10 Quotes from WWE Legend 'Superstar' Billy Graham We Can't Believe Are Real
Superstar Billy Graham is a former WWE World Heavyweight Champion. The former bodybuilder was a popular heel back in his time and served as an inspiration for several wrestlers that would follow in his footsteps. Graham's body shape would be replicated by wrestlers that followed in his footsteps including Hulk Hogan, the Ultimate Warrior, and Triple H. Hogan took matters a step further and even copied Graham's promo style, often incorporating the word "brother" into his regular speaking pattern.
RELATED: WWE: 10 Things Fans Need To Know About Superstar Billy Graham
To be fair, Graham himself had borrowed heavily from the famous evangelical preacher Billy Graham Jr, who was a popular figure in the United States. Graham himself worked as a preacher during his teenage years. When Graham first wrestled for Stampede, he wrestled under his berth name before changing it to Billy Graham in honor of the famous preacher.
10 Hall of Fame Removal
In 2011, Hardcore wrestling legend Abdullah the Butcher was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame. Many fans and wrestling personalities were outraged about the induction for various reasons. Some believed that Abdullah had maimed his opponents through his violent and barbaric style, which was going against the family-friendly image that the WWE worked on presenting to its audience. Others believed that Abdullah's induction was unwarranted as he had never worked for WWE during his career.
One of the people who came out strongest against Abdullah's inductions is Superstar Billy Graham. Graham criticized the WWE on the induction because he felt Abdullah was too violent and that he never worked in the WWE. Graham stated that he wished to have his name removed if the promotion proceeded with its plan to induct Abdullah into the Hall. In the end, both Abdullah the Butcher and Billy Graham are still in the Hall of Fame together to this day.
9 Ring Boy Scandal
In 1992 the WWE was wired in a myriad of scandals, Vince McMahon was under investigation for his connections to disgraced doctor George Zahorian and was the subject of an investigation into PED usage in the WWE. At the same time, highly placed members of WWE's production team were caught in a scandal involving several WWE figures. Those accused were WWE executive Pat Patterson, producer Terry Garvin, and WWE ring announcer Mel Phillips.
RELATED: 7 Controversial Stories About Vince McMahon He Doesn't Want Fans To Know At the height of the story, Vince McMahon appeared on an episode of The Phil Donahue Show and came face to face with the accusers including Barry Orton and Murray Hodgson. Superstar Billy Graham was one of the other guests who came on the show and stated that he had witnessed an incident Pat Patterson in New Haven. Graham later recanted saying that he was hoping that the WWE would pay him to be quiet after the interview.
8 Response to Critics
Given his propensity to make controversial comments over the years, it's unsurprising that Graham has found himself on the receiving end of negative reactions over the years. Following the death of NXT leader Dusty Rhodes, Graham made a public pitch to WWE to get the job for himself. Graham's timing was perceived by many in the wrestling community as tactless in the least and cold-hearted at best. Many pointed to Graham's frequent criticisms of McMahon and WWE before taking a check as a sign of the former World Champion's long-running hypocritical tendencies.
Graham responded to critics by calling them "evil sub-humans" in a Facebook rant from his own page. Graham spoke to the fact that he never meant the pitch as an insult to Rhodes' memory or legacy. Graham rightly pointed out that he and Rhodes had been close friends, and that his reconciliation with McMahon was similar to Bruno Sammartino's reconciliation with McMahon shortly before his passing.
7 CM Punk Comments
In 2013, CM Punk cut a promo in the middle of his 434-day run with the WWE title. During the promo, Punk ran down some legendary names of WWE's past including Bruno Sammartino. Punk claimed that his reign was better than Sammartino's 8-year reign, as Punk had to defend his belt multiple times a week while Sammartino defended the title "once a month at Madison Square Garden".
Despite the fact that the comments were made in-line with the story at the time, Billy Graham took offense to the comment and stated that he had "lost all respect" for the WWE Champion. Other wrestlers, including Chris Jericho defended Punk, called for Graham to "Shut Up" and "Stop Being a Mark".
6 Kofi Kingston
In 2019, Kofi Kingston would begin a push that would lead to him winning the WWE Championship at WrestleMania from Daniel Bryan. Kofi's story and the overall story of KofiMania was greeted by many fans as a success story. Kingston, who had been working on WWE's under card since his debut in 2007, was finally given a chance on top of the card and many fans became heavily invested in the story.
