Original subtitles

I am the champion.

I am the greatest.

I am the strongest.

This is my belt. I got the proof, baby. A world -class bodybuilder who

revolutionized the business of wrestling, Billy Graham was the first

Superstar Billy Graham was the biggest box office attraction in the world.

The man of the hour.

The man with the power.

The man that's too sweet to be sour.

Oh, my gosh.

Perfected. His body was unbelievable.

He was so far ahead of his time. He was an icon, but he was imitated so much.

Every time you watch a wrestling show, Billy Graham influences all of them. And

most of them don't even know it. You look at it, the strongest wrestler in

world today.

Crowned world champion, Graham spiraled after losing the belt.

Superstar Billy Graham lost the title and never recovered.

He had it all taken away.

And the drugs that made him a star proved to be his undoing.

Heroids came to define Billy.

But it absolutely destroyed his joint.

The damage was done.

My dad would do anything to keep that fame and that stardom and that status.

He was at the pinnacle. He was selling out arenas, and then it yanked from him,

and he couldn't accept it. And for some people, when you get that taken away,

you don't have a lot left except for spite.

So he went to war with Vince McMahon.

And Vince could squash you like a grape if he wanted to.

The rise of superstar Billy Graham is fascinating, but the decline of

Billy Graham is tragic.

He overcame everything in life from meager beginning to be the champion of

world, but he killed himself in the process.

There he is, superstar Billy Graham.

Charismatic, colorful individual.

Look at the size of those upper arms. Ladies and gentlemen, they border him

22 inches.

My dad was always superstar.

Since the day he was born, it was always in him. He's always been superstar.

My name is Capella Flaherty, and I am the daughter of superstar Billy Graham.

I remember being in a mat with my brother, and the ceiling of the arena

up, and the sunbeam shone down on my dad, and he just lit up.

When that light shone on him, there was no getting away from it. Oh, they're

superstars. They're superstars. They're superstars. He was more superstar

than he was Wayne Coleman, at least to myself and my brother.

When he was Wayne Coleman, he was loving.

And he loved it.

But I think he loved being superstar a little bit more.

Very loud, very boisterous, always trying to be the center of attention.

he wasn't, he would make sure that he was.

That's just who my dad was.

I'm Joseph Michael Maluso, and I am the son of superstar Billy Graham.

My dad was always on, even when the camera wasn't on him.

If 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.

In the late 1970s, superstar Billy Graham was on top of the world,

the look, the style, and the idea of the perfect professional wrestler.

Superstar Billy Graham was the world champion of the biggest wrestling

in the United States.

The look is what made Superstar Billy Graham.

Nobody in that era, like, nobody looked like him.

I'm Dave Meltzer, and I've been covering pro wrestling for just over 50 years.

He had the bleach blonde hair and was legitimately a very, very strong guy.

He was very flamboyant.

Whatever it is, Superstar Billy Graham had it.

He had all the charisma. He had the body.

Most guys look like Chief J. Strongbow. A little bit of a pot belly, a little

bit flabby arms, but Billy had a physique that was phenomenal.

The body in wrestling wasn't crucial until Billy Graham.

I'm Jim Cornette. I've had a 40 -year career in professional wrestling, but

even longer than that, I've been an historian.

He wasn't a polished...

in -ring performer, but he looked great and he could talk.

This is the beauty of a champion. This is the brains of a champion. Look, look,

look. Before making it big in New York, Billy Graham had first made a name for

himself as a teenager growing up in Arizona.

He was a competitive bodybuilder and 1961 was Teenage Mr. America.

He was a born athlete and self -made.

When 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.

I think that was just what made him feel good. It probably gave him some

strength.

When he was younger, his dad used to be very physical, abusive with him.

And my dad would get hit with a belt.

One day my dad was just big enough.

He grabbed the belt out of his father's hand, and that's when he knew the

beatings were over, and they were over. Because he showed, look, I'm bigger than

you now. I'm stronger than you. You can't beat me anymore.

Eager to put his physical attributes to work, Wayne Coleman travels from Arizona

to Calgary, where a failed attempt at Canadian football stardom leads him to

legendary Stu Hart.

Billy walks into the gym and meets Stu.

Stu's just enamored by the size of this guy.

He was just a specimen beyond description.

My name is Steve Strong, and I was a professional wrestler for 19 years. And

superstar Billy Graham was one of my best friends.

