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00:00I am the champion, I am the greatest, I am the strongest.
00:08This is my belt, I got the truth, baby.
00:10A world class bodybuilder who revolutionized the business of wrestling,
00:15Billy Graham was the first superstar.
00:18Superstar Billy Graham was the biggest box office attraction in the world.
00:22The men of the hour, the man with the power, the man is too sweet to be sour.
00:27Oh my gosh, perfection.
00:29His body was unbelievable.
00:31He was so far ahead of his time, he was an icon but he was imitated so much.
00:37Every time you watch a wrestling show, Billy Graham influences all of them
00:40and most of them don't even know it.
00:42You're looking at the strongest wrestler in the world today.
00:45The crowned world champion, Graham spiraled after losing the belt.
00:50Superstar Billy Graham lost the title and never recovered.
00:54He had it all taken away.
00:56And the drugs that made him a star proved to be his undoing.
01:00Steroids came to define Billy.
01:03But it absolutely destroyed his joints.
01:05The damage was done.
01:07My dad would do anything to keep that fame and that stardom and that status.
01:12He was at the pinnacle.
01:13He was selling out arenas and then it's yanked from him and he couldn't accept it.
01:17And for some people and you get that taken away, you don't have a lot left except for spite.
01:23So he went to war with this man and Vince could squash like a grape if he wanted to.
01:28The rise of superstar Billy Graham is fascinating but the decline of superstar Billy Graham is tragic.
01:34He overcame everything in life from meager beginnings to be the champion of the world.
01:41But he killed himself in the process.
01:52There he is, superstar Billy Graham.
01:54Very charismatic, colorful individual.
01:56Look at the size of those upper arms.
01:58Ladies and gentlemen, they border at some 22 inches.
02:03My dad was always superstar.
02:05Since the day he was born, it was always in him.
02:08He's always been superstar.
02:09My name is Capella Flaherty and I am the daughter of superstar Billy Graham.
02:16I remember being in a match with my brother and the ceiling of the arena opened up and
02:22the sunbeams shone down on my dad and he just lit up.
02:26When that light shone on him, there was no getting away from it.
02:30Oh, they're superstar, they're superstar, they're superstar.
02:32The superstar Billy Graham.
02:36He was more superstar than he was Wayne Coleman, at least to myself and my brother.
02:42When he was Wayne Coleman, he was loving and he loved us.
02:48But I think he loved being superstar a little bit more.
02:51Very loud, very boisterous, always trying to be the center of attention.
02:54And if he wasn't, he would make sure that he was.
02:58That's just who my dad was.
03:00I'm Joseph Michael Meluso and I am the son of superstar Billy Graham.
03:05My dad was always on, even when the camera wasn't on him.
03:09If you don't have a color television, go out and hawk your car and buy a color TV
03:14so you can see superstar Billy Graham in living, living color.
03:21In the late 1970s, superstar Billy Graham was on top of the world,
03:26redefining the look, the style and the idea of the perfect professional wrestler.
03:32Superstar Billy Graham was the world champion of the biggest wrestling company in the United States.
03:39The look is what made superstar Billy Graham.
03:42Nobody in that era, like nobody looked like him.
03:45I'm Dave Meltzer and I've been covering pro wrestling for just over 50 years.
03:50He had the bleach blonde hair and was legitimately very, very strong guy.
03:54He was very flamboyant.
03:57Whatever it is, superstar Billy Graham had it.
04:01He had all the charisma.
04:03He had the body.
04:04Most guys looked like Chief J Strongbow, a little bit of a pot belly, a little bit flabby arms.
04:11But Billy had a physique that was phenomenal.
04:15The body in wrestling wasn't crucial until Billy Graham.
04:21I'm Jim Cornette.
04:22I've had a 40-year career in professional wrestling.
04:24But for even longer than that, I've been an historian.
04:28He wasn't a polished in-ring performer, but he looked great and he could talk.
04:34This is the beauty of a champion.
04:35This is the brains of a champion.
04:37Before making it big in New York, Billy Graham had first made a name for himself as a teenager
04:45growing up in Arizona.
04:47He was a competitive bodybuilder and 1961 was Teenage Mr. America.
04:52He was a born athlete and self-made.
04:56When he was in his teens, he took to weightlifting and he would pour concrete into coffee cans.
05:04And that's how he would lift weights.
05:08I think that was just what made him feel good.
