Stu
Categoría
🥇
DeportesTranscripción
00:00¡Suscríbete al canal!
00:30His body was unbelievable.
00:32He was so far ahead of his time.
00:34He was an icon, but he was imitated so much.
00:37Every time you watch a wrestling show, Billy Graham influences all of them.
00:41And 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.
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.
01:06The 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.
01:16And he couldn't accept it.
01:18And 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.
01:26And 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.
01:57Look at the size of those upper arms.
01:59Ladies 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 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, there's superstar, there's superstar, there's 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.
02:53Always 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.
02:59I'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 so you can see superstar Billy Graham in living, living color.
03:19In the late 1970s, superstar Billy Graham was on top of the world, redefining 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.
03:41Nobody in that era, like, nobody looked like him.
03:46I'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 a 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.
04:05Most guys look like Chief J Strongbow.
04:07A little bit of a potbelly, a little bit flabby arms, but Billy had a physique that was phenomenal.
04:16The 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, but 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.
04:33This is the beauty of a champion. This is the brains of a champion.
04:37Look, look, look.
04:39Before making it big in New York, Billy 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.
04:55When 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.
05:08I think that was just what made him feel good. It probably gave him some strength.
05:12When 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.
05:27And that's when he knew the beatings were over and they were over.
05:30Because he showed, look, I'm bigger than you, now I'm stronger than you. You can't beat me anymore.
05:33Eager 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.
05:49Billy walks into the gym and meets Stu. Stu'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.
06:09There'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.
06:25Back in Arizona, a chance encounter with another wrestling legend
06:30sets Wayne Coleman on the path to greatness.
06:32We 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.
06:39The 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.
06:49And 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 why don't you just become another Graham brother?
07:01What name do you want?
07:01I said, well, I really like the Reverend Billy Graham.
07:04He said, that's a good name.
07:05You'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.
07:16Jerry lasted a couple of weeks and they fired him, but Billy had enough charisma that they kept him on.
07:20I am a reflection of perfection.
07:23The number one selection.
07:24You 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.
07:33They were very close friends.
07:35I 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.
07:47So Arnold picked up my mom and my sister from the hospital in his blue Volkswagen Bug.
07:53Here's an Arnold picture.
07:54Here'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.
08:00Probably.
08:01I 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.
08:11They went to Vegas.
08:13It's January 19th, 1971.
08:16This is Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Meluso.
08:18That was my grandfather.
08:20Mom and Dad, Billy and I were just married.
08:22We really love each other.
08:23Please try and understand.
08:25I love you both.
08:27My mother was Madeleine Meluso.
08:32She worked in a bank in Southern California.
08:36And he came in and thought she was really pretty.
08:41She always loved his smile.
08:44And he made her laugh a lot.
08:46She fell in love with him.
08:47She 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.
08:56She didn't care about the wrestling part of it at all.
09:00She just loved my dad.
09:01I remember Mom tie-dyeing clothes in our kitchen.
09:07She 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 Superstar Green.
09:15Wow.
09:16The look was good and he understood his deal was posing 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.
09:26I'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.
09:35My 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.
09:55You are the man of power.
09:56Billy Graham was probably one of the first to use various catchphrases that he would then start repeating.
10:03I'm the man of power.
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.
10:13These 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 Sr., New York's top promoter.
10:29He weighed in at 285 pounds.
10:32Super star 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.
10:50Bruno 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.
11:09Bruno 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.
11:35But 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.
11:52He will hold the belt for almost a year.
11:55And then he will lose it on such and such date so 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, he knew the day he was losing it.
12:06He was told.
12:07One, two, three, I can't, it's over.
12:10But something happens.
12:12Graham wins the title.
12:14Even though he's a bad guy, people start cheering for him.
12:17Billy 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, the superstar.
12:28Every month, there's 25,000 people watching Billy Graham defend the title.
12:33But Vince Sr. always had a plan.
12:36And he was always regimented.
12:38He was sticking to it, no matter what.
12:39It 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.
12:49Superstar Billy Graham's reign as champion ushers 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.
13:18We had a limo.
13:19We had a lot of money.
13:22I remember going in their bedroom.
13:24And I found his championship belt.
13:26I'm like, ooh, this is cool.
13:28And I took it out.
13:28And I laid it on the bed.
13:30And I was shining his belt.
13:31So the gold would sparkle and the little gems.
13:34And then I put it back so I didn't get in trouble.