There's a carte blanche about the dungeon and Stu Hart.

That if you broke in with Stu Hart, you could pretty much stamp your past to

whatever territory you wanted to go to. And Super worked up there for a while

and left and started his career.

Back in Arizona, a chance encounter with another wrestling legend sets Wayne

Coleman on the path to greatness.

We will be the international tag team champions as soon as that match comes

The Graham family legacy in wrestling, it's one of the most famous in the

history of the business.

In the early 70s, Dr. Jerry Graham is broke and drunk, and he thought, maybe I

need another brother.

I just returned from Calgary, and I said, I don't have anywhere really to

wrestle now.

And he said, well, why don't you just become another Graham brother?

What name do you want? I said, well, I really like the Reverend Billy Graham.

And he said, that's a good name. You're my youngest brother, Billy Graham.

And superstar Billy Graham is born.

They went to Los Angeles together, and Jerry was just a hopeless drunk.

Jerry lasted a couple weeks, and they fired him, but Billy had enough charisma

that they kept him on.

I am a reflection of perfection, the number one selection.

You got it.

At that time, Billy would train at Gold's Gym, like every bodybuilder

And he was Arnold Schwarzenegger's regular training partner. They were very

close friends.

I was born in June of 1972.

My father was a heel at the time, and some fans had vandalized my father's

Cadillac, so he couldn't drive to pick my mother and I up from the hospital.

So Arnold picked up my mom and my sister from the hospital in his blue

Volkswagen Bug.

Here's an Arnold picture. Here's a couple Arnold pictures.

I'm not sure where that was, but... I think it was in our apartment on Ocean

Avenue. Probably.

I just found this recently. This is an original Western Union telegram that my

mother... had sent her parents the day that she married my father.

They went to Vegas.

It's January 19, 1971.

This is Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Maluso. That was my grandfather.

Mom and Dad, Billy and I were just married. We really love each other.

try and understand. I love you both.

My mother was Madeline Maluso.

She worked in a bank in Southern California, and he came in and thought

really pretty.

She always loved his smile, and he made her laugh a lot.

She fell in love with him. She thought he was the most handsome man in the

world. She got pregnant with me, and they got an apartment in Santa Monica,

California.

She didn't care about the wrestling part of it at all. She just loved my dad.

I remember mom tie -dying clothes in our kitchen.

She was a big part of his look.

Mr. Rainbow, more colors than a rainbow, the prettiest wrestler in the world,

Philly's superstar queen.

The look was good, and he understood his deal was posing and flexing and

everything, but it was really the promos. And I'm going to take out my

frustrations. I'm going to take out my wrath.

I'm going to take out my anger.

He'd been an evangelist in his younger years. He was a traveling tent show

preacher.

My dad started preaching as an evangelist when he was in his teens. He

over Arizona in particular, speaking at churches and did feats of strength.

When I listen to his promos now, it's like he's standing in front of a church

assembly. It's the same thing, except it's...

You are the greatest.

You are the strongest.

You are the man of the hour.

Billy Graham was probably one of the first to use various catchphrases that

would then start repeating.

I'm the man of the hour.

The man with the power. The man with the power.

Too sweet to be sour.

Too sweet to be sour.

I mean, it's legendary stuff. They were unbelievable promos back then.

These hands can crush coconuts. These hands can straighten out a horseshoe.

You know what this arm can do?

In 1975,

Billy Graham's star is already on the rise when he gets a call from Vince

McMahon Sr., New York's top promoter.

He weighed in at 285 pounds, superstar Billy Graham.

Billy was very, very excited about being at Madison Square Garden and being in

the limelight.

McMahon has a clear vision for the superstar with a bold plan for the

the world championship.

Bruno Sammartino was ready to step down as being the champion. He'd already had

a nine -year run from 63 to 71, and then he was champion again in the mid -70s.

Bruno was a living god to the wrestling fans. He was so admired and so idolized.

Bruno was so embedded into the history of the sport and New York, but it was

time for him to drop the strap.

You know, when you've had it for so long and so long, There has to be a pathing

of the guard.

Bob Backlund was a Vince's guy. He wanted that squeaky clean guy who could

schools and tell kids don't do drugs, don't smoke.

Bobby Backlund was my tag team partner before he went up there. He was a great

athlete. But his promos were the drizzling shit.

