8 Wrestlers WWE Regret Making World Champion

6. Billy Graham

Finn Balor
WWE

There's no doubting 'Superstar' Billy Graham's place in wrestling history. Graham was positioned as the top tier heel who served as the link between Bruno Sammartino and Bob Backlund.

After returning to the then-WWWF in 1977, Superstar soon put an end to Sammartino's 1,237-day reign as the company's World Champion. And after a 296-day run of his own, Graham dropped the title to Backlund.

Despite his status as a trailblazer whose unique and colourful charisma helped to lay the foundations for what was to come from the likes of Hulk Hogan, Jesse Ventura, and Ric Flair, Vince McMahon and WWE must regret ever having any sort of association with Billy Graham.

In the years since his in-ring days came to an end, Graham has been involved in a whole host of unsavoury incidents that must surely have Vince pulling his wig out.

Even after Graham had sued WWE in 1994 on the accusation of forcing him to take steroids, then admitted to allegedly making up lies about sexual abuse within the company in order to extract money from McMahon, the company still put Superstar into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2004.

Following that Hall of Fame induction, Billy Graham would sell his Hall of Fame ring in 2009, citing medical expenses. To an extent, that may be understandable, but Superstar went further to irk WWE by lambasting Linda McMahon during her 2010 Senate campaign, asking to be removed from the Hall of Fame after Abdullah the Butcher was inducted, and has spent time encouraging wrestlers such as Kofi Kingston and Adam Cole to take steroids.

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Senior Writer
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Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main day job, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg. Where his beloved Wrexham AFC is concerned, Andrew is co-host of the Fearless in Devotion podcast, which won the Club Podcast of the Year gong at the 2024 FSA Awards.