Dr. Jerry Graham

Wrestler: Dr. Jerry Graham
Real Name: Jerry M. Graham
Birthday: December 16, 1931
Hometown: Born in Woodward, Oklahoma
Moved to Phoenix, Arizona
Marital Status: Married Multiple Times
Height & Weight: 5'10" - 245 lbs (prime)
400 lbs at time of death.
Trained by: Self-trained at YMCA
Debut: 1947
Previous Gimmicks:
Finishing Move: Atomic Kneedrop
Favorite Moves: Swinging Neckbreaker
Notable Feuds:
Antonino Rocca
Argentina Apollo
Bobo Brazil
Chief White Owl
Red Bastien
Gene Kiniski
Alex Knight
Cheif Big Heart
Victor Rivera
Ricki Starr
Red Bastein
Gene Kiniski Notable Feuds:
Thrillseeker Terry Zeller
Haystacks Calhoun
Country Boy John Calhoun
Lou Klein
Wahoo McDaniel
Din McClarity
Phil Melby
Bruno Sammartino
Phil Melby
Don Curtis
Mark Lewin

Titles Held:

NWA (Georgia) World Tag Team titles w/Don McIntyre defeating Fred & Bill Blassie (December 9, 1955);
NWA (Georgia) Southern Heavyweight title defeating Bobby Wepner (December 14, 1956);
NWA (Georgia) Southern Heavyweight title defeating Chief Big Heart (January 11, 1957);
NWA (Capitol) United States Tag Team titles w/Eddie Graham defeating Don Curtis & Mark Lewin (September 1, 1958);
NWA (Capitol) United States Tag Team titles w/Eddie Graham defeating Don Curtis & Mark Lewin (May 27, 1959);
NWA (Capitol) United States Tag Team titles w/Eddie Graham defeating Red & Lou Bastien (April 16, 1960);
NWA Gulf Coast Heavyweight title defeating Chief Little Eagle in a tournament (July 19, 1961);
Stampede International Tag Team titles w/Jim Wright defeating Dominic Bravo & Ron Etchison (Febuary 28, 1963);
NWA (Toronto) International Tag Team titles w/Bulldog Brower defeating John Paul Henning & Art Thomas (October 17, 1963);
WWWF United States Tag Team titles w/Luke Graham defeating Vittorio Apollo & Don McClarity (June ??, 1964);
NWA (Vancouver) World Tag Team titles w/Abdullah the Butcher defeating John & Chris Tolos (October 2, 1967);
NWA (Vancouver) Canadian Tag Team titles w/Abdullah the Butcher defeating John & Chris Tolos (October 23, 1967);

Career Highlights:

Getting into the Business


Wrestling in Florida


Gulf Coast Wrestling

July 19, 1961: Dr. Jerry Graham defeated Chief Little Eagle for the Gulf Coast title in Mobile, AL..

World Wide Wrestling Federation

1950s & 60s: Jerry & Eddie Graham captured the WWWF United States Tag Team titles on FOUR difference occasions..
June 3, 1964: Dr. Jerry & Crazy Luke Graham defeated Vittorio Apollo & Don McClarty for the WWWF US Tag Team titles..

Real Life

Jerry Graham and Antonino Rocca were on the cover of Life or Look magazine..
When his mother died, he stole her corpse from the morgue, beating up two attendants on the way out..
~~~There was a newspaper article with a photo of Jerry Graham in cuffs with guards all around him..
~~~One of the morgue workers said Graham threw him across the room like he was a potato chip..
Famous quote by Dr Jerry Graham "Win if you can, lose if you must, but always cheat"
January 24, 1997: Jerry Graham passes away after suffering a stoke..
NOTES: Dr. Jerry Graham was a licensed hypnotist..




Special thanks to Steven Maikoski, a relivative of Jerry Graham, for sending in some of the information for this profile..


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Dale Pierce wrote: Aside from the Phoenix fiasco at the hospital, Graham was arrested several other times and even bragged about it. Often he would give police the alias of "Big Dick Hertz" (sound it out) when picked up. Another scandal came when up in Utah, where he decided to shoot the lights out of a gigantic lit up cross on top of a church, for target practice.

One of his sons, Tom Graham, graduated from Grand Canyon College in Phoenix and reportedly became a minister. Oddly enough, this Graham attended church often at the big North Phoenix Baptist Church, where his father had been booted out years before, after supposedly getting into a verbal fight or threatening to punch Pastor Richard Jackson (who was himself a big, athletic man and no one to tangle with)

Tangled Ropes by Superstar Billy Graham, covers loads of info on Jerry's strange behavior and makes note of the real life hatred between Jerry and Fred Blassie.

The Final days: Graham was still trying to wrestle up to a few years before his death, mainly for the Los Angeles based promotion, AIWA, headed by Ed Ahrens. Here he feuded with Thrillseeker Terry Zeller, Scott Cole, Victor Rivera, Country Boy Calhoun (a "nephew" of Haystacks Calhoun) and others. He was managed by Johnny Legend and later by the Time Traveler.

In his last days, at the hospice, Graham was still causing trouble for people. A note on the door warned nurses and caretakers "Speak ENGLISH ONLY" around this patient, as he would go ballistic, half out od his head, about foreignors ruining America and throw things at people from his bedside. He also would tell people how many wrestlers had visited him, when there had been only four or five from the AIWA who came by.

A video tape circulating among the tape traders shows varied wrestlers ralking before an AIWA show while Graham was on his last legs in the hospice and no longer on the cards. One wrestler, Bubba Storm, is heard making the suggestion, :"Hey, let's go down to the hosptial and tell Jerry Graham that Fred Blassie is waiting to visit him in the waiting room and see what happens."

credit: onlineworldofwrestling.com