I've been raised on the farm and climbing has been a part of my life.

Bruno wanted to lose the belt to somebody huge, a big man.

So.

Billy Graham becomes the transitional champion.

He will hold the belt for almost a year. And then he will lose it on such and

such date so they can crown their new champion, the all -American boy Bob

Baxter.

That's the deal. So Billy knew the day he was winning it. He knew the day he

losing it. He was told.

But something happens.

Graham wins the title.

Even though he's a bad guy, people start cheering for him.

Billy Graham became the hottest box office attraction in the business.

He's selling out Madison Square Garden.

Every month, there's 25 ,000 people

watching Billy Graham defend the title.

But Vince Sr. always had a plan, and he was always regimented. He was sticking

to it. No matter what,

it was strictly, we want a babyface as the champion.

And Billy was not going to be that babyface.

And this is what led to Billy Graham's downfall.

Superstar Billy Graham's reign as champion

ushers in an era of good fortune for his family.

We had a very nice house in New York. We had maids in New York. We had a three

-story home in New York. We had a limo.

We had a lot of money.

I remember going in their bedroom and I found his championship belt. I'm like,

ooh, this is cool.

And I took it out and I laid it on the bed. And I was shining his belt so the

gold would sparkle and the little gems. And then I put it back so I didn't get

in trouble.

But for Billy's wife, Madeline, and their children, Those good fortunes

short -lived.

I know he loved my mother, but there was something going on while he was married

to my mother.

I remember him talking to my mom when he told her that he wanted to divorce her.

I was hiding behind the couch.

She's crying, and I'm looking at my dad, and he's breaking my mother's heart

right now, saying, I'm in love with Valerie.

When I was 18 years old, I met him at an IHOP.

It was right next to the hotel where he was staying.

And I would go and sit at the IHOP just to get a glimpse of him.

And that particular night, they came in and sat down at the table next to us and

just started talking.

Hi, I'm Valerie Coleman, and I was married to superstar Billy Graham for

short of 45 years.

Basically, from the time we met, we were together all the time.

Yeah, it sucked, but it was just really sad, watching my parents break up

right in front of me.

It was probably almost a year before he told me about his

family.

It was devastating.

I didn't know what to do. I was very conflicted, but ultimately, I didn't

him, and we were married a couple of months later.

With a new wife and a new life, superstar Billy Graham feels on top of

world.

I had a universal appeal.

I had crossed all lines, I had crossed all borders, and I had all types of

And I told them I think we're going to have a sellout after sellout after

sellout. But even as superstar pushes himself to deliver, the demands of being

champion wreak havoc on his body.

He'd always have pills around, and so when he would call us, it's clear in his

voice that he was definitely on something.

I mean, he was in pain, you know, and when you're in pain, you want to take

medicine. And unfortunately, he had that type of personality that he just abused

it. He just didn't know how to control it. He overdosed in his hotel room in

York several times while he was champion.

It was all pharmaceuticals, uppers, downers, trying to get through the pain

just live with it.

He had an overdose in the hotel room.

He had gone into the bathroom and taken a handful of pills and came out, and all

of a sudden his body rolls over, and he's not breathing at all.

I have a call downstairs, and I'm begging for them to come help.

And this woman comes up, and she starts pounding and beating his chest and

screaming, don't die on me, and she's cussing him out, and don't you die on

and she's beating him.

Paramedics get there, and they're trying to use the defibrillators and things on

him.

His heart had stopped.

They, you know, shocked him back.

So, yeah, that was a pretty intense time.

There's pandemonium tonight.

There's excitement.

Look at the people's faces.

Look at the people's expressions.

Can you feel it? Look at you. You're excited because I am the champion.

After 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.

His run was the hottest it ever was. But I think in his mind, it's like, I'm

going to prove them wrong. I'm going to draw so big.

They can't take the title from me. Graham went to Vince Senior. He's like,

can you do? We're selling out. We're turning them away.

The New York promoters had always put their heavyweight championship on a

And Vince Senior was looking for his next champion, who was going to be Bob

Backlund. He had planned this for a year and a half, and nothing was going to

change his mind.

Ask Bobby Backlund when you see him how he expects to get out of the Superstar

Bureau. Right before he goes out, before the match, he was trying to get them to

change their mind. And they're like, no, we're going with Bob Backlund.

Bob Backlund.

