Grappling with Tragedy: Dan Mirade

Brian Damage

Grappling with Tragedy is a series of articles that deal with unfortunate, tragic incidents that have occurred throughout the history of professional wrestling. It is unlike the Wrestling with Sin series, which deals more with the seedier side of wrestling, like arrests, murders, and suicides. The Grappling with Tragedy series looks more at particular tragic incidents that have, in some instances, altered pro wrestling in a way.

Dan Mirade

Daniel Frongillo was born in 1979 and was a lifelong pro wrestling fan. Frongillo was also interested in television production and ended up combining his two passions in life to help create the Millennium Wrestling Federation based in the Boston, Massachusetts area in 2001. As a wrestling promoter, Frongillo, also known as ‘Dan Mirade,’  booked such talent as Abyss, AJ Styles, the Iron Sheik, Kofi Kingston and the Motor City Machine Guns. MFW became a hotbed of independent pro wrestling in New England. The promotion has since been taken over by John Cena Sr.

Aside from promoting wrestling, Dan Mirade hosted interviews with some of  wrestling’s big names including Iron Sheik, Tony Atlas, Marty Jannetty and many others. In fact, one of his interviews with the Iron Sheik where Sheiky went off on Brian Blair and threatened to break his back and “make him humble” was picked up and used by the Howard Stern Show. Mirade’s passion for wrestling truly shined through on his shows. Aside from his work in pro wrestling, Mirade was an advocate for the Special Olympics and would often hold charity events to raise money for them. 

On March 7, 2022…Dan Mirade was tragically killed in a car crash. Dan ‘Mirade’ Frongillo was just 42 years old at the time of his death.