13:37But for Billy's wife, Madeline, and their children, those good fortunes prove short-lived.
13:45I know he loved my mother.
13:46But 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.
13:58I was hiding behind the couch.
14:00She's crying.
14:02And I'm looking at my dad.
14:03And he's breaking my mother's heart right now saying, I'm in love with Valerie.
14:08When I was 18 years old, I met him at an IHOP.
14:12It 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.
14:20And that particular night, they came in and sat down at the table next to us and just started talking.
14:26Hi, I'm Valerie Coleman.
14:28And I was married to superstar Billy Graham for just short of 45 years.
14:33Basically, from the time we met, we were together all the time.
14:37Yeah, it sucked.
14:40But it was just really sad watching my parents break up right in front of me.
14:45It was probably almost a year before he told me about his family.
14:55It was devastating.
14:57I didn't know what to do.
14:58I was very conflicted.
15:01But ultimately, I didn't leave him.
15:04And 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.
15:18I crossed all lines.
15:20I crossed all borders.
15:21And I had all types of fans.
15:24And I told him, I said, we're going to have a sellout after sellout after sellout.
15:27But even as superstar pushes himself to deliver, the demands of being champion wreak havoc on his body.
15:36He'd always have pills around.
15:38And so when he would call us, it's clear in his voice that he was definitely on something.
15:45I mean, he was in pain, you know.
15:47And 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 had 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 have a call downstairs, and I'm begging for them to come help.
16:27And this woman comes up, and 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.
16:34And paramedics get there, and they're trying to use the defibrillators and things on him.
16:40His heart had stopped.
16:42They, you know, shocked him back.
16:45So, yeah, that was a pretty intense time.
16:50There's pandemonium tonight.
16:52There's excitement.
16:53Look at the people's faces.
16:55Look at the people's expressions.
16:56Can you feel it?
16:57Look at you.
16:58You're excited.
16:59Because I am the champion.
17:00After almost a year as champion, Billy Graham is set to lose the belt to Bob Backlund, following 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. He'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.
17:31And 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 the Superstar Berg.
17:46Ask him right when...
17:46Right 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.
17:51He was the biggest box office traction in the business, and it was taken away from him.
18:20He couldn't understand why.
18:23All 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 is the championship belt, the greatest wrestler on the...
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.
18:54But he was very insecure, so he just never could believe that he was really worth anything.
19:00He was beaten down so much growing up, not just the physical, but also the verbal abuse,
19:06and being told that you're worthless, you're no good, you'll never be anything, you're ugly.
19:11And he took it.
19:12He received that.
19:13He accepted that.
19:15You know, and he believed it.
19:16His entire life had stayed with him.
19:18Being 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.
19:34It destroyed his ego.
19:37One day he had started a big bonfire.
19:42Burned all of his wrestling gear, boots, his jackets, his robes, his attire.
19:49You know, it just, he burned everything.
19:52For Billy Graham, losing the championship was more than just a storyline.
20:12It was a blow to his self-worth and his confidence.
20:15It was everything to Billy.
20:17It was his life.
20:18It was bigger than I could even understand.
20:20Some guys can't take it.
20:23He wasn't mentally capable of seeing the light in other places.
20:28Hi, I'm Steve Kern, and I've been in professional wrestling over 40 years.
20:32And I've shared a locker room with superstar Billy Graham.
20:35He saw the big money was New York.
20:37He was the man.
20:38He had the belt.
20:39Now he's beltless.
20:41You know, when that belt, somebody told you that you're going to get that belt.
20:44It's not real, the part about you're a champion or you're not a champion.
20:48It's not real.
20:50Like a year later, Billy's running a lawn care business or something in Arizona.
20:55You know, wrestling on Friday nights.
20:57I mean, he's out of it so much that people thought he died.
21:01It's in the paper he's dead.
21:04Gorilla Monsoon wrote that his tragic news, Billy Graham has died from cancer.
21:08And for a couple of years there, I mean, he was right that 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.
21:21We 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.
21:38And they thought he tried to kill himself.
21:41So he didn't try to kill himself.
21:42He was actually trying to live.
21:44And 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.
22:10He was so crestfallen that he wanted to reinvent himself and do it in a vindictive style that would say,
22:20screw you if you didn't want that original superstar.
22:23I'm going to give you something else.
22:26He 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 chop, the people will fall out of their seats, will fall out of their seats, drop them.
22:43I watched him one of the very first times, I think.
