Dark Side of the Ring S6 Episode 5
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00:00I am the champion! I am the greatest! I am the strongest! This is my belt! I got the truth, baby!
00:10A world-class bodybuilder who revolutionized the business of wrestling, Billy 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. His body was unbelievable.
00:32He 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, and most of them don't even know it.
00:42You're looking at the strongest wrestler in the world today!
00:46Crowned world champion, Graham spiraled after losing the belt.
00:50Superstar Billy Graham lost the title and never recovered. He had it all taken away.
00:55Billy, and 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.
01:11He was at the pinnacle. He was selling out arenas, and then it's yanked from him.
01:16And he couldn't accept it. And for some people, you get that taken away, you don't have a lot left, except for spite.
01:23So he went to war with Vince McMahon. And Vince could squash you 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.
01:35He overcame everything in life from meager beginnings to be the champion of the world, but he killed himself in the process.
01:44There 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.
02:01My dad was always Superstar. Since the day he was born, it was always in him.
02:08He's always been Superstar.
02:10My 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,
02:22and the 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.
02:35He 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,
02:47but 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.
02:57That'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.
03:20In 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.
03:49He had the bleach blonde hair and was legitimately very, very strong guy.
03:54He was very flamboyant.
03:56Whatever it is, Superstar Billy Graham had it.
04:01He had all the charisma.
04:02He had the body.
04:04Most guys look like Chief J Strongbow.
04:07A little bit of a potbelly, 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.
04:20I'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.
04:27He 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.
04:37Look, look, look.
04:39Before making it big in New York,
04:41Billy Graham had first made a name for himself as a teenager growing up in Arizona.
04:47He was a competitive bodybuilder and 1961 was Teenage Mr. America.
04:52He was a born athlete and was self-made.
04:56When he was in his teens, he took to weightlifting
04:59and 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 a belt.
05:21One day my dad was just big enough
05:23and grabbed the belt out of his father's hand
05:26and that's when he knew the beatings were over and they were over
05:29because he showed, look, I'm bigger than you.
05:31Now I'm stronger than you.
05:32You can't beat me anymore.
05:35Eager to put his physical attributes to work,
05:38Wayne Coleman travels from Arizona to Calgary
05:41where a failed attempt at Canadian football stardom leads him to the legendary Stu Hart.
05:49Billy 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.
05:58My 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
06:12that 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
06:21and left and started his career.
06:24Back in Arizona,
06:26a chance encounter with another wrestling legend
06:29sets Wayne Coleman on the path to greatness.
06:32We will be the international tag team champions
06:36The Graham family legacy in wrestling,
06:41it's one of the most famous in the history of the business.
06:44In the early 70s,
06:45Dr. Jerry Graham is broke and drunk
06:48and he thought maybe I need another brother.
06:51I just returned from Calgary
06:53and I said,
06:54I don't have anywhere really to wrestle now
06:57and he said,
06:58but won't you just become another Graham brother?
07:00What name do you want?
07:01I said,
07:02well, I really like the Reverend Billy Graham.
07:04He said,
07:04that's a good name.
07:05You're my youngest brother, Billy Graham.
07:08And superstar Billy Graham is born.
07:11They went to Los Angeles together
07:13and Jerry was just a hopeless drunk.
07:15Jerry lasted a couple of weeks and they fired him,
07:17but Billy had enough charisma that they kept him on.
07:20I am a reflection of perfection.
07:22The number one selection.
07:24You got it.
07:25At that time,
07:26Billy would train at Gold's Gym
07:28like every bodybuilder would
07:29and he was Arnold Schwarzenegger's regular training partner.
07:32They were very close friends.
07:34I was born in June of 1972
07:37and my father was a heel at the time
07:39and some fans had vandalized my father's Cadillac
07:43so he couldn't drive to pick my mother and I up from the hospital.
07:46So Arnold picked up my mom and my sister from the hospital
07:50in his blue Volkswagen bug.
07:52Here's an Arnold picture.
07:53Here's a couple of Arnold pictures.
07:54I'm not sure where that was, but...
07:56I think it was in our apartment on Ocean Avenue.
07:59Probably.
08:00I just found this recently.
08:02This is an original Western Union telegram
08:05that my mother had sent her parents
08:09the day that she married my father.
