Sad news to open today's show as we learned late Wednesday night that superstar Billy Graham has died at age 79, a three-time world champion and award-winning bodybuilder who was famously close with Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Graham was best known as the WWWF heavyweight champion for a nine-month period from 1977 to 78.

He was largely credited with being the catalyst for professional wrestling's boom in the 1980s,

with Hulk Hogan, Jesse the Body Ventura, and Rick Flair primarily all borrowing and building

upon different parts of his talents, but even more modern wrestlers like Stone Cold

Steve Austin, Triple H, and Scott Steiner based significant elements of their looks and characters

on Graham. Graham really was the consummate wrestler in his time. Beyond the in-ringability,

his charisma led him to revolutionizing what was then called the interview now better

known as a promo. He was a devout Christian who grew up in the South. He was a all-around

athlete whose bodybuilding connections led him to train with Stu Hart in the infamous dungeon

in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. He's one of the most famous graduates of the dungeon

who was actually not related to the hearts. Really, it's Graham and Junkyard Dog who stood out

during that era. Graham worked with all the big names of his time, Paterson and the High Chief

Peter Maya Via in the NWA, Wahoo McDaniel, Ivan Koloff, and Ivan Putzky in the

AWA, and both Bruno San Martino and Antonio Inoki in his first WWWF run. As champion, he fought

Dusty Rhodes, Pedro Morales, Don Morocco, Mil Mascarisus and Bob Backland. He did wrestle for a short

while after Vince McMahon bought the WWF from his father. But after around 1983, he was largely

sporadic throughout different companies over the next few years. Graham was eventually inducted

into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2004 by Triple H on

WrestleMania 10 weekend, and he was still being paid by WWE through his death on a

legend's contract despite numerous public battles with the company and the McMans in his

final years.

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