I hate that guy.

He was the biggest box office attraction in the business, and it was taken away

from him. He couldn't understand why.

All the struggles, all the pain, working his way up from nothing to being

champion of the world, then all of a sudden lose it. In his mind, he's like,

what was the point?

Did I do something wrong?

These guys obviously don't know greatness when they see it, so it hit

hard. That's all that there is in this world is the championship belt. It's the

greatest wrestler on the... Wayne was very, very, his entire life, a very

insecure person.

It's kind of hard to believe when you would look at him with the physique and

everything. But he was very insecure, so he just never could believe that he was

really worth anything.

He was beaten down so much growing up, not just the physical, but also the

verbal abuse and being told that you're worthless, you're no good, you'll never

be anything, you're ugly.

And he took it. He received that. He accepted that. And he believed it.

His entire life has stayed with him.

Being on top, being the champion, carrying that belt meant so much to him.

when he lost that title, it certainly changed everything from that day

It just flat out was devastating to him.

It destroyed his ego.

One day he started a big bonfire.

Burned all of his wrestling gear, boots, his jackets, his robes, his attire.

You know, he burned everything.

For Billy Graham, losing the championship was more than just a

It was a blow to his self -worth and confidence.

It was everything to Billy. It was his life. It was bigger than I could even

understand.

Some guys can't take it. He wasn't mentally capable of seeing the light in

places. Hi, I'm Steve Kern, and I've been in professional wrestling over 40

years, and I've shared a locker room with superstar Billy Graham.

He saw the big money was New York. He was the man. He had the belt. Now he's

beltless. You didn't win that belt. Somebody told you that you're going to

that belt.

It's not real, the part about you're a champion or you're not a champion. It's

not real.

Like a year later, Billy's running a lawn care business or something in

You know, wrestling on Friday nights. I mean, he's out of it so much that people

thought he died. It's in the paper he's dead.

Gorilla monsoon.

wrote that his tragic news, Billy Graham has died from cancer. And for a couple

of years there, I mean, he was right that superstar Billy Graham was dead.

When he lost the belt, that was the beginning of his decline, and a lot of

was mental.

We went back to Phoenix, and he didn't know about withdrawal.

And he just cold turkey stopped taking pills on our road trip, and we were in

this ran -down little hotel in New Mexico.

And he had a grand mal seizure.

And I called paramedics, and they thought he tried to kill himself.

So he didn't try to kill himself. He was actually trying to live.

And instead of going home, he went to a rehab.

But it didn't work. It didn't last.

I was so afraid of him dying.

And I, you know, was naive enough to think I could love him back from

brink he was on.

Broke and frustrated by his stagnant career, Graham seeks to reinvent himself

and get back into the business that made him famous.

He 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, I'm going to give you something else.

He comes back to the WWF, bald head, much smaller.

looked like a completely different guy, and he claimed that he had left

wrestling and he'd become the world's martial arts champion.

When I give him the superstar chop, the people will fall out of their seats,

will fall out of their seats, drop them.

I watched him one of the very first times, I think, and I said, what the is

doing? This isn't the superstar I remember.

Superstar!

He would just do karate chops, he'd have a black belt, just like kind of stood

there, was pretty immobile, you know, was like really lame, and his wrestling

wasn't good at all at that point.

He was covering up his body all of a sudden, like with his judo jacket on,

know, and he looked kind of hokey, kind of like a guy that fell out of a third

grade judo class.

So bad, and he's like so defeated.

He just was not the same person.

It was something he did out of being desperate.

To get back into the limelight.

Unfortunately,

Billy's body started giving out. He started getting hip injuries.

That was a sad time.

I look at him when he was like that, and it just makes me so sad because he was

so thin, he was so high on pills, and he did not know who he was.

Everything has been said.

Everything has been done.

All the preparation.

Everything is ready.

He just looked so sick to me.

It's hard for me to look at him during that time.

It really is. I don't like it. That's one of the darkest times of my life.

started using pain pills and sleeping pills again. That's when he became

emaciated. I mean, he looked like he was dying. It was a horrible time.

Maybe McMahon had aspirations to push him to the moon.

But Billy lost his mojo. It was gone.

Look at this!

Look at the chop!

Less than a year into his return, Billy Graham leaves the WWF for a second time.

Who knows what the plans were for him? Because before too long, Hulkamania is

running wild.