08:11Whoa.
08:11They went to Vegas.
08:13It's Jim.
08:14Andy Lopes.
08:15Yep.
08:16January 19th, 1971.
08:17This is Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Meluso.
08:19That was my grandfather.
08:20Mom and Dad, Billy and I were just married.
08:22We really love each other.
08:23Please try and understand.
08:24I love you both.
08:25My mother was Madeline Meluso.
08:31She worked in a bank in Southern California
08:35and he came in and thought she was really pretty.
08:39She always loved his smile and he made her laugh a lot.
08:44She fell in love with him.
08:46She thought he was the most handsome man in the world.
08:48She got pregnant with me
08:50and they got an apartment in Santa Monica, California.
08:53She didn't care about the wrestling part of it at all.
09:00She just loved my dad.
09:01I remember Mom tie-dying clothes in our kitchen.
09:06She was a big part of his look.
09:09Mr. Rainbow.
09:10More colors in the rainbow.
09:11The prettiest wrestler in the world.
09:13Billy's Super Star Cream.
09:15Wow.
09:16The look was good and he understood his deal was
09:19posing and flexing and everything,
09:21but it was really the promos.
09:22And I'm going to take out my frustrations.
09:24I'm going to take out my wrath.
09:25I'm going to take out my anger.
09:27He'd been an evangelist in his younger years.
09:30He was a traveling tent show preacher.
09:33My dad started preaching as an evangelist
09:36when he was in his teens.
09:37He went all over Arizona in particular,
09:39speaking at churches and did feats of strength.
09:42When I listen to his promos now,
09:44it's like he's standing in front of a church assembly.
09:47It's the same thing except it's wrestling.
09:51You are the greatest.
09:53You are the strongest.
09:54You are the man of our.
09:56Billy Graham was probably one of the first
09:59to use various catchphrases that he would then start repeating.
10:02I'm the man of our.
10:04The man with the power.
10:05The man with the power.
10:06Too sweet to be sour.
10:08Too sweet to be sour.
10:09I mean, it's legendary stuff.
10:10They were unbelievable promos back then.
10:12These hands can crush coconuts.
10:14These hands can straighten out of horseshoes.
10:16You know what this arm can do?
10:18In 1975, Billy Graham's star is already on the rise
10:23when he gets a call from Vince McMahon Sr.,
10:26New York's top promoter.
10:28He weighed in at 285 pounds.
10:30Super star Billy Graham!
10:34Billy was very, very excited about being
10:36at Madison Square Garden and being in the limelight.
10:41McMahon has a clear vision for the superstar
10:44with a bold plan for the future of the world championship.
10:50Bruno Sammartino is ready to step down
10:53as being the champion.
10:54He'd already had a nine-year run from 63 to 71
10:58and then he was champion again in the mid-70s.
11:01Bruno was a living God to the wrestling fans.
11:04He was so admired and so idolized.
11:08Bruno was so embedded into the history
11:11of the sport and New York,
11:13but it was time for him to drop the strap.
11:16You know, when you've had it for so long and so long,
11:19there has to be a passing of the guard.
11:22Bob Backlund was Vince's guy.
11:24He wanted that squeaky clean guy who could go to schools
11:26and tell kids, don't do drugs, don't smoke.
11:29Bobby Backlund was my tag team partner
11:31before he went up there.
11:33He was a great athlete,
11:34but his promos were the drizzling shit.
11:37I've been raised on the farm
11:39and climbing has been a part of my life.
11:42Bruno wanted to lose the belt
11:44to somebody huge, a big man.
11:47So, Billy Graham becomes the transitional champion.
11:51He will hold the belt for almost a year
11:54and then he will lose it on such and such date
11:56so they can crown their new champion,
11:58the All-American Boy Bob Backlund.
12:01That's the deal.
12:02So, Billy knew the day he was winning it,
12:04he knew the day he was losing it, he was told.
12:06Two, three, I can't, it's over.
12:09But something happens.
12:11Graham wins the title.
12:12Even though he's a bad guy,
12:14people start cheering for him.
12:15Billy Graham became the hottest box office attraction
12:18in the business.
12:21He's selling out Madison Square Garden.
12:23The winner of the month
12:24and still champion, Superstar.