05:11It probably gave him some strength.
05:14When he was younger, his dad used to be very physical, abusive with him.
05:18And my dad would get hit with the belt.
05:22One day, my dad was just big enough and grabbed the belt out of his father's hand.
05:27And that's when he knew the beatings were over and they were over.
05:30Because he showed, look, I'm bigger than you.
05:31Now I'm stronger than you.
05:33You can't beat me anymore.
05:34Eager to put his physical attributes to work, Wayne Coleman travels from Arizona to Calgary,
05:42where a failed attempt at Canadian football stardom leads him to the legendary Stu Hart.
05:50Billy walks into the gym and meets Stu.
05:52Stu's just enamored by the size of this guy.
05:54He was just a specimen beyond description.
05:59My name is Steve Strong and I was a professional wrestler for 19 years.
06:04And superstar Billy Graham was one of my best friends.
06:08There's a carte blanche about the dungeon and Stu Hart that if you broke in with Stu Hart,
06:15you could pretty much stamp your past to whatever territory you wanted to go to.
06:19And Super worked up there for a while and left and started his career.
06:24Back in Arizona, a chance encounter with another wrestling legend sets Wayne Coleman on the path to greatness.
06:33We will be the international tag team champions as soon as that match comes off.
06:38And it's going to be the greatest match ever.
06:40The Graham family legacy in wrestling, it's one of the most famous in the history of the business.
06:44In the early 70s, Dr. Jerry Graham is broke and drunk and he thought maybe I need another brother.
06:51I just returned from Calgary and I said, I don't have anywhere really to wrestle now.
06:57And he said, but won't you just become another Graham brother?
07:01What name do you want? I said, well, I really like the Reverend Billy Graham.
07:04He said, that's a good name. You're my youngest brother, Billy Graham.
07:07And superstar Billy Graham is born.
07:11They went to Los Angeles together and Jerry was just a hopeless drunk.
07:15Jerry lasted a couple of weeks and they fired him,
07:18but Billy had enough charisma that they kept him on.
07:20I am a reflection of perfection. The number one selection. You got it.
07:26At that time, Billy would train at Gold's Gym like everybody builder would.
07:30And he was Arnold Schwarzenegger's regular training partner and they were very close friends.
07:35I was born in June of 1972 and my father was a heel at the time.
07:40And some fans had vandalized my father's Cadillac.
07:44So he couldn't drive to pick my mother and I up from the hospital.
07:47So Arnold picked up my mom and my sister from the hospital in his blue Volkswagen bug.
07:53Here's an Arnold picture. Here's a couple of Arnold pictures.
07:56I'm not sure where that was, but...
07:58I think it was in our apartment on Ocean Avenue.
08:00Probably.
08:00I just found this recently. This is an original Western Union telegram that my mother had sent her parents
08:09the day that she married my father.
08:11Whoa.
08:11They went to Vegas.
08:12It's January 19, 1971.
08:17This is Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Meluso. That was my grandfather.
08:20Mom and dad, Billy and I were just married. We really love each other.
08:24Please try and understand. I love you both.
08:26My mother was Madeline Meluso. She worked in a bank in Southern California and he came in
08:37and thought she was really pretty. She always loved his smile and he made her laugh a lot.
08:46She fell in love with him. She thought he was the most handsome man in the world.
08:50She got pregnant with me and they got an apartment in Santa Monica, California.
08:54She didn't care about the wrestling part of it at all. She just loved my dad.
09:03I remember mom tie-dying clothes in our kitchen. She was a big part of his look.
09:09Mr. Rainbow. More colors in the rainbow. The prettiest wrestler in the world.
09:14Billy's Superstar Queen.
09:16The look was good and he understood his deal was posing and flexing and everything,
09:21but it was really the promos.
09:23And I'm gonna take out my frustrations. I'm gonna take out my wrath. I'm gonna take out my anger.
09:28He'd been an evangelist in his younger years. He was a traveling tent show preacher.
09:35My dad started preaching as an evangelist when he was in his teens.
09:39He went all over Arizona in particular, speaking at churches and did feats of strength.
09:43When I listen to his promos now, it's like he's standing in front of a church assembly. It's the
09:49same thing, except it's wrestling.
09:51The superstar, you are the greatest. You are the strongest. You are the man in power.
09:57Billy Graham was probably one of the first to use various catchphrases that he would then start
10:02repeating. I'm the man in power. The man with the power. The man with the power.
