Dangerous Danny Davis

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Dangerous Danny Davis bigraphy, stories - WWF referee

Dangerous Danny Davis : biography

Dan Marsh is a former professional wrestling referee and wrestler most famous as Danny Davis of the World Wrestling Federation. He also competed in the WWF for several years as Mr. X, a masked wrestler.

As a referee, Davis showed blatant favoritism toward certain wrestlers, which eventually led to his removal as a referee. He then helped manage the Hart Foundation and began wrestling. He competed at several major WWF events, during which he won a six-man match at WrestleMania III and advanced to the semi-final round at King of the Ring 1987. He was later reinstated as a referee and remained with the company until the mid-1990s.

Championships and accomplishments

  • New England Pro Wrestling Hall of Fame
    • Class of 2010
  • World Wrestling Alliance
    • WWA Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
    • WWA United States Championship (1 time)

Career

WWF Referee (1982–1987)

Dan Marsh started out in 1982 in the World Wrestling Federation as a referee under the ring name Danny Davis. He also wrestled from 1984 to 1986 as the masked Mr. X. The Mr. X character was a jobber who won very few matches. He wrestled some of the WWF’s top stars, including former WWF Champions Pedro Morales and Bruno Sammartino. He also participated in the 1986 King of the Ring tournament. He was given a bye to the second round but lost his match to Billy Jack Haynes. His biggest win as Mr. X came on the October 28, 1986 episode of WWF Prime Time Wrestling when he defeated fellow jobber Rudy Diamond.

Starting in 1986 Davis was involved in several controversial matches in which he was thought to favor the heel (villain) wrestlers. Davis made fast pinfall counts and disqualified face (fan favorite) wrestlers with little or no provocation. WWF commentator Gorilla Monsoon accused Davis of accepting bribes, pointing to Davis’ wealth as evidence. Davis involved himself in a steel cage match between face Hulk Hogan and heel Paul Orndorff. When both wrestlers escaped the cage at the same time, Davis declared Orndorff the winner, while referee Joey Marella stated that Hogan won. As a result, the match had to be restarted, and Hogan eventually won.

Davis’ refereeing style angered many of the fan favorite wrestlers and led to them physically attacking him. The wrestlers hit him or threw him when they got frustrated, which led to Davis disqualifying them. They also attacked him after some matches in which they felt that his officiated led to the heels winning unfairly.

"Dangerous" Danny Davis (1987–1989)

On the January 26, 1987 edition of Superstars, The Hart Foundation defeated the British Bulldogs for their first WWF Tag Team Championship. Danny Davis was the referee and allowed the Hart Foundation to use illegal double-team maneuvers in the match. As a result of the match, WWF President Jack Tunney stripped Davis of his referee duties. That same night, Davis was approached by manager Jimmy Hart about joining his stable of wrestlers. Davis joined up with Jimmy Hart and the Hart Foundation (Bret Hart and Jim Neidhart) and became "Dangerous" Danny Davis. He accompanied the Hart Foundation to the ring for their matches and often became involved by attacking the Hart Foundation’s opponents from outside the ring or entering the ring to reverse pinfalls by placing Hart or Neidhart on top of their opponents.

At the beginning of his suspension as a referee, Davis was involved in a scripted storyline in which he occasionally came to the ring and insisted that he would referee a match. This led to officials from the state athletic commission removing Davis from ringside. Davis appeared on Piper’s Pit, an interview segment hosted by Roddy Piper to discuss his decisions as a referee. Davis refused to admit to any wrongdoing and was confronted by Marella, who criticized him. The segment ended with Piper attacking Davis.

At WrestleMania III, Davis made his in-ring debut when he teamed up with the Hart Foundation to defeat the British Bulldogs (Davey Boy Smith and Dynamite Kid) and Tito Santana. Davis got the pin on Smith after he hit him in the head with Jimmy Hart’s megaphone. His next major appearance was in the 1987 King of the Ring tournament. Davis defeated Tito Santana and Junkyard Dog before being eliminated in the third round by Randy Savage, who went on to win the tournament.