Wayne Coleman, a professional bodybuilder turned wrestler whose bleached-blond hair and loudmouth personality as “Superstar” Billy Graham helped set the muscle-bulging, fight-picking, flamboyant template for later ring stars, notably Hulk Hogan and Jesse Ventura, died Wednesday. He was 79.

WWE reported his death but did not list a cause. Coleman had a liver transplant in 2002 after contracting hepatitis C and had several hip replacements and other health problems stemming from, he said, “massive doses” of steroids he used much of his career.

At 6-foot-4 and 275 pounds, with a 56-inch chest and 22-inch biceps he dubbed “pythons,” tie-dyed tights, feather boas, and trash-talking interviews, Coleman headlined blood-soaked bouts at New York’s Madison Square Garden in the 1970s. A onetime teenage evangelist who toured nationally, he said he had chosen a name that paid tribute to the Southern Baptist orator Billy Graham and the hit rock opera “Jesus Christ Superstar.”

In wrestling promos and interviews, Coleman was fond of calling people “brother,” a term of endearment often used at evangelical revival meetings, but in the ring, he played the villain and enjoyed taunting his competitors in the manner of boxer Muhammad Ali and the earlier wrestler Gorgeous George.

“I took some old stuff and made it new,” Coleman told the New York Daily News. “I wasn’t some big old wrestler. I was the first guy to look and pose like a bodybuilder, dropping to one knee and doing a bicep shot, showing off those 22-inch pythons.”

Describing himself as a natural-born exhibitionist, he said he did whatever was necessary to help lure audiences and make the matches fun for ticket buyers. The result was media attention, with invitations to appear on late-night TV talk shows.

Coleman enjoyed his greatest prominence in what was then the World Wide Wrestling Federation, where he was pitted in matches against grapplers such as Dusty Rhodes and Harley Race. In 1977, he said, he was “appointed” to beat Bruno Sammartino for the federation’s world championship title, part of the narrative decided ahead of time.

Along the way, Coleman said, he met and mentored two novice wrestlers, James Janos and Terry Bollea, who would become major stars as Ventura and Hogan, respectively, as the wrestling federation – now known as World Wrestling Entertainment – became a national TV staple in the 1980s.

Both Ventura and Hogan studied Coleman’s flamboyance in and out of the ring, with Hogan also calling competitors “brother” and referring to his muscles as “pythons.”

“(Former federation owner) Vince McMahon has said that Superstar Billy Graham was 20 years ahead of his time,” Paul Levesque, better known as wrestler Triple H, said at Coleman’s 2004 WWE Hall of Fame induction ceremony. “If you look at those who came after him, more people have patterned themselves after Superstar Billy Graham and become a success in this business than probably anybody.”

Eldridge Wayne Coleman was born in Phoenix on June 7, 1943. His father drove phone poles into the ground for the local power company but developed multiple sclerosis and was reassigned to light office work. His mother became his father’s caretaker.

His father, reputedly jealous of his son’s size and buoyant athleticism, beat him for minor infractions, until one day when Wayne was able to yank the leather strap from his father’s fingers. His mother also hit Wayne, using a brick against his head, she once said, “because he was too big to hit with anything else.”

To escape the unhappiness of his home life, he poured his energy into bodybuilding and initially fashioned a set of weights from spare parts.

He also became a shot put and discus standout in high school but, inattentive in class, quit his studies in his junior year. He idolized muscleman Steve Reeves and became involved in competitive weightlifting. In 1961, he won the West Coast division of the Mr. Teenage America bodybuilding contest.

His picture in the paper drew the attention of a couple who were hosting a Christian revival tent meeting in Phoenix, and they invited Coleman to speak. “At the end of the sermon,” he later said of the minister, “he asked for those who wanted to be born again to come forward and kneel down.”

Coleman said he became a “born-again Christian” after attending a Christian revival tent meeting, then joined a group that gave lectures at small churches around the country – presenting himself as a godly voice of modern youth who also happened to have a mountainous physique that was hard to ignore.

“I didn’t know what charisma meant,” he told the New York Daily News. “People were attracted to me because of my sincerity. When a really strong Christian minister speaks, we say he’s anointed through God. The true minister has an exceptional connection to the worshipers.”

But ministering did not pay well. Furthermore, Coleman said his growing vanity slowly pulled him away from religion, as he found himself bedding many among the female flock. He entered competitive powerlifting, arm wrestling, and strongest-man competitions, at one point befriending Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Coleman briefly boxed and, in the late 1960s, played in the Canadian Football League – while working as a debt collector in the offseason. When Coleman tore his Achilles tendon, his gridiron career was over. A friend encouraged him to consider wrestling, and he soon joined a Canadian outfit run by the wrestling trainer Stu Hart before becoming a star with the World Wide Wrestling Federation.

Although Coleman was widely praised by colleagues, he never got the same exposure – or paychecks – as those who came after him. His career in the ring was largely over by the mid-1980s, with his body hampered by decades of injuries and steroid misuse.

Coleman said he tried to extort hush money from McMahon by claiming in 1992 on Phil Donahue’s talk show that he had witnessed WWE officials abusing children. He later recanted the allegation and noted in his 2006 autobiography, “Tangled Ropes” (written with Keith Elliot Greenberg), that it was “my most shameful moment, not only in the wrestling profession but in my life.”

Coleman told Christianity Today that he contemplated suicide before rededicating his life to Jesus in 1994. He became active in ministry work and was outspoken about the dangers of steroids, drugs, and alcohol. (He was among the prominent wrestlers who testified at the 1991 trial of George Zahorian III, an osteopath, and surgeon who was convicted of selling illegal anabolic steroids to federation wrestlers.)

Coleman’s first two marriages, to Shirley Potts and Madelyn Miluso, ended in divorce. In 1978, he married Valerie Belkas. He had two children from his second marriage, but a complete list of survivors could not immediately be confirmed.

After his religious reconversion, Coleman said he stopped watching wrestling because of the vulgar language and degrading attitude toward women. But he remained proud of his work in the ring.

“I was the originator of the 22-inch pythons, brother,” Coleman told the Orlando Sentinel. “They say imitation is the best form of flattery. A lot of these guys wouldn’t be where they are today if not for Superstar Billy Graham.”

« Previous

Disney ends nearly $1 billion project amid ongoing feud with Gov. DeSantis

Next »

El Niño is getting stronger. That could cost the global economy trillions.