10:07Too sweet to be sour. Too sweet to be sour. I mean, it's legendary stuff. They were unbelievable
10:12promos back then. These hands can crush coconuts. These hands can straighten out of horseshoes.
10:18You know what this arm can do? In 1975, Billy Graham's star is already on the rise when he gets a call
10:25from Vince McMahon Sr., New York's top promoter. He weighed in at 285 pounds. Superstar Billy Graham!
10:35Billy was very, very excited about being at Madison Square Garden and being in the limelight.
10:42McMahon has a clear vision for the superstar with a bold plan for the future of the world championship.
10:48Bruno Sammartino is ready to step down as being the champion. He'd already had a nine-year run from 63
10:58to 71 and then he was champion again in the mid-70s. Bruno was a living god to the wrestling fans. He was
11:05so admired and so idolized. Bruno was so embedded into the history of the sport and New York,
11:14but it was time for him to drop the strap. You know, when you've had it for so long and so long,
11:20there has to be a passing of the guard. Bob Backlund was Vince's guy. He wanted that squeaky clean guy
11:26who could go to schools and tell kids don't do drugs, don't smoke. Bobby Backlund was my tag team partner
11:32before he went up there. He was a great athlete, but his promos were the drizzling shits. I've been
11:39raised on the farm and climbing. That's been a part of my life. Bruno wanted to lose the belt to
11:45somebody huge, a big man. So, Billy Graham becomes the transitional champion. He will hold the belt for
11:54almost a year and then he will lose it on such and such date so they can crown their new champion,
12:00the all-American boy Bob Backlund. That's the deal. So, Billy knew the day he was winning it,
12:06he was told. But something happens. Graham wins the title. Even though he's a bad guy,
12:15people start cheering for him. Billy Graham became the hottest box office attraction
12:20in the business. He's selling out Madison Square Garden. Every month there's 25,000 people watching
12:32Billy Graham defend the title. But Vince Sr. always had a plan and he was always regimented. He was
12:39sticking to it, no matter what. It was strictly, we want a babyface as the champion. And Billy was not
12:46going to be that babyface. And this is what led to Billy Graham's downfall.
13:06Superstar Billy Graham's reign as champion ushers in an era of good fortune for his family.
13:12Billy Graham had a very nice house in New York. We had maids in New York. We had a three-story home
13:17in New York. We had a limo. We had a lot of money. I remember going in their bedroom and I found his
13:25championship belt. I'm like, ooh, this is cool. And I took it out and I laid it on the bed. I was
13:30shining his belt so the gold would sparkle and the little gems and then I put it back so I didn't get
13:35in trouble. But for Billy's wife Madeline and their children, those good fortunes prove short-lived.
13:45I know he loved my mother, but there was something going on while he was married to my mother.
13:51I remember him talking to my mom when he told her that he wanted to divorce her. I was hiding behind
13:59the couch. She's crying. And I'm looking at my dad and he's breaking my mother's heart right now,
14:05saying, I'm in love with Valerie.
14:08When I was 18 years old, I met him at an IHOP. It was right next to the hotel where he was staying.
14:16And I would go and sit at the IHOP just to get a glimpse of him. And that particular night,
14:21they came in and sat down at the table next to us and just started talking. Hi, I'm Valerie Coleman,
14:28and I was married to superstar Billy Graham for just short of 45 years. Basically, from the time we
14:35met, we were together all the time. Yeah, it sucked, but it was just really sad watching my parents
14:43break up right in front of me. It was probably almost a year before he told me about his family.
14:55It was devastating. I didn't know what to do. I was very conflicted, but ultimately,
15:03I didn't leave it. And we were married a couple of months later.
15:06With a new wife and a new life, superstar Billy Graham feels on top of the world.
15:15I had a universal appeal. I crossed all lines. I crossed all borders. And I had all types of fans.
15:24And I told him, I said, we're going to have a sellout after sellout after sellout.
15:29But even as superstar pushes himself to deliver,
15:32the demands of being champion wreak havoc on his body. He'd always have pills around. And so when
15:38he would call us, it's clear in his voice that he was definitely on something. Yeah, I mean, he was
15:46in pain, you know, and when you're in pain, you want to take medicine. And unfortunately,
15:52he had that type of personality that he just abused it. He just didn't know how to control it.
