Pro Wrestling Hall of Fame : the Heels by Greg Oliver; Steven Johnson

Author:Greg Oliver; Steven Johnson
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub, pdf
Published: 2012-01-27T08:08:37+00:00

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Dinner with announcer Gordon Solie.

we hooked up, it became pure entertainment at its finest with the Grand Wizard combing my hair, taking my shirt off, and all this and that, entertaining value.”

In the ring, Superstar was still a heel, taking shortcuts and commiting evil deeds behind the referee’s back. “The fans were so groomed, brainwashed, to hate cheaters that you had to get heat,” Superstar said. “Then, I would say that, even with Bruno, the ultimate babyface in New York, I get e-mails from guys today saying, ‘Man, I hated you, and I loved Bruno, until you came to New York and started cutting promos. Then all of a sudden, I realized, “Wow, this guy’s cool.”’ So even with Bruno, I still had a lot of my babyface fans out there.” Graham said WWWF owner Vincent J. McMahon used to tell him,

“You’re too entertaining. Why can’t you be more of a heel?” His title defenses came against the likes of Ivan Putski, Dusty Rhodes, and Mil Mascaras.

The pinnacle of his title reign was a 1978 world title bout against National Wrestling Alliance world champion Harley Race at the Orange Bowl in Miami. The match went to a draw in the rain. “Graham could get over with his talk. Ability in the ring was limited,” Race explained. “If he was going to be the heel, he had to be the dominant person, either that, or cut him off before he was coming into the ring, and then really stomp on him so when he did make the comeback, he would be the babyface. He was just THE EGOTISTS

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a person gifted with gab, and it could go either way with him, depending on who he was working with.”

Losing the WWWF title to Backlund — “He can’t even cut a promo” —

sent Graham into a tailspin, and within a year, he was digging ditches in Arizona. Once he collected himself, he would return as a karate master rather than a tie-dyed hipster.The abrupt switch masked an addiction to drugs, and his body breaking down from steroid abuse. The Superstar image of the ’70s did return later in the ’80s, though he was a shell of his former self. He had a decent stint in Florida in Kevin Sullivan’s evil army, before turning true babyface for the first time. During the height of the WWF’s national expansion, Graham returned, but is most remembered for allowing his hip surgery to be broadcast on the company’s syndicated TV show.

An autobiography and DVD have allowed Superstar to share his stories to new generation of fans, including his plea for them to sign their organ dona-tion cards — as a kidney from a twenty-six-year-old woman killed in an auto accident saved his life.

He is somewhat wistful about his earlier days. At the top of his game, no one talked better than Superstar, and certainly no one looked better. His legacy leads directly to the likes of Hulk Hogan, Jesse Ventura, and Scott Steiner. But it isn’t the same.Though he was a babyface at heart, he is a little wistful about his heel work.

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