12:28Every month, there's 25,000 people
12:31watching Billy Graham defend the title.
12:34But Vince Senior always had a plan
12:36and he was always regimented.
12:38He was sticking to it, no matter what.
12:40It was strictly, we want a babyface as the champion.
12:44And Billy was not going to be that babyface.
12:46And this is what led to Billy Graham's downfall.
13:06Superstar Billy Graham's reign as champion
13:09ushers in an era of good fortune for his family.
13:12We had a very nice house in New York.
13:14We had maids in New York.
13:16We had a three-story home in New York.
13:17We had a limo.
13:18We had a lot of money.
13:20I remember going in their bedroom
13:23and I found his championship belt.
13:25I'm like, ooh, this is cool.
13:27And I took it out and I laid it on the bed.
13:29I was shining his belt so the gold would sparkle
13:32and the little gems and then I put it back
13:34so I didn't get in trouble.
13:36But for Billy's wife Madeline and their children,
13:39those good fortunes prove short-lived.
13:42I know he loved my mother,
13:46but there was something going on
13:48while he was married to my mother.
13:50I remember him talking to my mom
13:54when he told her that he wanted to divorce her.
13:57I was hiding behind the couch.
13:59She's crying and I'm looking at my dad
14:03and he's breaking my mother's heart right now
14:05saying I'm in love with Valerie.
14:07When I was 18 years old,
14:09I met him at an IHOP.
14:11It was right next to the hotel
14:13where he was staying
14:15and I would go and sit at the IHOP
14:18just to get a glimpse of him
14:19and that particular night,
14:21they came in and sat down at the table next to us
14:23and just started talking.
14:24Hi, I'm Valerie Coleman
14:27and I was married to Superstar Billy Graham
14:29for just short of 45 years.
14:32Basically, from the time we met,
14:35we were together all the time.
14:37Yeah, it sucked,
14:38but it was just really sad
14:42watching my parents break up
14:44right in front of me.
14:46It was probably almost a year
14:50before he told me about his family.
14:54It was devastating.
14:56I didn't know what to do.
14:58I was very conflicted,
15:00but ultimately,
15:02I didn't leave him
15:04and we were married a couple of months later.
15:09With a new wife and a new life,
15:12Superstar Billy Graham feels on top of the world.
15:15I had a universal appeal.
15:18I crossed all lines,
15:19I crossed all borders
15:21and I had all types of fans
15:23and I told him,
15:24I said,
15:25we're going to have a sellout
15:26after sellout after sellout.
15:28But even as Superstar pushes himself to deliver,
15:31the demands of being champion
15:33wreak havoc on his body.
15:35He'd always have pills around
15:37and so when he would call us,
15:39it's clear in his voice
15:41that he was definitely on something.
15:44Yeah, I mean he was in pain,
15:46you know,
15:47and when you're in pain,
15:48you want to take medicine
15:50and unfortunately,
15:51he had that type of personality
15:53that he just abused it.
15:55He just didn't know how to control it.
15:56He overdosed in his hotel room in New York
15:59several times while he was champion.
16:02It was all pharmaceuticals,
16:03uppers, downers,
16:04trying to get through the pain
16:06and just live with it.
16:08He had an overdose in the hotel room.
16:11He had gone into the bathroom
16:12and taken a handful of pills
16:13and came out
16:15and all of a sudden
16:16his body rolls over
16:18and he's not breathing at all.
16:23I call downstairs
16:24and I'm begging for them to come help
16:26and this woman comes up
16:28and she starts pounding
16:29and beating his chest
16:30and screaming,
16:30don't die on me
16:31and she's cussing him out
16:32and don't you die on me
16:33and she's beating him.
16:34Paramedics get there
16:36and they're trying to use
16:37the defibrillators and things on him.
16:39His heart had stopped.
16:41They, you know, shocked him back.
16:44So, yeah, that was a pretty intense time.
16:48There's pandemonium tonight.
16:52There's excitement.
16:53Look at the people's faces.
16:54Look at the people's expressions.
16:56Can you feel?
16:57Look at you.
16:58You're excited
16:59because I am the champion.
17:01After almost a year as champion,
17:03Billy Graham is set to lose the belt
17:05to Bob Backlund
17:06following the plan originally laid out
17:09by Vince McMahon Sr.
