
Doherty began his career in the 1970's, wrestling for Vince McMahon, Sr. in the World Wide Wrestling Federation (WWWF). At the time, Doherty wrestled all over in small and large venues. Doherty wrestled under the name, "The Duke of Dorchester", paying homage to his hometown of Dorchester, Massachusetts. The Duke was generally relegated to undercard status either wrestling against the stars of his era or against other undercard "jobbers". The Duke had a short lived run as a masked wrestler named The Golden Terror and was managed by Captain Lou Albano. Although, The Duke was used as "enhancement talent" in the WWF, The Duke scored upset victories against fellow preliminary wrestlers like Fred Marzino and Jose Luis Rivera, including The Duke defeating Marzino twenty-eight times with no wins scored by Marzino.
In 1985, The Duke appeared on the WWF's Saturday Night's Main Event I; the Duke lost a match to the Junkyard Dog. In 1987, although a heel, The Duke had a short feud with fellow heel wrestler King Kong Bundy. In addition to feuding with Bundy, The Duke had several grudge matches against the likes of S.D. Jones, "Leaping" Lanny Poffo and Scott Casey, even gaining a win over Poffo in his hometown of Boston. In fact, his feud with Jones came about due to him getting a fluke win after a losing streak the announcers alleged had crossed the 300 mark.
In the late 1980's, Vince McMahon put Doherty in the broadcasting booth with The Duke announcing several WWF events around the United States, but mostly in Boston as a heel commentator, usually alongside the likes of Gorilla Monsoon and Lord Alfred Hayes in Boston and Bruce Prichard and Mike McGuirk (and sometimes Bobby "The Brain" Heenan) around the country.
The Duke's biggest win came on July 14, 1990, when he pinned Haku at the Boston Garden. In September 1991, he competed in the King of the Ring tournament as a substitute for "The Texas Tornado" Kerry Von Erich, but was eliminated in the first round when he was defeated in just thirty-three seconds by Bret "Hitman" Hart.