Pro wrestling legend ‘Superstar’ Billy Graham on life support, wife says

www.wsbtv.com/ ^ | 05/15/2023 | Bob D'Angelo

[massmike]

“Superstar” Billy Graham, a WWE Hall of Famer and the wrestling promotion’s world heavyweight champion during the late 1970s, is on life support, his wife said.

Graham, 79, a former bodybuilder and heavily muscled wrestler whose real name is Eldridge Wayne Coleman, is suffering from a major infection in his ears and skull, his wife, Valerie, wrote on Twitter, comments that were also reported on TMZ Sports.

Graham is also suffering from congestive heart failure, diabetes and hearing loss, his wife said.

The latest update to A GoFundMe page set up for Graham said the former wrestler “coded.” According to SBNation, the term is used in hospitals when a patient goes into cardiopulmonary arrest and requires immediate resuscitation efforts.

Known for his flamboyant boas, tie-dye shirts and bombastic interviewing style that was inspired by Muhammad Ali, Graham was a significant “heel” in the WWWF (later called WWF and now known as WWE) when Vince McMahon Sr. ran the wrestling promotion.

He was the promotion’s heavyweight champion from April 30, 1977, to Feb. 20, 1978, according to the WWE Encyclopedia. Managed by the Grand Wizard (Ernie Roth), Graham defeated the legendary Bruno Sammartino for the title in Baltimore and held the belt for 296 days before dropping it to Bob Backlund at Madison Square Garden in New York.

According to WWE, Graham’s reign was the longest for any ring villain in WWE history.

[Retrofitted]

When he retired, Billy Graham broke kayfabe and went around schools and gyms, lecturing about the terrible things steroids do when they're abused. Talk about scaring someone straight and, in my case, it worked wonders.

Go with God in peace, Billy.

[lee martell]

I know his heyday was a long time ago, but it sounds like Graham was a professional wrestler for quite a while.
If so, wouldn’t he already have some expenses paid via health insurance, if not all expenses paid? Why the need for a GoFundMe? He seems ready to pass on due to long term diagnosis. Everything is ‘pre-existing’ the final expenses.

[Extremely Extreme Extremist]

Bad to the bone.
Da-na-na-na.
B-b-b-bad

[Retrofitted]

He wrestled for about twenty years, if I recall correctly (started in '69 and retired in '89), but insurance and the like for pro-wrestlers isn't really a thing unless you're a star in one of the big promotions (and then you're getting ripped off, but that's a whole 'nother story).

So no, it's very likely that he had no insurance or very little of it, and likely opted out of it to keep from getting a huge pay cut.

[Jane Long]

Wouldn’t he be on mediscare, at his age?

Maybe it doesn’t cover this?

🤷‍♀️

[Fuzz]

Obviously it was the vax.

[Paul R.]

Drs. reportedly want to take Graham off life support, wife refuses:

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/superstar-billy-graham-wrestler-on-life-support-wwe-hall-of-fame/

[Paul R.]

Seems to confirm orig. link.

[jz638]

It’s a sad commentary on that particular line of work that at 79, he probably outlived nearly all of his contemporaries.