15:57He overdosed in his hotel room in New York several times while he was champion. It was all
16:03pharmaceuticals, uppers, downers, trying to get through the pain and just live with it.
16:09He had an overdose in the hotel room. He'd gone into the bathroom and taken a handful of pills
16:15and came out. And all of a sudden, his body rolls over. And he's not breathing at all.
16:21I would call downstairs and I'm begging for them to come help. And this woman comes up and she starts
16:29pounding and beating his chest and screaming, don't die on me. And she's cussing him out. Don't you die
16:34on me. And she's beating him. Paramedics get there and they're trying to use the defibrillators and things
16:39on him. His heart had stopped. They, you know, shocked him back. So, yeah, that was a pretty intense time.
16:50There's pandemonium at night. There's excitement. Look at the people's faces. Look at the people's
16:56expressions. Can you feel it? Look at you. You're excited because I am the champion.
17:01After almost a year as champion, Billy Graham is set to lose the belt to Bob Backlund,
17:08following the plan originally laid out by Vince McMahon Sr. His run was the hottest it ever was.
17:14But I think in his mind, it's like, I'm going to prove them wrong. I'm going to draw so big
17:19that they can't take the title from me. Graham went to Vince Sr. He's like,
17:23how can you do? We're selling out. We're turning them away. The New York promoters had always put
17:28their heavyweight championship on a hero. And Vince Sr. was looking for his next champion,
17:35who was going to be Bob Backlund. He had planned this for a year and a half,
17:39and nothing was going to change his mind. Ask Bobby Backlund when you see him,
17:43how he expects to get out of the superstar group. Ask him, right? Right before he goes out,
17:48before the match, he was trying to get them to change their mind. And they're like,
17:51no, we're going with Bob Backlund.
17:53He was the biggest box office traction in the business. And it was taken away from him. He
18:21couldn't understand why. All the struggles, all the pain, working his way up from nothing
18:28to being champion of the world, then all of a sudden lose it. In his mind, he's like,
18:33what was the point? Did I do something wrong? These guys obviously don't know greatness when
18:38they see it. So it hit him very hard. That's all that there is in this world,
18:42the championship belt, the greatest wrestler on the... Wayne was very, very, his entire life,
18:49a very insecure person. It's kind of hard to believe when you would look at him,
18:53with the physique and everything. But he was very insecure, so he just never could believe
18:59that he was really worth anything. He was beaten down so much growing up, not just the physical,
19:06but also the verbal abuse and being told that you're worthless, you're no good, you'll never be anything,
19:10you're ugly. And he took it. He received that. He accepted that. And he believed it. His entire life
19:18it stayed with him. Being on top, being the champion, carrying that belt meant so much to him. And
19:25when he lost that title, it certainly changed everything from that day forward.
19:29It just flat out was devastating to him. It destroyed his ego.
19:41One day he'd started a big bonfire, burned all of his wrestling gear, boots, his jackets,
19:47his robes, his attire. You know, it's just, uh, he burned everything.
20:07For Billy Graham, losing the championship was more than just a story line. It was a blow to his
20:13self-worth and his confidence. It was everything to Billy. It was his life. It was bigger than I could
20:19even understand. Some guys can't take it. He wasn't mentally capable of seeing the light
20:26in other places. Hi, I'm Steve Kern and I've been in professional wrestling over 40 years. And I've
20:32shared a locker room with superstar Billy Graham. He saw the big money was New York. He was the man.
20:38He had the belt. Now he's beltless. You didn't win that belt. Somebody told you that you're gonna get
20:43that belt. It's not real, the part about you're a champion or you're not a champion. It's not real.
20:51Like a year later, Billy's running a lawn care business or something in Arizona.
20:55You know, wrestling on Friday nights. I mean, it's out of it so much that people thought he died.
21:01It's in the paper. He's dead. Gorilla Monsoon wrote that his tragic news, Billy Graham has died
21:07from cancer. And for a couple of years there, I mean, he was right. That superstar Billy Graham was dead.
21:15When he lost the belt, that was the beginning of his decline. And a lot of it was mental.
21:22We went back to Phoenix and he didn't know about withdrawals. And he just cold turkey,
21:28stopped taking pills on our road trip. And we were in this ran down little hotel in New Mexico.
21:34And he had a grand mal seizure. And I called paramedics and they thought he tried to kill himself.