Hulk Hogan, he drops a big leg!

The way the business was growing, McMahon kind of transitioned into making

his ideal version of Superstar Billy Graham and embellishing that character

creating someone that maybe he felt like he didn't do enough of for Billy

Graham. The pythons are ready for the largest arms in the world. Superstar

Graham will put the 22 -inch python arms around your body and squeeze. The promo

skills, the posing, all of that stuff, it came from Billy. Graham.

Hulk Hogan, he was wearing boas and things like that.

I want to know one thing, brother.

Superstar started brother, brother.

Hey, brother.

Hey, brother. How you doing, brother?

I got the Hulk Hogan war bonnet on now, brother.

Literally, though, everything from, you know, the ear, Wayne ripping the shirt

off and throwing it out to the crowd.

You name it, he did it. Look at the videos. There's Wayne doing it. You're

to see a lot of number one contenders come and go, brother. But there's only

Hulkster. There's only one Hulk Hogan, daddy.

My dad, deep down, knew that Hulk was younger and more relevant at the time

was probably a little jealous.

Vince had said that if the Billy Graham of 1974 was around in 1984,

he could have been Hulk Hogan.

Unbelievable!

The former World Wrestling Federation heavyweight champ.

now working out every day and training with a vision, a vision of being back in

the squared circle.

Superstar Billy Graham is on top of his game, and the future is mine. The

Pythons are back.

In 1987, following his first failed attempt to reinvent himself, Billy

once again attempts to come back.

Billy's not the same. The fans aren't the same. And Billy was more considered

old -timer by 86 and 87.

tore his body up. He had his ankle fused. They had a steel rod that went

the bottom of his heel through his leg.

My 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. His spine was collapsing.

It was absolute mess.

The steroids had eaten him up.

Billy was pumping a lot of steroids in his body still.

He'd always been on steroids. He was one of the original users of steroids in

wrestling. To him, it was normal.

He didn't care, you know, what anybody thought of him. Because 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.

I 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.

And we put on like 35, 40 pounds of muscle. We couldn't believe our eyes.

And I started taking steroids then for power lifting and bodybuilding purposes.

He had a big ego, and he took roids to look good, just like Arnold

Schwarzenegger did, and all the bodybuilders of the 60s and 70s. Anybody

industry in the 70s and 80s, they were playing with steroids because they saw

the effect on promoters when they had a better body.

He 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.

He would get in these moods. He could get really incredibly rageful.

He never was physically abusive to me, but he would destroy the house, and he

could be very intimidating.

So if he wanted a shot in his hip, you know, I would have to give him the shot,

but I would stab him.

That was just my only thing I could do. I would use it like a dagger or a dart

and do it as hard as I could.

The 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.

He wasn't wrestling, which is what he wanted to do.

Even as he got older, he always talked about how he lost that belt and that he

shouldn't have lost it that soon.

I'm like, well, Dad, that's the way that it was supposed to happen.

But I think that once he lost that, that was his downfall.

Billy never, ever, ever, ever, ever forgave Vince McMahon Sr.

for having him drop the belt to Bob Backlund.

When this segued into the early 90s, I think Billy was just going, how can I

hurt Vince McMahon?

To be successful in pro wrestling is an absolute must.

To take steroids.

From 1985 to 1991, McMahon and a doctor conspired to distribute steroids to

the wrestlers to enhance their size and muscle development.

Dr. Zavorian was the wrestling commission doctor, but then he became

some of the wrestlers and he became their drug supplier of prescription

He sent through the mail thousands upon thousands of pills just to my husband

alone. He made a ton of money, got very, very rich off of their suffering and

their addiction.

Billy testified for the prosecution.

Here was, you know, the former world champion on the witness stand talking

his life and history with anabolic steroids.

But he didn't go after Vince, he didn't go after Hogan then. And then Hogan goes

on Arsenio Hall.

I saw a guy on a program named Billy Graham. What's up with him?

Well, superstar Billy Graham apparently in the 70s was one of the top wrestlers.

Hulk said something to the effect, oh, he's just like some old time, like that

he was nobody, that he was a nobody.

That's when things started changing with Wayne about the way that he felt about

Terry, about Hulk.

And he apparently was a heavy duty steroid abuser.

Graham was furious at Hogan for using his name like that because Hogan was

the same steroids.

