrestling Alliance and recognized the AWA World champion Nick Bockwinkel, Wahoo was the regular challenger.

He returned to Mid-Atlantic in 1981 and feuded with Roddy Piper over the United States title which ended when Piper brought in Abdullah the Butcher and Abby put Wahoo out on injury. Wahoo returned and had another bloody feud with Sgt. Slaughter for the U.S. title when Slaughter won the title while Wahoo was injured. In 1984, he turned on Ricky Steamboat, taking the U.S. title for the fourth time when Tully Blanchard came to Wahoo's assistance with a steel chair. He was stripped of the title but regained it in a tournament later that year.

Wahoo succesfully defended it at Starrcade of that year against Billy Graham but lost it to Magnum T.A. in early 1985 in a steel cage match. Wahoo feuded again with the now babyface Ric Flair for the NWA World Heavyweight title at various times before Flair turned heel again. After losing the U.S. title, he booked and wrestled mostly for Championship Wrestling from Florida.

He made a tag team with Billy Jack Haynes which won the promotion's tag title from Rick Rude and Jesse Barr. Wahoo wrestled some high profile matches in Florida like an unsuccessful world title bid against Ric Flair and a draw against Bruiser Brody at the Florida promotion's nationally syndicated big show, *Battle of the Belts*.

In 1986, he returned as a face to Mid-Atlantic wrestling in some of his famous Indian Strap Matches with Jimmy Garvin and Rick Rude. He won the NWA National Heavyweight Championship but lost a unification match against NWA U.S. champion Nikita Koloff. For the rest of the 1980s, he wrestled mainly for the AWA and in Puerto Rico.

He continued to wrestle into the 1990s but he was a non-factor by that point. In 1994, he participated in an angle where he and Jay Strongbow supposedly passed the torch to WWF's Tatanka. The following year, he wrestled on a World Championship Wrestling Pay-per-view in a legends match against Dick Murdoch. He settled down in Houston where he passed away in 2002.

### Reception

Wahoo is often compared to "Chief" Jay Strongbow, another Native American wrestler at the time, but most wrestlers and critics agree that Wahoo was a better wrestler and a more versatile draw although Strongbow was successful in the Northeast. Wahoo was respected by other wrestlers and football players for his toughness, physical style and his crazy antics outside of the ring.

The respect as a legitimate athlete made it easy for him to go to different territories and be successful when many babyfaces had trouble doing so. Although his playing ability in football is often overshadowed by his wild lifestyle. Joe Namath and Larry Csonka, who played with him early in their careers, both printed stories about him in their autobiographies.

In 1995, he was also inducted into the WCW Hall of Fame. In 2019, he was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame.

## Death

McDaniel's health started to deteriorate in the mid-1990s, which led to his retirement in 1996, and he eventually lost both kidneys. He was awaiting a kidney transplant when he died of complications from diabetes and kidney failure on April 18, 2002.