21:41So he didn't try to kill himself. He was actually trying to live. And instead of going home, he went
21:46into a rehab. But it didn't work. It didn't last. I was so afraid of him dying. And I, you know,
21:56was naive enough to think I could love him back from whatever brink he was on.
22:03Broke and frustrated by his stagnant career,
22:06Graham seeks to reinvent himself and get back into the business that made him famous.
22:12He was so crestfallen that he wanted to reinvent himself and do it in a vindictive style that
22:19would say, screw you. If you didn't want that original superstar, I'm going to give you something
22:24else. He comes back to the WWF bald head, much smaller, looked like a completely different guy.
22:32And he claimed that he had left wrestling and he'd become the world's martial arts champion.
22:36When I'd give him a superstar chop, the people will fall out of their seats, will fall out of their
22:41seats, drop them. I watched him one of the very first times, I think. And I said, what the is he
22:49doing? This isn't the superstar I remember. Superstar Billy Graham.
22:57He would just do karate chops. He'd have a black belt. Just like kind of stood there,
23:01was pretty immobile. It was like really lame. And his wrestling wasn't good at all at that point.
23:06He was covering up his body all of a sudden, like with his judo jacket on, you know,
23:11and he looked kind of hokey, kind of like a guy that fell out of a third grade judo class.
23:18So bad. And he just looks so defeated. He just was not the same person.
23:24It was something he did out of being desperate to get back into the limelight.
23:30Superstar in big trouble. Unfortunately, Billy's body started giving out. He started getting hip
23:36injuries. That was a sad time. I look at him when he was like that, and it just makes me so sad,
23:44because he was so thin. He was so high on pills. And he did not know who he was.
23:50Uh, everything has been said. Everything has been done. All the preparation. Everything is ready.
23:56He just looks so sick to me. It's hard for me to look at him during that time. It really is. I don't
24:02like it. That's one of the darkest times of my life. Wayne started using pain pills and sleeping pills
24:08again. That's when he became emaciated. And I mean, he looked like he was dying. It was a horrible time.
24:14I mean, McMahon had aspirations to push him to the moon. But Billy lost his mojo. It was gone.
24:22Look at this. Look at the chop. Less than a year into his return,
24:26Billy Graham leaves the WWF for a second time. Who knows what the plans were for him?
24:32Because before too long, Hulkamania is running wild. Hulk Hogan, he dropped a big leg on him.
24:38He's down for the cover of the leg. One, two. He's got it. The way the business was growing,
24:44McMahon kind of transitioned into making Hogan his ideal version of superstar Billy Graham and
24:50embellishing that character and creating someone that maybe he felt like he didn't do enough of
24:57for Billy Graham. The pythons are ready for the largest arms in the world. Superstar Billy Graham will
25:02put the 22-inch python arms around your body and squeeze. The promo skills, the posing,
25:09all of that stuff, it came from Billy Graham. Hulk Hogan, he was wearing boas and things like that.
25:17I want to know one thing, brother. Superstar started brother, brother. Hey, brother. Hey,
25:22brother. How you doing, brother? I got the Hulk Hogan war bonnet on now, brother. Literally though,
25:27everything from, you know, the ear, Wayne ripping the shirt off and throwing it out to the crowd.
25:32You name it, he did it. Look at the videos. There's Wayne doing it. You're gonna see a lot
25:36of number one contenders come and go, brother. But there's only one Hulkster. There's only one Hulk
25:41Hogan, daddy. My dad deep down knew that, you know, Hulk was younger and more relevant at the time and
25:48was probably a little jealous. Vince had said that if the Billy Graham of 1974
25:55was around in 1984, he could have been Hulk Hogan. The former World Wrestling Federation
26:08heavyweight champ now working out every day and training with a vision, a vision of being back in
26:14the squared circle. Superstar Billy Graham is on top of his game and the future's mine. The pythons are
26:20back. In 1987, following his first failed attempt to reinvent himself, Billy Graham once again attempts
26:28to come back. Billy's not the same. The fans aren't the same. And Billy was more considered an old timer
26:36by 86 and 87. He tore his body up. He had his ankle fused. They had a steel rod that
26:44went from the bottom of his heel through his leg. My right leg is now approximately one inch
26:51shorter than my left leg. The whole ankle joint had deteriorated from taking a lot of steroids on a
26:56long-term basis. His spine was collapsing. It was an absolute mess. It was the steroids had eaten him up.