So Billy was really mad, and so at that point he went and said that Hogan did

steroids. I know he did steroids. Of course he did steroids.

Well, I remember the first night I met Hulk Hogan, it was at a local nightclub

in Tampa, and one night in walks the future Hulk Hogan, Terry Bolle. He said,

want to know two things. How do I become a professional wrestler, and how do I

take steroids?

And 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 superstar

billy graham i'll tell you what he's won his share it's billy it's bruno it's

myself it's melcher and then we found out that mcmahon was in fact going to be

there They want to do a story on steroid use in wrestling.

The tension you could cut with a knife, and Billy wanted to unload.

The selling of drugs by Dr. George Zahorian has gone on for 15 years in the

world of wrestling. Billy said, I shot Hogan up with steroids.

I've injected the man myself probably a half a dozen times. Vince just goes,

you're lying, you never shot Hogan up with steroids.

When Vince looked at him and he was a superstar, you know that's not true. I

literally started to cry in the audience.

I knew when Wayne was lying.

I think he had an enormous amount of guilt over it after it was all said and

done. He's human.

Just a human being. It's just a man.

And he was bitter. And he was hurt.

I mean, when you've been physical since you were 10 years old, and all of a

sudden he's crippled. And there's this awful, awful bitterness towards certain

people. And Vince happened to be one of them.

Struggling with addiction and financial ruin, Billy's relationship with his

children unravels.

There is a difference between a dad and a father. A father is somebody who, in

every aspect, is always there for the children.

And my father was a dad because he got my mother pregnant with me. And that's

kind of it, really.

I mean, I hate to say this, but my father never really paid child support

So my mother went back to working at the bank.

My mom was working a lot, doing two or three jobs, but she would make sure that

me and my sister ate.

She always was verbal about how hurt she was, but she loved him until the day he

died. I mean, my mother never remarried.

He had moved on. He married Valerie's home love.

We were part of his past life, and he never helped us.

There was never a father figure in my life.

I never respected the guy as a kid. I never respected him as I got older.

He made me very angry about how he treated myself and my sister and my mom.

made me very angry.

I mean, it was heartbreaking.

You know, because I look at him and I love him.

You know, and I just wanted him to want to be with us.

And he didn't want it.

He just didn't want it.

Joey knew that my dad, I think, loved me more than him.

My brother was born sick. He was born with a hole in his heart.

So I think because my brother wasn't perfect, my dad kind of pushed him aside

little bit.

He would forget my brother's birthday all the time because my dad didn't

care about him.

When I was 18, I changed my name from Joseph Cole Coleman to Joseph Michael

Maluso. because Meluso was my mom's maiden name.

I decided I was moving on from who my dad was in my life, and I was hoping it

hurt him when I did it.

That destroyed him.

It broke his heart completely.

He hurt me my entire life.

My maiden website are mad at me. Tough shit. I don't care.

He loved those kids so much.

He didn't know how to be the dad that he wanted to be.

He never had a role model.

Unfortunately, so much of his life was defined by his dad.

I'm very happy that he found Valerie and they were in love for so long because

they truly were meant to be together.

I don't like the fact that he treated us as if we weren't there anymore.

I just knew that my dad was full of shit, but I accepted because I loved

but my father was not invited to my wedding, so my brother gave me away.

I was lonely.

I was depressed.

And I'm telling you, I felt every emotion that you brothers have felt in

life.

Alienated from his children and the world of wrestling, Wayne Coleman

his roots as a preacher.

He didn't have anything else, and he knew he was good at ministry, so he went

back to that.

I 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.

He truly believed, and I believe it as well, that his true calling was for

ministry.

Wayne wrote the play called The Empty Ring.

It was Wayne's life story, and it was a wrestling ring, but it was empty for

him. There was no fulfillment.

And Jake the Snake played Wayne's part.

I wanted my daddy to look me in the eye and say, son, I'm proud of you.

He couldn't do it.

One scene was a hotel room, and he overdoses in the scene. And it shows

like, taking the bottle of pills, and it's very dark. And there's a lot of

demons all around Jake. They're swirling, like, trying to get him.

But ultimately...

It's a redemption story, and it was so emotional for me to watch that because

was so real, you know, and it was his life, and it's what we lived.

You could see, like, this peace and this joy inside of him.

But even as Graham finds peace, the damage to his body from years of

and drug abuse continue to take their toll.

