Eldridge Wayne Coleman Jr. (June 7, 1943 – May 17, 2023), better known by his ring name "Superstar" Billy Graham, was an American professional wrestler. He gained recognition for his tenure as the WWWF Heavyweight Champion from 1977 to 1978. He was a three-time world champion in major professional wrestling promotions. As an award-winning bodybuilder, he was a training partner and close friend of Arnold Schwarzenegger. He was most remembered for revolutionizing the interview and physique aspects of the professional wrestling industry, and for his charismatic performance style.
Coleman was born into a working-class family in Phoenix, Arizona, on June 7, 1943. His father Eldridge was from Mississippi and drove phone poles into the ground for a power company but developed multiple sclerosis and was reassigned to light office work. His mother Juanita, who claimed Cherokee ancestry, was from Arkansas. Coleman was attracted to weight lifting in the fifth grade. As a teenager, he was an avid reader of bodybuilding magazines, his idols being Steve Reeves and John Grimek. As a teenager, he became a devout Christian and traveled to religious revivals where he incorporated feats of strength into his sermons. Wayne was often beaten by his father due to his jealousy of Wayne's physique, but one day, he was able to yank the leather strap from his father's fingers; his mother also hit him with a brick on his head "because he was too big to hit with anything else".
Coleman attended North High School, where he was a track and field star and a shot put champion. He also dabbled in amateur and professional boxing, participating in the 1959 Golden Gloves.
Coleman played for the Waterbury Orbits of the Atlantic Coast Football League in 1966. He was a member of the Oakland Raiders of the American Football League in 1967 but did not play in a game. In 1968, Coleman tried out for the Canadian Football League's Calgary Stampeders, but he was traded to the Montreal Alouettes and played in only five games while there. He played for the Las Vegas Cowboys of the Continental Football League in 1969. He also worked as a debt collector. In between football engagements, he worked as a bouncer at a bar in Phoenix.
In 1961, Coleman was the winner of the West Coast division of the Mr. Teenage America bodybuilding contest (Frank Zane won the East Coast division), and his photo appeared soon after in Bob Hoffman's Strength and Fitness magazine. Coleman began to train intensively in 1968 at Gold's Gym in Santa Monica, where he worked out with Dave Draper, Franco Columbu and Arnold Schwarzenegger. At this time he was able to bench press 605 lbs (the world record, held by his friend Pat Casey, was 616 lbs). One of Coleman's photo shoots with Schwarzenegger was featured that year in Joe Weider's Muscle Fitness magazine.
When Coleman decided to become a professional wrestler two years later, he had the inspiration of marrying wrestling to bodybuilding. As a wrestler, he weight-trained continually, and in 1975 prepared for the World Bodybuilding Guild's Pro Mr. America contest in New York City, where his 22-inch biceps won first place in the Best Developed Arms division. At the peak of his wrestling career in 1977, Coleman weighed 275 lbs. From 1978, he gained more weight and in 1980, at 325 lbs, he took part in the World's Strongest Man competition in Great Gorge, New Jersey. He finished seventh in this contest despite injuring himself in one of the events. On December 6 of the same year, Coleman hosted the U.S. Invitational Powerlifting Championship in Phoenix, Arizona.
In 1969, Coleman was encouraged by football player and occasional professional wrestler Bob Lueck to train with Stu Hart for the latter's Stampede Wrestling promotion. He trained under Hart in Calgary before debuting on January 16, 1970, in a match with Dan Kroffat. After wrestling briefly under his real name, Coleman traveled back to the United States in May, wrestling for a few months with Dr. Jerry Graham, Brick Darrow, Rick Cahill and Ron Pritchard in Arizona before he and Jerry joined the National Wrestling Alliance's Los Angeles promotion (run by Mike LeBell) as a tag team the following August. He changed his ring name to Billy Graham, as a tribute to the famous evangelist of the same name. Jerry also told him to dye his hair blonde with a bottle of Clairol. While wrestling in Championship Wrestling from Florida, the name served both as his ring name and to make him the (kayfabe) youngest brother of Jerry and the other Graham Brothers (Eddie and Luke).
In late December, Graham went north to join Roy Shire's NWA San Francisco promotion, working with Pat Patterson (his tag-team partner), Ray Stevens, Cyclone Negro, and Peter Maivia. Graham's nearly two-year run in central California included a stint wrestling in Hawaii in February and March 1972. It was during his Californian period that Graham developed a new aspect of his character; before a match he would stage an arm wrestling contest, encouraging public challenges to his title of "Arm Wrestling Champion of the World".
American Wrestling Association (1972–1975)
During his time with the AWA, Graham feuded with Gagne, The Crusher, The Bruiser, Wahoo McDaniel, Billy Robinson, Ken Patera and Ivan Koloff, the latter becoming his tag-team partner. By this time, Graham was integrating into his performances not only arm wrestling contests but also weightlifting challenges (mainly involving ex-Olympian Ken Patera) and posing routines. One of his most memorable and violent feuds was against McDaniel, with whom he wrestled numerous bouts between 1973 and 1974. In the AWA, he also began his career feud with "Polish Power" Ivan Putski; the feud would also occur when anti-Polish phrases were being frequently spouted by Archie Bunker against his irreligious Polish-American son-in-law Michael Stivic on lead American television series All In The Family.
In September and October 1974, Graham took leave from the AWA to join the International Wrestling Enterprise's "Super Wide Series" tour of Japan, where he fought such local stars as Mighty Inoue, Animal Hamaguchi and Rusher Kimura. Following his return from Japan, Graham formed a tag team with Dusty Rhodes. He left the AWA and returned to the NWA in May 1975, signing up with Red Bastien's Dallas-based promotion for five months and taking the local "Brass Knucks" title from Mad Dog Vachon on August 8. For most of October, Graham worked for the Mid Atlantic promotion in North Carolina, standing in for Ric Flair, who had just been injured in a plane crash.
World Wide Wrestling Federation and return to NWA (1975–1976)
Graham made his in–ring debut in the World Wide Wrestling Federation (WWWF) on October 25, 1975, in a tag team match at the Boston Garden, in which he and Spiros Arion defeated WWWF Heavyweight Champion Bruno Sammartino and Dominic De Nucci. During this time, The Grand Wizard became Graham's manager.
A brief contract with the NWA in Houston, Texas, followed from June to August 1976, after which Graham went on his second tour of Japan, this time accompanied by Ivan Koloff. He feuded with Antonio Inoki during this Japanese run. After returning to America, Graham and Koloff made an unsuccessful attempt to launch their own wrestling promotion in Southern California. In November, on the invitation of Dusty Rhodes, Graham joined the NWA promotion in Florida, beating Rhodes for the Florida heavyweight title on November 22 at the West Palm Beach Auditorium. His work in this period included occasional visits to St Louis, Missouri, where he took on NWA World Heavyweight Champion Harley Race.
Graham defeated Bruno Sammartino for the WWWF Heavyweight Championship on April 30, 1977, in Baltimore, Maryland, after putting his feet on the ropes. During his reign, he wrestled across America and Japan, facing challengers such as former champion Bruno Sammartino, Jack Brisco, Dusty Rhodes, Pedro Morales, Don Muraco, Mil Mascaras, Strong Kobayashi, Carlos Rocha and Riki Choshu. On January 25, 1978, in Miami, Florida, at the Orange Bowl football stadium, Graham wrestled against then-NWA World Heavyweight Champion Harley Race in a WWWF Heavyweight Championship vs. NWA World Heavyweight Championship unification match which ended in a one-hour time-limit draw.