27:04Billy was pumping a lot of steroids in his body still. He'd always been on steroids. He was one of the
27:10original users of steroids in wrestling. To him, it was normal. He didn't care, you know, what anybody
27:16thought of him. Because he still, first of all, he knew he had to do the work. Anybody can take steroids,
27:20but not anybody's going to have a physique. I started in the mid-60s. A friend of mine at Arizona State,
27:26a university at the time, he kind of introduced me and some of my friends to steroids. And then we
27:32put on like 35, 40 pounds of muscle. We couldn't believe our eyes. And I started taking steroids then for
27:37power lifting and bodybuilding purposes. He had a big ego and he took loids to look good,
27:45just like Arnold Schwarzenegger did. All the bodybuilders of the 60s and 70s. Anybody in my
27:51industry in the 70s and 80s, they were playing with steroids because they saw the effect on promoters
27:58when they had a better body. He was really struggling mentally with it. I think he wanted
28:05to be who he was back in the 70s and it wasn't going to happen. He would get in these moods,
28:12but he could get really incredibly rageful. He never was physically abusive to me, but he would destroy
28:20the house and he could be very intimidating. So if he wanted a shot in his hip, you know,
28:27I would have to get him the shot, but I would stab him. That was just my only thing I could do. I would
28:33use it like a dagger or a dart and do it as hard as I could. The mental anguish that he was going
28:40through, I'm sure was amplified also by the physical pain of his body and the fact that he wasn't in the
28:47ring. He wasn't wrestling, which is what he wanted to do. Even as he got older, he always talked about
28:54how he lost that belt and that he shouldn't have lost it that soon. I'm like, well, dad,
29:00that's the way that it was supposed to happen. But I think that once he lost that, that was his downfall.
29:07Billy never, ever, ever, ever, ever forgave Vince McMahon Sr. for having him drop the belt to Bob Backlund.
29:17When this segwayed into the early 90s, I think Billy was just going, how can I hurt Vince McMahon?
29:23But to be successful in pro wrestling, it's an absolute must to take steroids.
29:29From 1985 to 1991, McMahon and a doctor conspired to distribute steroids to the wrestlers
29:37to enhance their size and muscle development. Dr. Zavorian was the wrestling commission doctor,
29:44but then he became close to some of the wrestlers and he became their drug supplier of prescription drugs.
29:50He sent through the mail thousands upon thousands of pills just to my husband alone.
29:56He made a ton of money, got very, very rich off of their suffering and their addiction.
30:01Billy testified for the prosecution.
30:05Here was, you know, the former world champion on the witness stand talking about his life
30:12and history with anabolic steroids.
30:14But he didn't go after Vince, he didn't go after Hogan then.
30:17And then Hogan goes on Arsenio Hall.
30:20I saw a guy on a program named Billy Graham. What's up with him?
30:24Well, superstar Billy Graham apparently in the 70s was one of the top wrestlers.
30:29Hulk says something to the effect, oh, he's just like some old time, like that he was nobody,
30:34that he was a nobody. That's when things started changing with Wayne about the way that he felt
30:41about Terry, about Hulk.
30:42And he apparently was a heavy duty steroid abuser.
30:45Graham was furious at Hogan for using his name like that because, hey, Hogan was doing the same
30:52steroids. So Billy was really mad. And so at that point, he went and said that, you know,
30:56Hogan did steroids. I know he did steroids. Of course, he did steroids.
30:59Well, I remember the first night I met Hulk Hogan. It was in a local nightclub in Tampa.
31:05And one night in walks the future Hulk Hogan, Terry Bollet. He said, I want to know two things.
31:11How do I become a professional wrestler? And how do I take steroids?
31:15And Billy had the bitterness against Vince, too. That's how it really manifested. And because of that,
31:22we end up on the Phil Donahue show. Superstar Billy Graham. I'll tell you what, he's won his share.
31:28It's Billy. It's Bruno. It's myself. It's Meltzer. And then we found out that McMahon was,
31:34in fact, going to be there. They want to do a story on steroid use in wrestling.
31:38The tension you could cut with a knife and Billy wanted to unload.
31:42It's the selling of drugs by Dr. George Zahorian that's gone on for 15 years in the World Wrestling
31:4730 years. Billy said, I shot Hogan up with steroids. I've injected the man myself probably
31:52a half a dozen times. And Vince just goes, you're lying. You never shot Hogan up with steroids.