17:10His run was the hottest it ever was
17:12but I think in his mind
17:14it's like I'm going to prove them wrong.
17:16I'm going to draw so big
17:18that they can't take the title from me.
17:20Graham went to Vince Sr.
17:21He's like, how can you do?
17:22We're selling out.
17:23We're turning them away.
17:24The New York promoters
17:26had always put their heavyweight championship
17:29on a hero.
17:31And Vince Sr. was looking for his next champion
17:34who was going to be Bob Backlund.
17:36He had planned this for a year and a half
17:38and nothing was going to change his mind.
17:40Ask Bobby Backlund when you see him
17:42how he expects to get out of the Superstar Berg.
17:45Ask him right when...
17:46Right before he goes out, before the match
17:48he was trying to get them to change their mind.
17:50And they're like, no, we're going with Bob Backlund.
17:52NCAA collegiate title now.
17:53Playout, turn it off.
17:54Bob Backlund.
17:56I hate that guy.
17:58He was the biggest box office attraction in the business.
18:18And it was taken away from him.
18:20He couldn't understand why.
18:23All the struggles, all the pain,
18:25working his way up from nothing
18:27to being champion of the world,
18:29then all of a sudden lose it.
18:31In his mind, he's like, what was the point?
18:33Did I do something wrong?
18:35These guys obviously don't know greatness when they see it.
18:38So it hit him very hard.
18:39That's all that there is in this world
18:41is the championship belt,
18:43the greatest wrestler on the...
18:45Wayne was very, very, his entire life,
18:48a very insecure person.
18:50It's kind of hard to believe when you would look at him,
18:52with the physique and everything.
18:54But he was very insecure,
18:56so he just never could believe
18:58that he was really worth anything.
19:00He was beaten down so much growing up.
19:04Not just the physical, but also the verbal abuse
19:06and being told that you're worthless, you're no good,
19:08you'll never be anything, you're ugly.
19:10And he took it.
19:12He received that.
19:13He accepted that.
19:14You know, and he believed it.
19:16His entire life had stayed with him.
19:20Being on top, being the champion,
19:22carrying that belt meant so much to him.
19:24And when he lost that title,
19:26it certainly changed everything from that day forward.
19:30It just flat out was devastating to him.
19:33It destroyed his ego.
19:37One day he'd started a big bonfire.
19:41Burned all of his wrestling gear.
19:43Boots, his jackets, his robes, his attire.
19:48You know, just...
19:50He burned everything.
19:52For Billy Graham, losing the championship
20:09was more than just a storyline.
20:11It was a blow to his self-worth and his confidence.
20:15It was everything to Billy.
20:16It was his life.
20:17It was bigger than I could even understand.
20:20Some guys can't take it.
20:22He wasn't mentally capable of seeing the light
20:26in other places.
20:27Hi, I'm Steve Kernan.
20:29I've been in professional wrestling over 40 years.
20:31And I've shared a locker room with superstar Billy Graham.
20:34He saw the big money was New York.
20:37He was the man.
20:38He had the belt.
20:39Now he's beltless.
20:40You know, when that belt somebody told you
20:42that you're gonna get that belt.
20:43It's not real the part about you're a champion
20:46or you're not a champion.
20:48It's not real.
20:50Like a year later, Billy's running a lawn care business
20:53or something in Arizona.
20:55You know, wrestling on Friday nights.
20:57I mean, it's out of it so much that people thought he died.
21:01It's in the paper.
21:02He's dead.
21:03Gorilla Monsoon wrote that his tragic news,
21:06Billy Graham has died from cancer.
21:08And for a couple of years there, I mean, he was right.
21:12That superstar Billy Graham was dead.
21:15When he lost the belt, that was the beginning of his decline.
21:19And a lot of it was mental.
21:21We went back to Phoenix.
21:23And he didn't know about withdrawals.
21:26And he just cold turkey stopped taking pills on our road trip.
21:30And we were in this ran down little hotel in New Mexico.
21:33And he had a grand mal seizure.
21:36And I called paramedics and they thought he tried to kill himself.
21:40So when he didn't try to kill himself, he was actually trying to live.
21:43And instead of going home, he went into a rehab.
21:47But it didn't work.
