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