31:57When Vince looks at him and he's a superstar, you know that's not true.
32:01I literally started to cry in the audience. I knew when Wayne was lying.
32:06I think he had an enormous amount of guilt over it after it was all said and done.
32:11He's human. He's just a human being. He's just a man. And he was bitter. And he was hurt.
32:17I mean, when you've been physical since you were 10 years old,
32:21and all of a sudden, he's crippled. And then there's this awful, awful bitterness
32:25towards certain people. And Vince happened to be one of them.
32:34Struggling with addiction and financial ruin, Billy's relationship with his children unravels.
32:40There is a difference between a dad and a father. A father's
32:45somebody who in every aspect is always there for the children. And my father was a dad because
32:52he got my mother pregnant with me. And that's kind of it, really. I mean, I hate to say this,
32:59but my father never really paid child support ever. So my mother went back to working at the bank.
33:05My mom was working a lot, doing two or three jobs. But she would make sure that me and my sister ate.
33:13She always was verbal about how hurt she was. But she loved him until the day she died. I mean,
33:20my mother never remarried. He had moved on. He married Valerie, home love.
33:28We were part of his past life and he never helped us. There was never a father figure in my life.
33:34I never respected the guy as a kid. I never respected him as I got older. He made me very angry
33:42about how he treated myself and my sister and my mom. He got me very angry.
33:45I mean, it was heartbreaking. You know, because I look at him and I love him.
33:51You know, and I just wanted him to want to be with us. And he didn't want it. He just didn't want it.
33:57Joey knew that my dad, I think, loved me more than him. My brother was born sick. He was born with a hole
34:09in his heart. So I think because my brother wasn't perfect, my dad kind of pushed him aside a little
34:15bit. He would forget my brother's birthday all the time because my dad didn't really care about him.
34:22When I was 18, I changed my name from Joseph Cole Coleman to Joseph Michael Meluso because Meluso is my
34:30mom's maiden name. I decided I was moving on from who my dad was in my life and I was hoping it hurt him
34:38when I did it. That destroyed him. It broke his heart completely. He hurt me my entire life. My maid
34:48him upside or mad at me. Tough shit. I don't care. He loved those kids so much. He didn't know how to be
34:58the dad that he wanted to be. He never had a role model. Unfortunately, so much of his life was defined
35:05by his dad. I'm very happy that he found Valerie and they were in love for so long because they truly
35:12were meant to be together. I don't like the fact that he treated us as if we weren't there anymore.
35:19I just knew that my dad was full of shit, but I accepted because I loved him.
35:26But my father was not invited to my wedding, so my brother gave me away.
35:30I was lonely. I was depressed. And I'm telling you, I felt every emotion that you brothers have felt
35:40in your life. Alienated from his children and the world of wrestling, Wayne Coleman returns to his
35:47roots as a preacher. He didn't have anything else and he knew he was good at ministry, so he went back to
35:55that. I think as he got older, he went full blown with the church and maybe to make amends to God
36:02for the sins that he committed in his life. He truly believed, and I believe it as well,
36:11that his true calling was for ministry. Wayne wrote the play called The Empty Ring. It was Wayne's
36:19life story, and it was a wrestling ring, but it was empty for him. There was no fulfillment,
36:25and Jake the Snake played Wayne's part. I wanted my daddy to look me in the eye and say,
36:29son, I'm proud of you. He couldn't do it. One scene was a hotel room, and he overdoses in the scene,
36:39and it shows him like taking the bottle of pills, and it's very dark, and there's a lot of demons all
36:44around Jake. They're swirling, like trying to get him. But ultimately, it's a redemption story,
36:50and it was so emotional for me to watch that because it was so real, you know, and it was his
36:55life, and it's what we lived. You could see like this peace and this joy inside of him.
37:01But even as Graham finds peace, the damage to his body from years of wrestling and drug abuse
37:07continue to take their toll. He had contracted hepatitis from, I think, a cut on his knee
37:14from wrestling is what he told me. The common belief of the doctors is that I
37:21probably attracted hepatitis C from a cold mingling of blood because that's the only way you get it.
37:27And of course, you know, back in the 70s, all the masses were pretty much blood mass back then.
37:34His liver was like turned to a rock. It just, the years of abuse on his body and all the drugs he was
37:39doing. One night, we're laying in bed, and he coughed. And I felt something wet hit me in the face.