21:48It didn't last.
21:49I was so afraid of him dying.
21:53And I, you know, was naive enough to think I could love him back from whatever brink he was on.
22:03Broke and frustrated by his stagnant career, Graham seeks to reinvent himself and get back into the business that made him famous.
22:11He was so crestfallen that he wanted to reinvent himself and do it in a vindictive style that would say screw you if you didn't want that original superstar.
22:23I'm going to give you something else.
22:25He 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 give him the superstar a chop, the people will fall out of their seats, will fall out of their seats, drop them.
22:42I watched him one of the very first times, I think.
22:46And I said, what the is he doing?
22:49This isn't the superstar I remember.
22:52Superstar Billy Graham.
22:57He would just do karate chops, he'd have a black belt.
22:59Just like kind of stood there, was pretty immobile.
23:01You know, it was like really lame and his wrestling wasn't good at all at that point.
23:05He 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.
23:17So bad.
23:18He just looked so defeated.
23:20He just was not the same person.
23:23It was something he did out of being desperate to get back into the limelight.
23:30Superstar in big trouble!
23:32Unfortunately, Billy's body started giving out.
23:34He started getting hip injuries.
23:36That was a sad time.
23:38I look at him when he was like that and it just makes me so sad because he was so thin.
23:45He was so high on pills.
23:47And he did not know who he was.
23:49Everything has been said.
23:51Everything has been done.
23:53All the preparation.
23:54Everything is ready.
23:56He just looks so sick to me.
23:58It's hard for me to look at him during that time.
24:01It really is.
24:02I don't like it.
24:03That's one of the darkest times of my life.
24:05When he started using pain pills and sleeping pills again.
24:08That's when he became emaciated.
24:10I mean, he looked like he was dying.
24:13It was a horrible time.
24:15I mean, McMahon had aspirations to push him to the moon.
24:18But Billy lost his mojo.
24:20It was gone.
24:21Look at this!
24:22Look at the chop!
24:23Less than a year into his return, Billy Graham leaves the WWF for a second time.
24:29Who knows what the plans were for him?
24:31Because before too long, Huckle Mania is running wild.
24:35Hulk Hogan!
24:36He dropped the big leg on him!
24:38He's now for the cover of the leg!
24:39One!
24:40Two!
24:41He's got it!
24:42The way the business was growing, McMahon kind of transitioned into making Hogan his ideal
24:48version of Superstar Billy Graham and embellishing that character and creating someone that maybe
24:54he felt like he didn't do enough of for Billy Graham.
24:57The pythons are ready!
24:58The largest arms in the world!
25:00Superstar Billy Graham will put the 22-inch python arms around your body.
25:04and squeeze!
25:06The promo skills, the posing, all of that stuff, it came from Billy Graham.
25:12Hulk Hogan, he was wearing boas and things like that.
25:16I want to know one thing, brother!
25:18Superstar started Brother Brother!
25:20Hey, brother!
25:21Hey, brother!
25:22How you doing, brother?
25:23I got the Hulk Hogan war bonnet on now, brother!
25:25Literally, though, everything from, you know, the ear, Wayne ripping the shirt off and throwing
25:30it out to the crowd.
25:31You name it, he did it.
25:33Look at the videos!
25:34There's Wayne doing it!
25:35You're gonna see a lot of number one contenders come and go, brother!
25:38But there's only one Hulkster!
25:39There's only one Hulk Hogan, daddy!
25:41My dad, deep down, knew that Hulk was younger and more relevant at the time and was probably
25:48a little jealous.
25:50Vince had said that if the Billy Graham of 1974 was around in 1984, he could have been Hulk
25:58Hogan.
25:59The former World Wrestling Federation heavyweight champ now working out every day and training
26:12with a vision.
26:13A vision of being back in the squared circle.
26:16Superstar Billy Graham is on top of his game and the future is mine.
26:20The Pythons are back!
26:21In 1987, following his first failed attempt to reinvent himself, Billy Graham once again
26:28attempts a comeback.
26:29Billy's not the same.
26:30The fans aren't the same.
26:32And Billy was more considered an old timer by 86 and 87.
26:39He tore his body up.
26:41He had his ankle fused.
26:43They had a steel rod that went from the bottom of his heel through his leg.
