{"id":32917,"date":"2023-05-18T10:05:47","date_gmt":"2023-05-18T14:05:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/?p=32917"},"modified":"2023-05-18T10:05:47","modified_gmt":"2023-05-18T14:05:47","slug":"rip-superstar-billy-graham","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/?p=32917","title":{"rendered":"RIP: Superstar Billy Graham"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

Superstar Billy Graham, the Hall of Fame Professional wrestler died yesterday at the age of 79.\u00a0 He had been on life-support and ill for some time.<\/p>\n

Superstar Billy Graham was born Eldridge Wayne Coleman.\u00a0 He became interested in weightlifting while in fifth grade.\u00a0 In high school he threw the shot put and participated in the Golden Gloves<\/em>.\u00a0 In 1961, Mr. Coleman won the Teenage Body Building Contest West Coast Division<\/em>. (Frank Zane was the winner of the East Coast Division<\/em>!).\u00a0 By 1968, Eldridge Coleman was working out at Gold’s Gym where he became friends with Arnold Schwarzenegger, Franco Columbu and other famous body builders of the era.<\/p>\n

In 1970, Mr. Coleman began his career in professional wrestling working for various territories around the country.\u00a0 In 1972, he took on the moniker Superstar Billy Graham and he became world famous.\u00a0 Over the course of his career he was a three-time World Champion and inducted in the the Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame<\/em>.\u00a0 He retired in 1988 and became an author and ringside announcer.<\/p>\n

Superstar Billy Graham was the inspiration for the next wave of pro wrestlers that included Ric Flair, Austin Idol, Hulk Hogan and Jesse The Body<\/em> Ventura.<\/p>\n

Our thoughts and prayers go out to Superstar Billy Graham’s family, friends and fans.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Superstar Billy Graham, the Hall of Fame Professional wrestler died yesterday at the age of 79.\u00a0 He had been on<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":912,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[61,17,57,49],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-32917","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-authors","category-celebs","category-rip","category-sports"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32917","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/912"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=32917"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32917\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32918,"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32917\/revisions\/32918"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=32917"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=32917"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=32917"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}