RELATED: The New Day: Why Big E Had The Better WWE Championship Reign (& Why It's Kofi Kingston)
Unfortunately, Graham decided that Kingston's title win was the perfect time for him to criticize Kingston and WWE for its booking of smaller talent. Graham stated that Kingston should not hold the title in the WWE as he was too small, and should ahem, take certain measures to increase his size before becoming a main event star. Needless to say, many didn't take kindly to Graham's comments. This wasn't the last time Graham would make comments about talents and substance usage.
5 Advice to Adam Cole
Superstar Billy Graham was one of the wrestlers who pioneered the body-building to professional wrestling crossover in the 1970s. Graham was also an avid steroid user during his career and continues to vociferously and actively advocate for more wrestlers to take steroids as he had during his career, despite mounting evidence showing the negative issues surrounding substance use. Not satisfied with the controversy regarding his comments about Kofi Kingston, Graham doubled down later the same year when talking about Adam Cole, who was the NXT Champion at the time.
RELATED: 10 Things You Didn't Know About Adam Cole
Needless to say, the comments about Adam Cole were met with the same derision that his comments regarding Kofi Kingston were met with. Graham claimed that, as a result of his small size, Cole didn't "look like a champion", noting that WWE had switched the main title from Kofi Kingston to Brock Lesnar in under 10 seconds.
4 Big E Injury
In May 2019, Graham posted to Facebook that he believed that the New Day was breaking up and that Big E was looking to move away from wrestling. Graham would call Big E a "liar" in the post and stated that he would not miss Big E. The comment was reportedly made after Big E had suffered a legitimate knee injury that would keep him out of action for several months.
Unfortunately for Graham, Big E has a fantastic sense of humor and mocked the former world champion on Twitter by posting a screenshot of the Facebook post. Not only did Big E return to wrestling after recovering from his injury, but the New Day member would go on to win the Money in the Bank briefcase, and defeated Bobby Lashley to win the WWE Championship in 2021.
3 McMahon Being The Worst Person Alive
Given Vince McMahon's checkered history, it seems difficult to call insult him and come out the other side looking like the worse person. That certainly was the case regarding Billy Graham. In 2020 Graham claimed that McMahon was the "singly most evil human being walking the face of the earth". The statement was prompted after Vickie Guerrero claimed that WWE had blocked wrestlers from appearing on her podcast after she worked with AEW.
Graham also called McMahon "two-faced" and "selfish" in the post, but others were quick to point out that Graham has frequently criticized the McMahon family in the past, only to happily sing their praises when he was collecting a check from the promotion.
2 Rocky Johnson Funeral Lies
In January 2020, Rocky Johnson passed away after suffering from a pulmonary embolism. Johnson's funeral was attended by several well-known and high profile wrestling figures including Vince McMahon and Pat Patterson. Following the funeral, reports began to leak that Patterson and McMahon had been disrespectful at the funeral. According to stories, McMahon stated that the only good thing Johnson did was "marry Ata and have some kids". The report also claimed that Patterson was also belligerent at the funeral and was "dragged off the platform" during his speech.
It later came out that the source for the story was Superstar Billy Graham and Devon Nicholson, who wrestles as Hannibal or Blood Hunter. The story was then disputed by a friend of Johnson's who stated that McMahon and Patterson were both respectful at the funeral, that the comments that were actually made were not offensive, and that the family were still close with both McMahon and Patterson.
1 The Big One
This is perhaps the biggest quote that Graham made was regarding the use of performance enhancing substances in professional wrestling. In the early 90s, Graham stated that he was forced to take them by disgraced doctor George Zahorian and WWE owner Vince McMahon. The comments came while McMahon was facing federal investigation regarding the prevalent usage of substances in the WWE. Like the accusations of Pat Patterson in WWE, Graham later admitted to lying in the hopes that he would receive a settlement from the company in order to keep him from speaking out.
In recent years, Graham has publicly called for more wrestlers to take substances, despite the introduction of the wellness policy that prohibits full time wrestlers from using them. Graham was also one of the first figures to defend their usage in the wake of the Chris Benoit tragedy, which was originally blamed on the usage of such substances.