22:47And I said, what the f*** is he doing?
22:49This isn't the superstar I remember.
22:53Superstar Billy Graham.
22:57He would just do karate chops, he'd have a black belt.
23:00Just like kind of stood there, was pretty immobile.
23:02It 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.
23:19And 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.
23:30Superstar in big trouble.
23:32Unfortunately, Billy's body started giving out.
23:34He started getting hip injuries.
23:37That was a sad time.
23:39I look at him when he was like that and it just makes me so sad because he was so thin.
23:46He was so high on pills.
23:48And he did not know who he was.
23:50Everything has been said.
23:52Everything has been done.
23:54All the preparation.
23:55Everything 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.
24:02That's one of the darkest times of my life.
24:05Wayne started using pain pills and sleeping pills again.
24:09That's when he became emaciated.
24:11I 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.
24:21It was gone.
24:22Look 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, he drops a big leg on him.
24:38He's not for the cover of the leg.
24:40One, two, he'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, 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.
25:13Hulk Hogan, he was wearing boas and things like that.
25:17I want to know one thing, brother.
25:18Superstar started brother, brother.
25:21Hey, 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.
25:32You name it, he did it.
25:33Look at the videos.
25:34There's Wayne doing it.
25:35You're going to 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, you know, Hulk was younger and more relevant at the time
25:47and 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
25:58Hogan.
25:59Unbelievable!
26:00The former World Wrestling Federation heavyweight champ now working out every day and training
26:12with a vision, a 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 that 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.
27:15He 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.
27:23I started in the mid-60s.
27:24A friend of mine at Arizona State University at the time, he kind of introduced me and some
27:30of my friends to steroids.
27:32And 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 to look good, just like Arnold Schwarzenegger did.
27:47All the bodybuilders of the 60s and 70s.
27:51Anybody in my industry in the 70s and 80s, they were playing with steroids because they saw
27:56the effect on promoters when they had a better body.
28:02He was really struggling mentally with it.
28:05I think he wanted to be who he was back in the 70s and it wasn't going to happen.
28:09He would get in these moods, but he could get really incredibly rageful.
28:15He never was physically abusive to me, but he would destroy the house and he could be
28:22very intimidating.
28:24So if he wanted a shot in his hip, you know, I would have to give him the shot, but I would
28:30stab 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.
28:36The mental anguish that he was going through, I'm sure, was amplified also by the physical
28:44pain of his body and the fact that he wasn't in the ring.
28:49He 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 and that he shouldn't
28:57have 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. for having him drop the belt
29:16to Bob Backlund.
29:17When this segued 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
29:37enhance their size and muscle development.
29:41Dr. Zavorian was the wrestling commission doctor, but then he became close to some of the wrestlers
29:46and he became their drug supplier of prescription drugs.
29:51He 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.
30:02Billy testified for the prosecution.
30:05Here was, you know, the former world champion on the witness stand talking about his life
30:11and history with anabolic steroids.
30:15But 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.
30:23What'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.
30:36That'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.
30:54And so at that point he went and said that, you know, Hogan did steroids.
30:57I know he did steroids.
30:58Of course he did steroids.
30:59Well, I remember the first night I met Hulk Hogan.
31:02It was in 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.
31:18That's how it really manifested.
31:21And because of that, we end up on the Phil Donahue show.
31:24Superstar 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.
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.
31:42It's the selling of drugs by Dr. George Zahorian that's gone on for 15 years in the World Wrestling
31:47Thurals.
31:47Billy said, I shot Hogan up with steroids.
31:50I've injected the man myself probably a half a dozen times.
31:53And 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.
32:04I 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.
32:13He's just a human being.
32:14He's just a man.
32:15And he was bitter.
32:16And 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 there's this awful, awful bitterness towards certain people.
32:26And Vince happened to be one of them.
32:27Struggling with addiction and financial ruin, Billy's relationship with his children unravels.
32:41There is a difference between a dad and a father.
32:45A 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.
32:55And that's kind of it, really.
32:58I mean, I hate to say this, but my father never really paid child support ever.
33:03So my mother went back to working at the bank.
33:06My mom was working a lot, doing two or three jobs.
33:10But she would make sure that me and my sister ate.
33:12She always was verbal about how hurt she was.
33:18But she loved him until the day she died.
33:20I mean, my mother never remarried.
33:25He had moved on.
33:26He married Valerie Tho-Love.
33:29We were part of his past life.
