Superstar Billy Graham, Model of the Buff, Blond Wrestler, Dies at 79

Superstar Billy Graham, an expert wrestler whose extravagant presence — 22-inch biceps, dyed blond hair, feather boas, tie-dyed tights and an outrageous reward of gab — influenced the fashion of future stars like Hulk Hogan and Jesse Ventura, died on Wednesday in Phoenix. He was 79.

The trigger was sepsis and a number of organ failure, stated Keith Elliot Greenberg, who collaborated with Graham on his autobiography. Graham’s longtime use of steroids had weakened his bones, requiring not less than six hip replacements, and made him sterile. He additionally acquired a liver transplant in 2002 after contracting hepatitis C.

“If you look at those that came after him, more people have patterned themselves after Superstar Billy Graham and become a success in this business than probably anybody,” Triple H, the famous person wrestler whose beginning identify is Paul Levesque, stated at Graham’s induction into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2004. “And when it comes to bodies, there was nobody, and I mean nobody, that could touch the Superstar.”

Graham, who was born Eldridge Wayne Coleman, had been an evangelist, a bodybuilder who bench pressed as a lot as 605 kilos, a defensive finish within the Canadian Football League, a debt collector and a bouncer earlier than turning to wrestling in 1970.

He conceived his outlandish ring character with the assistance of a former wrestling villain, Dr. Jerry Graham, who instructed that he dye his hair blond with a bottle of Clairol.

“Dr. Jerry said it was part of the deal,” Graham informed The Daily News of New York in 1998. “He said if I was going to make it in wrestling, it would be as a blond.”

Coleman additionally adopted his mentor’s surname (which was, after all, additionally that of the Rev. Billy Graham, whom he admired). And for further panache he added “Superstar,” which he took from the Broadway musical “Jesus Christ Superstar.”

His sculpted 6-foot-4, 275-pound physique was the centerpiece of a bundle that additionally included the blond hair and goatee, the tights and earrings, the leather-based fringes and boots, in addition to important wrestling abilities and a boastful fashion that he borrowed from Muhammad Ali, who himself had lifted it from an earlier braggadocious and flamboyant wrestling star, Gorgeous George.

“I took some old stuff and made it new,” Graham informed The Daily News. “I wasn’t some old wrestler. I was the first guy to look and pose like a bodybuilder, dropping to one knee, and do a bicep shot, showing off those 22-inch pythons.”

Graham discovered early success. He received the National Wrestling Alliance’s tag-team championship with Pat Patterson in 1971 by defeating Ray Stevens and Peter Maivia, whose grandson is the wrestler and actor Dwayne Johnson. Graham and Patterson held the title for eight months, shedding to a duo that included Rocky Johnson, Dwayne’s father.

Graham wrestled for a number of organizations over his profession however earned his biggest renown with the World Wide Wrestling Federation, now the WWE. In 1977, he defeated the W.W.W.F.’ s widespread champion, Bruno Sammartino, for the heavyweight title.

“Using cunning gleaned from years of ring experience, not to mention a dirty trick or two,” The Baltimore Sun reported, “Graham pinned Sammartino when the referee did not notice he was using a ring rope for leverage while atop the champ.”

In the scripted world {of professional} wrestling, Keith Greenberg stated, Vincent J. McMahon, who ran the W.W.W.F. (and whose son, Vincent Ok. McMahon, is the WWE’s government chairman), informed Graham which day he would wrest the title from Sammartino and which day he would lose it, a couple of 12 months later, to Bob Backlund.

Graham, whose drawing energy swelled as he defended his title, tried unsuccessfully to steer the elder McMahon to let him lengthen his reign.

“Billy, my mind’s set on Backlund,” he informed Graham, in accordance with his autobiography, “Superstar Billy Graham: Tangled Ropes” (2006). “I’m committed.”

Graham retired in 1987, at age 44, after his first hip substitute — a sign of the bodily toll steroids had begun to tackle him.

Eldridge Wayne Coleman was born on June 7, 1943, in Phoenix. His father, additionally named Eldridge, labored for an area energy firm however shifted to a desk job as a result of he had a number of sclerosis. His mom, Juanita (Bingaman) Coleman, was a homemaker.

Graham recalled being crushed by his father, at the same time as his father’s physique weakened and his grew stronger.

“If I hesitated or stumbled, he beat me down,” Graham wrote in his autobiography. “So I stayed down.”

He turned enamored of weight lifting as a teenager, and in 1961 he received the West Coast division of the Mr. Teenage America bodybuilding contest. At about the identical time, he turned a born-again Christian and started to talk at small church buildings and tent revivals, reciting the Sinner’s Prayer, talking in tongues and laying on palms. The patter of his sermons later turned acquainted to wrestling followers when he was interviewed.

But his ministry didn’t pay nicely, and he gravitated to soccer. In 1968, he performed briefly for the Montreal Alouettes of the C.F.L. After being launched, he labored as a debt collector for Las Vegas casinos however was contemplating a suggestion to wrestle.

“I guess they asked me because I’m strong and tough and fast and have the showmanship,” he informed The Canadian Press. “And I’m handsome. It makes sense.”

His wrestling odyssey started in 1970 below the tutelage of Stu Hart, a Canadian promoter and coach. When Hart first glanced at Graham, he stared at his biceps. His response, Graham wrote, was “God … um … uh … those are the biggest arms I’ve … uh … ever seen.”

“The man was just salivating,” Graham recalled. “How could I not love this guy?”

For the following 17 years, till his retirement, these arms, and the remainder of his physique, attracted monumental consideration, inspiring Hogan, Ventura and others to hold his instance to better heights.

“There wouldn’t be a Jesse ‘The Body’ Ventura without the in-ring success and trailblazing showmanship of Superstar Billy Graham,” Ventura, who was elected governor of Minnesota in 1999, stated on Twitter after Graham’s demise.

Graham, who lived in Phoenix, is survived by his spouse, Valerie (Belkas) Coleman; his daughter, Capella Flaherty; his son, Joe Miluso; and 4 grandchildren. His marriages to Shirley Potts and Madelyn Miluso resulted in divorce.

After his retirement, Graham turned a critic of the steroid use that first made after which destroyed his spectacular physique. In 1991, he testified within the trial of George Zahorian III, an osteopath and surgeon, who can be convicted of promoting unlawful anabolic steroids to wrestlers. Hobbling to the witness stand, Graham testified that he had bought massive portions of steroids from Zahorian within the Seventies and ’80s.

“They’ve ruined my life,” he testified. “They’ve ruined my wrestling career.” He added: “I was addicted to it. When you go off steroids, you get a tremendous depression. Steroids make you feel so good, so confident, make you feel like you can conquer the world. It’s almost a plague in wrestling today.”