10 Insane Wrestling Stories Nobody Ever Talks About
2. Corpsenapping
It's difficult to apply the (not untrue) labels of "outlandish" and "wild" to Dr. Jerry Graham, a riot-inciting super-draw in the earliest years of the WWWF, because he suffered genuine mental health issues.
A performer with such an incredible ability to draw heat, Graham once started a riot in Madison Square Garden so crazed that the venue implemented a rule that nobody under the age of 14 could attend wrestling events. This stood for 20 years.
"There was something inside the Good Doctor - maybe even a genetic malformation - that continuously forced him to sabotage himself," wrote Superstar Billy Graham in his memoir. Whatever that was manifested in a truly extraordinary incident upon the passing of his mother.
He had already pledged to her doctor that "harm would befall him should she expire under his care," and when she passed, he stormed the Phoenix hospital, armed with a knife and a shotgun, and removed her corpse from a gurney before attempting to flee the scene with her over his shoulder. In the process, he had "tossed a security guard halfway across the hallway". Police arrived as the scene degenerated into a cinematic standoff, ultimately arresting Graham, who was subsequently institutionalised. Graham, who according to Jim Cornette "drove down the streets of New York lighting cigars with $50 bills," was the childhood hero of Vince McMahon.
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