26:48My right leg is now approximately one inch shorter than my left leg.
26:53The whole ankle joint had deteriorated from taking a lot of steroids on a long-term basis.
26:58His spine was collapsing.
27:00It was an absolute mess.
27:01It was the steroids had eaten him up.
27:04Billy was pumping a lot of steroids in his body still.
27:08He'd always been on steroids.
27:10He was one of the original users of steroids in wrestling.
27:13To him, it was normal.
27:14He didn't care, you know, what anybody thought of him.
27:17Because he still, first of all, he knew he had to do the work.
27:19Anybody can take steroids, but not anybody's going to have a physique.
27:22I started in the mid-60s, a friend of mine at Arizona State University at the time.
27:28He kind of introduced me and some of my friends to steroids.
27:31And then we put on like 35, 40 pounds of muscle.
27:34We couldn't believe our eyes.
27:35And I started taking steroids then for powerlifting and bodybuilding purposes.
27:40He had a big ego.
27:42And he took roids that looked good.
27:45Just like Arnold Schwarzenegger did.
27:47All the bodybuilders of the 60s and 70s.
27:50Anybody in my industry in the 70s and 80s, they were playing with steroids.
27:55Because they saw the effect on promoters when they had a better body.
28:01He was really struggling mentally with it.
28:04I think he wanted to be who he was back in the 70s.
28:07And it wasn't going to happen.
28:10He would get in these moods.
28:12He could get really incredibly rageful.
28:14He never was physically abusive to me, but he would destroy the house.
28:21And he could be very intimidating.
28:23So if he wanted a shot in his hip, you know, I would have to give him the shot.
28:29But I would stab him.
28:31That was just my only thing I could do.
28:33I would use it like a dagger or a dart and do it as hard as I could.
28:37The mental anguish that he was going through, I'm sure, was amplified also by the physical pain of his body.
28:45And the fact that he wasn't in the ring.
28:48He wasn't wrestling, which is what he wanted to do.
28:52Even as he got older, he always talked about how he lost that belt.
28:56And that he shouldn't have lost it that soon.
28:59I'm like, well, Dad, that's the way that it was supposed to happen.
29:02But I think that once he lost that, that was his downfall.
29:08Billy never, ever, ever, ever, ever forgave Vince McMahon Sr.
29:14For 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?
29:24To be successful in pro wrestling is an absolute must to take steroids.
29:29From 1985 to 1991, McMahon and a doctor conspired to distribute steroids to the wrestlers to enhance their size and muscle development.
29:39Dr. 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 and 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.
30:19I 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, that he was a nobody.
30:35That's when things started changing with Wayne about the way that he felt about Terry, about Hulk.
30:41And he apparently was a heavy duty steroid abuser.
30:45Graham was furious at Hogan for using his name like that because Hogan was doing the same steroids.
30:52So Billy was really mad. And so at that point, he went and said that Hogan did steroids.
30:57I know he did steroids. Of course, he did steroids.
30:59Well, I remember the first night I met Hulk Hogan. It was at a local nightclub in Tampa.
31:05And one night in walks the future Hulk Hogan, Terry Bolle. He said, I want to know two things.
31:10How 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.
31:20And because of that, we end up on the Phil Donahue show.
31:23Superstar Billy Graham. I'll tell you what, he's won his share.
31:27It's Billy. It's Bruno. It's myself. It's Meltzer.
31:31And then we found out that McMahon was, in fact, going to be there.
31:35They want to do a story on steroid use in wrestling.
31:38The tension you could cut with a knife, and Billy wanted to unload.
31:41The selling of drugs by Dr. George Zahorian that's gone on for 15 years in the World Wrestling Federation.
31:46Billy said, I shot Hogan up with steroids.
31:49I've injected the man myself probably a half a dozen times.
31:52And Vince just goes, you're lying. You never shot Hogan up with steroids.
31:56When Vince looks at him and he says, this is a superstar. You know that's not true.
32:00I 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.
32:15And he was bitter. And he was hurt.
32:17I mean, when you've been physical since you were 10 years old, and all of a sudden he's crippled.
32:22And then there's this awful, awful bitterness towards certain people.
32:26And Vince happened to be one of them.
32:35Struggling with addiction and financial ruin, Billy's relationship with his children unravels.
