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Superstar Billy Graham Interview

I recently interviewed the one-and-only Superstar Graham about his life and career (you can read it on Wrestling Observer's Scott Williams catches up with Superstar Graham).

He was also gracious enough to talk about his stints in Florida, including 1978's Super Bowl of Wrestling match with Harley Race, his 1984 stint with Kevin Sullivan and his thoughts on some of the top names in the Sunshine State.

The chiseled, tie-dyed, platinum blonde motormouth said his favorite Florida nemesis was “The American Dream,” Dusty Rhodes. The two had a rivalry that stretched to Graham’s home base of the World Wide Wrestling Federation, of which he was champion in 1977 and 1978.

“There was crossover, because they had that built in stardom with Dusty. They were getting the Florida tapes in New York, so he was over before he even got there. So, naturally, when I got the title, I wanted to do a title match with Dusty,” Graham said.

From the time Graham first arrived in Florida in 1976, hints popped up that he was related to Florida promoter/wrestler Eddie Graham.

“That was fun, that we never let the ‘Graham’ cat out of the bag. We let them wonder about that,” he said.

The 1978 “Super Bowl” match with Harley Race was one of the few times the NWA champion faced the WWWF champion with both belts at stake.

“Well, there were a lot of New York fans in Miami, and so when I started using that belt down there, it worked real good.”

Graham’s next major foray into Florida came in 1984, as a part of the faction led by “Prince of Darkness” Kevin Sullivan.

“All the devil stuff, it was very unique,” he said, laughing. “Kevin made me laugh a lot, and he was crazy, but he performed that bit to a "T." Kevin was funny guy, a great guy. He was someone I had known for long time, and he was very funny. But he was able to really convince the people. They had that fear, that he was legit.”

A few months after his arrival, Graham turned babyface against Sullivan, and the two feuded briefly, but then Graham was abruptly gone, leaving for Mid-Atlantic Wrestling, which was about to explode onto WTBS.

“Oh, it was about over for me in Florida, and I had the chance to get back up there with Dusty as booker. I also had the chance to go up and a make little better money. Well, a lot better money actually,” he said, laughing.

Lastly, Graham shared his thoughts on some of Florida’s biggest stars, by way of a little name association.

Eddie Graham: “He was a brilliant promoter, a brilliant finish man. Just his finishes in general were very complex. There was no way any fan could have seen through one of his finishes. I remember when Sailor Art Thomas made a little Florida run. Now, Sailor Art was not known for his expediency of recall. He’d be in tag matches with me, and Eddie would go over the finish to our match, and Sailor Art would scratch his head and say, ‘Eddie, you think you could go through that one more time? I kind of got lost there.’ That’s the main thing I remember about Eddie Graham – his incredible, complicated, undetectable finishes.”

Dusty Rhodes: “Oh, there was no one to equal Dusty. He was the most fun to work with, and we were close friends and laughed all the time. He was the ultimate. He was my number-one opponent, because we could just work those promos off of each other, and he was so charismatic.”

Jack Brisco: “He was no big deal to me. Very, very overrated. I was never really into that NWA deal as a whole. You know, doing what we were doing in New York, there was just no comparing people to that. Obviously, they did lot more straight wrestling in the NWA, as you know. He was a very nice guy, so I’m not talking personality, but his body language just wasn’t here. He also had a real big attitude about how handsome he was. He always told everyone how good-looking he was. It really irked me, and I didn’t like being around him. He had a very self-absorbed attitude. What’s the word? A narcissist. And you can publish that.”

Harley Race, Graham’s 1978 “Super Bowl of Wrestling” opponent: “Wow. An incredible worker, just an incredible attitude. The guy was one of the best for me as an opponent. He was absolutely proficient at leading one through a match. He was always calm, always cool, never rushing a match, never rushing a spot, just the absolute persona of professionalism. Now, he could be a wild guy, and he was a tough guy, but he was so smooth to be in the ring with. It was like being led around. If I wrestled Harley, I would just tell him, ‘Whatever you want to do.’ The key word here is ‘psychology.’ There’s no psychology now. They’ve lost the psychology of the formation of a match. It was all about leading the crowd, having them in the palm of your hand and manipulating their emotions. That’s the psychology of wrestling. Pat Patterson was another one of best ever at that. In fact, I learned psychology in California, working with Pat against Ray Stevens and my main man, Chief Peter Maivia. Stevens is a wrestling hero. I was so close to Ray – I just loved the guy. You didn’t even know he was in there with you. He could have match with a folding chair, and make the chair look good. He was just over the top as far as ability, timing. Everything he did had absolutely perfect timing, his high spots, everything. His match as a whole was just flawless.”

Ox Baker: “He could have been the greatest heel around if he never opened his mouth. When he opened his mouth, you could tell he was really the nicest guy. Ox was a funny guy. I liked to listen to him sing in the locker room. He would sing Old Man River. He had a tremendous voice.”

Kevin Sullivan: “I love the guy. He was a tremendous talent, especially for his stature. He could make people forget the difference in size, especially when wrestling Mulligan. Mulligan would have to get on his knees, and he was still bigger than Kevin, but Kevin Sullivan, he was able to carry it with guys twice his height. Very, very intense and a lot of believability, and personally, a great friend.”

Billy Jack: “Billy Jack Haynes. Man, we had that Full Nelson deal, and it got over real good. The guy had a great charisma to the crowd. He did some unbelievable interviews. Working, he was a little snug, but I was always able to talk to him, and have great matches with him. He was a great guy.”

Gordon Solie: “I enjoy his commentating more than anyone else. I have couple of pictures of him up at my website, for a tribute. He was a classic guy with the call. You would just believe everything he would say, with bit of a monotone voice. It’s hard to describe his calling ability. He was the best in the business at calling a match. I’d really like to have seen him call matches outside of the studio deal, like what they do now. I’d like to see what Gordon could do now with a big arena, like when they do ‘Smackdown!’”

- Scott Williams

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