37:49And I jump up and turn on the light, and I'm covered in blood. And he was bleeding out.
37:55We got to the hospital, and they said there was nothing they could do for him.
38:00That's when they told us, he's got stage four liver disease. He has to have a transplant.
38:05He was getting sicker and sicker and sicker. And he's like, Capella, I've only got like six weeks max.
38:20Ravaged by hepatitis C, superstar Billy Graham faces a fight for survival, requiring a liver
38:26transplant just to stay alive. Knowing that he might not wake up, he called Vince,
38:34and he just asked him again to forgive him. And he told him that he loved him.
38:37And he thanked him for everything he'd ever done for him. But that tells you his heart,
38:41what was on his mind were the people that he had hurt, you know, people, things he hadn't forgiven
38:48himself for. Vince was gracious enough, and he was very kind, thankfully, because he didn't have to be
38:54even then. But he was. This poor girl had died and donated all her organs that could be donated.
39:03Thank God for that. Because I really thought he was gonna, that was it. That was it for him. And then
39:08short while after that, I told him, I'm never gonna forget all the things that happened in the past
39:15between you and mom, and me and Joey. But I'm an adult now, I'm pregnant, you're going to be a
39:21grandfather, and I can forgive. I was given 21 more years with him. You know, God, for whatever
39:30reason, he had his hand on Wayne's life. And he never let go and he never gave up on him. He was a walking miracle.
39:40In January 2023, after two decades of battling liver and heart issues, Graham is hospitalized once more.
39:50All the times he got sick, I'm like, my dad's always bounced back. I'm not worried about it. And me and
39:54my sister talked for about six months before. She's like, do you think we should go see him? And I'm
39:59like, he's fine. He's fine. He always gets sick. He always gets better.
40:05I was still conflicted if I was going to go or not. I just, I had had enough. You know,
40:11if he dies, he dies. Okay, God's going to take him. And that's just what happens to us. We live, we die.
40:16And, um, you know, as much as he had disappointed me for most of my life, I wanted to make him happy
40:24at the end. For a while, I was like, why the hell should I go see him? Why should I have to put myself
40:30out to go see my father in Arizona when he never did anything for me? I mean, what am I supposed to do?
40:36And then I saw some pictures that Valerie posted. And that's when I saw my dad as my dad. He wasn't
40:46superstar anymore. He's going to die. So that's when I went to go see him. He started actually
40:54telling me some stories about my mom. And it sounded like he was very, uh, very remorseful about how he
41:05treated her. How he wished he could have been a better person. And when I heard that, I knew he
41:11was dying. And I looked at him and his body was, he was just, I hate to say it, but he was so small.
41:20He had no muscle anymore. And I looked at my dad, I'm like, my God, this is not superstar Billy Graham
41:26anymore. My brother had flown out there before I did. So I bought a ticket and I flew out there by
41:36myself. I played him, Bob Dylan. And that meant a lot to him. I put that music on and he closed his
41:43eyes and he put his head back and he got this little faint smile, his best smile that he could give at
41:49the time. And he just was so happy to be listening to Dylan. And it made me happy that I could do that
41:55for him. You know, and the next day, Valerie and I are talking to the doctors and we're like, you know
42:00what, Valerie, it was like, it's time. My sister was with him at the hospital and I was home and I could
42:08hear my dad on the phone. I told him, I said, dad, you know, we've had our problems in life.
42:14We've had a lot of issues with each other. I've hated you for a very long time, but I always
42:20understood you were my dad and I always have loved you. So I just want you to know that I've always
42:25loved you. And the last words he told me, I could hear him trying to get the words out.
42:43He just said, I love you. And that's the last thing.
42:49That's the last thing I heard from my dad.
42:54That's it. And I wasn't a superstar. It was my dad.
42:59He's been gone for 17 months, but there's no relief. There's not. I just miss him. I can't even
43:09describe it. So he was appreciated. He was loved. He was admired. He was respected.
43:16He is superstar Billy Graham.
43:23He's missed. You know, he's missed by so many that he would never have imagined
43:27missing, but he is. It's a tragic story because of somebody who had it all and who lost it all.
43:34I am happy that he had God in his life. I'm not happy about all the other things,
43:38but I am happy that he is my dad. I understand where he was coming from
43:42more now and the job he had and the life that he was trying to have. And we want it to be.
43:46He was superstar Billy Graham.