32:41There is a difference between a dad and a father.
32:44A father's somebody who, in every aspect, is always there for the children.
32:49And my father was a dad because he got my mother pregnant with me.
32:54And that's kind of it, really.
32:57I mean, I hate to say this, but my father never really paid child support ever.
33:02So my mother went back to working at the bank.
33:05My mom was working a lot, doing two or three jobs.
33:09But she would make sure that me and my sister ate.
33:13She always was verbal about how hurt she was.
33:17But she loved him until the day she died.
33:20I mean, my mother never remarried.
33:24He'd moved on. He'd married Valerie, home love.
33:27We were part of his past life, and he never helped us.
33:32There was never a father figure in my life.
33:35I never respected the guy as a kid.
33:37I never respected him as I got older.
33:39He made me very angry about how he treated myself and my sister and my mom.
33:44He made me very angry.
33:47I mean, it was heartbreaking.
33:49You know, because I look at him and I love him.
33:51You know, and I just wanted him to want to be with us.
33:54And he didn't want it.
33:57He just didn't want it.
34:01Joey knew that my dad, I think, loved me more than him.
34:06My brother was born sick.
34:08He was born with a hole in his heart.
34:10So I think because my brother wasn't perfect,
34:12my dad kind of pushed him aside a little bit.
34:16He would forget my brother's birthday all the time.
34:19Because my dad didn't really care about him.
34:24When I was 18, I changed my name from Joseph Cole Coleman to Joseph Michael Meluso.
34:29Because Meluso was my mom's maiden name.
34:32I decided I was moving on from who my dad was in my life.
34:37And I was hoping it hurt him when I did it.
34:40That destroyed him.
34:42It broke his heart completely.
34:45He hurt me my entire life.
34:48My mate, I'm upset or mad at me.
34:50Tough shit, I don't care.
34:51He loved those kids so much.
34:55He didn't know how to be the dad that he wanted to be.
34:59He never had a role model.
35:02Unfortunately, so much of his life was defined by his dad.
35:06I'm very happy that he found Valerie and they were in love for so long.
35:11Because they truly were meant to be together.
35:13I don't like the fact that he treated us as if we weren't there anymore.
35:18I just knew that my dad was full of shit.
35:22But I accepted because I loved him.
35:25But my father was not invited to my wedding.
35:29So my brother gave me away.
35:31I was lonely.
35:35I was depressed.
35:37And I'm telling you, I felt every emotion that you brothers have felt in your life.
35:42Alienated from his children and the world of wrestling,
35:46Wayne Coleman returns to his roots as a preacher.
35:49He didn't have anything else.
35:51And he knew he was good at ministry.
35:53So he went back to that.
35:56I think as he got older, he went full blown with the church.
35:59And maybe to make amends to God for the sins that he committed in his life.
36:06He truly believed, and I believe it as well, that his true calling was for ministry.
36:15Wayne wrote the play called The Empty Ring.
36:18It was Wayne's life story.
36:20And it was a wrestling ring.
36:22But it was empty for him.
36:23There was no fulfillment.
36:25And Jake the Snake played Wayne's part.
36:27I wanted my daddy to look me in the eye and say, son, I'm proud of you.
36:32But he couldn't do it.
36:34One scene was a hotel room.
36:36And he overdoses in the scene.
36:38And it shows him, like, taking the bottle of pills.
36:41And it's very dark.
36:42And there's a lot of demons all around Jake.
36:45They're swirling, like, trying to get him.
36:47But ultimately, it's a redemption story.
36:50And it was so emotional for me to watch that because it was so real.
36:54You know?
36:55And it was his life.
36:56And it's what we lived.
36:57You can see, like, this peace and this joy inside of him.
37:00But even as Graham finds peace, the damage to his body from years of wrestling and drug abuse continue to take their toll.
37:09He had contracted hepatitis from, I think, a cut on his knee from wrestling, is what he told me.
37:18The common belief of the doctors is that I probably attracted hepatitis C from a cold mingling of blood because that's the only way you get it.
37:28And, 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.
37:36It just, the years of abuse on his body and all the drugs he was doing.
37:41One night, we're laying in bed, and he coughed.
37:44And 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.
37:52And he was bleeding out.