He had contracted hepatitis from, I think, a cut on his knee from wrestling,

what he told me.

The common belief of the doctors is that I probably contracted hepatitis C from

a commingling of blood, because that's the only way you get it. And, of course,

you know, back in the 70s, all the masses were pretty much mud baths back

His liver was, like, turned to a rock.

The years of abuse on his body and all the drugs he was doing.

One night, we're laying in bed, and he coughed, and I felt something wet.

hit me in the face, and I jump up and turn on the light, and I'm covered in

blood.

And he was bleeding out.

We got to the hospital, and they said there was nothing they could do for him.

That's when they told us he's got stage 4 liver disease. He has to have a

transplant.

He was getting sicker and sicker and sicker.

And he's like, Capella, I've only got like six weeks, max.

Ravaged by hepatitis C, superstar Billy Graham faces a fight for survival,

requiring a liver transplant just to stay alive.

Knowing that he might not wake up, he called Vince, and he just asked him

to forgive him, and he told him that he loved him, and he thanked him for

everything he'd ever done for him. But that tells you his heart, what was on

mind were the people that he had hurt, you know, people, things he hadn't

forgiven himself for.

Vince was gracious enough, and he was very kind, thankfully.

He didn't have to be even then, but he was.

This poor girl had died and donated all her organs that could be donated.

Thank God for that, because I really thought he was going to. That was it.

was it for him.

And then a 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.

But I'm an adult now. I'm pregnant. You're going to be a grandfather.

And I can forgive.

I was given 21 more years with him. You know, God, for whatever reason, he had

his hand on Wayne's life. And he never let go and he never gave up on him.

He was a walking miracle.

In January 2023, after two decades of battling liver and heart issues, Graham

hospitalized once more.

All the times he got sick, I'm like, my dad's always bouncing back. I'm not

worried about it.

And me and my sister talked for about six months before.

She's like, do you think we should go see him? And I'm like, he's fine.

He's fine. He always gets sick. He always gets better.

I was still conflicted if I was going to go or not.

I had had enough.

You know, if he dies, he dies.

Okay, God's going to take him.

And that's just what happens to us. We live, we die.

And, you know, as much as he had disappointed me for most of my life, I

to make him happy at the end.

For a while, I was like, why the hell should I go see him? Why should I have

put myself out to go see my father in Arizona when he never did anything for

I mean, what am I supposed to do?

And then I saw some pictures that Valerie posted.

And that's when I saw my dad as my dad. He wasn't superstar anymore.

He is going to die.

So that's when I went to go see him.

He started actually telling me some stories about my mom.

And it sounded like he was very, very remorseful about how he

treated her.

I wish he could have been a better person.

And when I heard that, I knew he was not.

And I looked at him and his body was, he was, I hate to say it, but he was so

small. He had no muscle anymore. And I looked at my dad, I'm like, oh my gosh,

this is not superstar Billy Graham anymore.

My brother had flown out there before I did.

I bought a ticket, and I flew out there by myself.

I played him Bob Dylan, and that meant a lot to him.

I put that music on, and he closed his eyes, and he put his head back, and he

got this little faint smile, the best smile that he could give at the time,

he just was so happy to be listening to Dylan, and it made me happy that I could

do that for him.

You know, and 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.

My sister was with him at the hospital, and I was home, and I could hear my dad

on the phone.

I told him, I said, Dad, you know, we've had our problems in life.

We've had a lot of issues with each other. I've hated you for a very long

But I always understood you were my dad, and I always have loved you.

So I just want you to know that. I've always loved you.

And the last words he told

me.

I could hear him trying to get the

words out.

He's just like, I love you.

And that's the last thing.

That's the last thing I heard from my dad.

That's it.

And it wasn't the superstar.

It was my dad.

He's been gone for 17 months.

But there's no relief.

There's not. I just miss him.

I can't even describe it.

He was appreciated.

He was loved. He was admired. He was respected.

He is superstar Billy Graham!

He's missed.

You know, he's missed by so many that you would never have imagined missing.

But he is.

It's a tragic story because of somebody who had it all and who lost it all.

I am happy that he had God in his life. I'm not happy about all the other

things, but I am happy that he is my dad.

I understand where he was coming from more now and the job he had and the life

that he was trying to have and we want it to be.

He was super strong on the ground.