33:31And he never helped us.
33:33There was never a father figure in my life.
33:35I never respected the guy as a kid.
33:38I never respected him as I got older.
33:40He made me very angry about how he treated myself and my sister and my mom.
33:45He 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.
33:55And he didn't want it.
33:57He just didn't want it.
33:58Joey 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.
34:27I changed my son to Joseph Michael Melusso
34:29because Melusso was my mom's maiden name.
34:32I decided I was moving on from who my dad was in my life.
34:38And I was hoping it hurt him when I did it.
34:40That destroyed him.
34:43It broke his heart completely.
34:46He hurt me my entire life.
34:48My maiden upside are mad at me.
34:50Tough shit. I don't care.
34:52He loved those kids so much.
34:55He didn't know how to be the dad that he wanted to be.
35:00He never had a role model.
35:03Unfortunately, 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.
35:14I 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, but I accepted because I loved him.
35:26But my father was not invited to my wedding, so my brother gave me away.
35:31Alienated from his children and the world of wrestling, Wayne Coleman returns to his roots as a preacher.
35:49He didn't have anything else, and he knew he was good at ministry, so he went back to that.
35:56I think as he got older, he went full-blown with the church and maybe to make amends to God for the sins that he committed in his life.
36:05He truly believed, and I believe it as well, that his true calling was for ministry.
36:15Wayne wrote the play called The Empty Ring.
36:19It was Wayne's life story, and it was a wrestling ring, but it was empty for him.
36:23There was no fulfillment, and 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.
36:34He couldn't do it.
36:35One scene was a hotel room, and he overdoses in the scene, and it shows him taking the bottle of pills, and it's very dark.
36:43And 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, and it was so emotional for me to watch that because it was so real, you know, and it was his life.
36:55It's what we lived.
36:56You 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 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.
37:16The 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.
37:27And, 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.
37:36It 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, 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.
37:53And he was bleeding out.
37:54We got to the hospital, and they said there was nothing they could do for him.
38:01That'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.
38:10And he's like, Capella, I've only got, like, six weeks max.
38:15Ravaged by hepatitis C, superstar Billy Graham faces a fight for survival, requiring a liver transplant just to stay alive.
38:31Knowing that he might not wake up, he called Vince, and he just asked him again to forgive him, and he told him that he loved him.
38:39And he thanked him for everything he'd ever done for him.
38:41But that tells you his heart.
38:43What was on his mind were the people that he had hurt, you know, people, things he hadn't forgiven himself for.
38:51Vince was gracious enough, and he was very kind, thankfully.
38:55Because he didn't have to be even then, but he was.
38:58This poor girl had died and donated all her organs that could be donated.
39:04Thank God for that, because I really thought he was going to, that was it.
39:07That was it for him.
39:08And 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.
39:19But I'm an adult now.
39:21I'm pregnant.
39:22You're going to be a grandfather.
39:23And I can forgive.
39:27I 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.
39:49All 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.
40:05I was still conflicted if I was going to go or not.
40:10I just, I had had enough.
40:12You know, if he dies, he dies.
40:13Okay, God's going to take him.
40:15And 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, I wanted to make him happy at the end.
40:27For 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.
40:43And 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.
40:58And 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.
41:28My brother had flown out there before I did.
41:34So I bought a ticket and I flew out there by myself.
41:38I played him, Bob Dylan, and 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, and the next day, Valerie and I are talking to the doctors and we're like, you know what?
42:02Valerie, it was like, it's time.
42:04My 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.
42:15We've had a lot of issues with each other.
42:16I've hated you for a very long time.
42:19But 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.
42:27And the last words he told me, I could hear him trying to get the words out.
42:44He just said, I love you.
42:45And that's the last thing.
42:49That's the last thing I ever find out.
42:53That was it.
42:56And I wasn't the superstar.
42:58It was my dad.
43:02He's been gone for 17 months.
43:05But there's no relief.
43:07There's not.
43:07I just miss him.
43:09I can't even describe it.
43:12He was appreciated.
43:14He was loved.
43:15He was admired.
43:16He was respected.
43:18He is superstar Billy Graham!
43:23He's missed.
43:25You know, he's missed by so many that he would never have imagined missed him.
43:29But he is.
43:30It'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.
43:37I'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.
43:47He was superstar Billy Graham.
43:49Thank you, God.
43:58Thank you, God.
43:58Thank you, God.
43:58Gracias por ver el video.