37:54We 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 4 liver disease.
38:04He has to have a transplant.
38:06He was getting sicker and sicker and sicker.
38:09And he's like, Capella, I've only got, like, six weeks.
38:14Max.
38:21Ravaged by hepatitis C, superstar Billy Graham faces a fight for survival, requiring a liver transplant just to stay alive.
38:30Knowing 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.
38:38And he thanked him for everything he'd ever done for him.
38:41But that tells you his heart.
38:42What was on his mind were the people that he had hurt.
38:45You know, people, things he hadn't forgiven himself for.
38:50Vince was gracious enough, and he was very kind, thankfully.
38:54Because he didn't have to be even then.
38:56But he was.
38:57This poor girl had died and donated all her organs that could be donated.
39:03Thank God for that.
39:05Because I really thought he was gonna, that was it.
39:07That was it for him.
39:08And then, short while after that, I told him, I'm never gonna forget all the things that happened in the past between you and mom and me and Joey.
39:19But I'm an adult now.
39:20I'm pregnant.
39:21You're going to be a grandfather.
39:23And I can forgive.
39:25I was given 21 more years with him.
39:30You know, God, for whatever reason, he had his hand on Wayne's life.
39:33And he never let go, and he never gave up on him.
39:36He was a walking miracle.
39:41In 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.
39:54I'm not worried about it.
39:55And me and my sister talked for about six months before.
39:58She's like, do you think we should go see him?
40:00And I'm like, he's fine.
40:02He's fine.
40:03He always gets sick.
40:04He always gets better.
40:06I was still conflicted if I was gonna go or not.
40:09I just, I had had enough.
40:11You know, if he dies, he dies.
40:13Okay, God's gonna take him.
40:14And that's just what happens to us.
40:16We live, we die.
40:17And, you know, as much as he had disappointed me for most of my life,
40:23I wanted to make him happy at the end.
40:26For a while, I was like, why the hell should I go see him?
40:30Why should I have to put myself out to go see my father in Arizona when he never did anything for me?
40:36I mean, what am I supposed to do?
40:39And then I saw some pictures that Valerie posted.
40:42And that's when I saw my dad as my dad.
40:47He wasn't a superstar anymore.
40:49He is going to die.
40:51So that's when I went to go see him.
40:54He started actually telling me some stories about my mom.
40:59And it sounded like he was very, very remorseful about how he treated her.
41:07How he wished he could have been a better person.
41:09And when I heard that, I knew he was dying.
41:12And 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.
41:22And I looked at my dad, I'm like, oh my God, this is not superstar Billy Graham anymore.
41:29My brother had flown out there before I did.
41:33So I bought a ticket and I flew out there by myself.
41:38I played him, Bob Dylan.
41:40And that meant a lot to him.
41:42I put that music on and he closed his eyes and he put his head back.
41:45And he got this little faint smile, his best smile that he could give at the time.
41:50And he just was so happy to be listening to Dylan.
41:53And it made me happy that I could do that for him.
41:56You know, the next day, Valerie and I are talking to the doctors and we're like, you know what, Valerie, it was like, it's time.
42:05My sister was with him at the hospital and I was home and I could hear my dad on the phone.
42:11I 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.
42:16I've hated you for a very long time, but I always understood you were my dad and I always have loved you.
42:23So I just want you to know that I've always loved you.
42:26And the last words he told me, I could hear him trying to get the words out.
42:43He just said, I love you.
42:45And that's the last thing.
42:46That's the last thing I heard from my dad.
42:50That's the last thing I heard from my dad.
42:54That was it.
42:56And I wasn't a superstar.
42:58It was my dad.
43:02He's been gone for 17 months, but there's no relief.
43:07There's not.
43:08I just miss him.
43:09I can't even describe it.
43:10So.
43:13He was appreciated.
43:14He was loved.
43:15He was admired.
43:16He was respected.
43:18He is superstar Billy Graham.
43:23He's missed.
43:24You know, he's missed by so many that he would never have imagined missing.
43:28But he is.
43:29It'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.
43:36I'm not happy about all the other things, but I am happy that he is my dad.
43:40I understand where he was coming from more now and the job he had and the life that he was trying to have and who he wanted to be.
43:46He was super star Billy Graham.