"Superstar" Billy Graham was in the audience on SmackDown tonight. A true legend of the business and very, very influential on so many wrestlers who came after him. During the '70s he practically wrote the book on what the '80s would look like!

Graham was also on RAW this week too. Man's survived two hip replacements and a bunch of other surgeries... and he still kicks.

He was at RAW Monday night in Tucson as well. He looked to be feeling better now than he did a few years back. Oh, and I think his autobiography should be out soon if it isn't already.

Wow! That takes me back. I haven't really watched wrestling since the early 80's. Graham was a regular on the Sunday All-Star Wrestling program I used to watch in the late 70's.

As an aside, I ran into Maurice Mad Dog Vachon at a Quizno's sandwich shop in '97 or so. I believe he now has a prosthetic leg. He was very cordial to everyone who recognized him. My dad spoke with him in an airport a few years earlier and told a similar tale ... Mad Dog stopped and took the time to chat for a few minutes ... really nice fella.

Superstar came to the Memphis area around 1980 in an angle where he was in hot pursuit of a fake champion who had taken his world title and then split town. I thought to myself, WOW - a real champion! He had the look and he could talk the talk. I don't remember his ring work being thrilling, but he sure got my attention!

I'm amazed he's still alive, frankly. Superstar Billy Graham is the epitome of the steroid wrestler - that's the main reason he needed those two new hips - and it is a testimony to his medical team that he's still with us today.

The man sure could work a mic, though. The single most crucial skill in professional wrestling is knowing how to play the audience - make them love you or make them hate you all at the drop of a hat. I think the last great master of the microphone was Arn Anderson, the Rock is good but the Rock had problems making the crowd hate him, but Arn Anderson could take a crowd that loved him to death and make them hate him to the core in one two minute speech. That is good microphone technique.

Once wrestling turned more into a Hollywood Stunt Show we lost the guys with the gift of gab in favor of the guys with the more impressive bodies. It's much harder to feel like you are in the presence of someone special, someone awesome with most of these new guys.

And he still had time for all those Crusades!
What an amazing guy!

I loved his Black Panther run in Jungle Action!

Just letting you know that somebody got the reference,
I remember him too, and I remember me wondering if maybe hge was .....

I knew I could count on you, Tommy!

I thought he died a few years back. Wow.

I used to love wrestling but now can't watch it. Back on the day, there were actual good guys and bad guys, funny looking wrestlers like Haystack Calhoun, and they just seemed different. Now they are all steroid looking rednecks.

Here's a superb promo cut by Graham soon after his WWWF debut in 1975:

September 1977 — Graham attacks High Chief Peter Maivia and breaks his prized ukulele for good measure:

Another great promo:



(Was there anything that Hulk Hogan didn't rip off from the Superstar?)

Just the stuff he stole from Jerry Lawler.

Hogan should have shaved his head too.

I never saw much of the younger Billy Graham. He was kind of old and
injured when he made his way 'round to my TV set.