PHOENIX AZ – Sports – Wresting Superstar Billy Graham’s last request is to be removed from the WWE Hall of Fame. Superstar Billy Graham was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2004 by WWE Chairman and CEO Vince McMahon’s son in law, former World Champion Paul “Triple H” Levesque, who is now Executive Vice President of WWE Talent and Live Events.

Superstar Billy Graham Icon

Graham is an icon in the pro wrestling industry. He helped revolutionized the way the business was presented with his smooth talking promo’s that featured a Mohammed Ali style rap along with an astonishing, superhero-like physique -good enough to win him the 1975 Mr. America “best arms” title in the sport of bodybuilding. The first wrestler to describe himself by the term Superstar, WWE refers to all of their wrestlers as Superstars now, Graham is credited with inspiring the careers of wrestling megastar Hulk Hogan, Governor Jesse Ventura, and influencing countless other memorable stars including ‘Nature Boy’ Rick Flair, and ‘Big Poppa Pump’ Scott Steiner.

In March 2011 World Wrestling Entertainment announced they were planning to induct notorious “hard core wrestling” outlaw Abdullah the Butcher into their Hall of Fame.

Upon hearing of this, Graham began a campaign to prevent the Butcher’s induction due to what he describes as: “An addiction to self-mutilation,” and “a common practice of cutting other wrestlers with the same razor blade that he uses to cut his own head with.”

The former World Champion describes Abdullah’s actions as “abusing the trust of his opponents. You are supposed to ‘take care’ of your opponents in pro wrestling, not assault them.”

Razor blades are considered a possible deadly weapon as they are dangerous enough to be confiscated when discovered at airport security checks. Graham adds “They can cut a man through the neck causing him to bleed to death, they can blind a person, or if a razor blade cuts another person with infected blood on it, it can expose them to deadly diseases.”

In the following three statements from the former training partner of Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger goes into detail regarding the reasons he feels the WWE should not have inducted Abdullah the Butcher into their Hall of Fame.  He also describes why he has made an (and unanswered) public request for the company to have himself taken out of the Hall of Fame index on their official website, and everywhere else.

Click here to view Abdullah the Butcher’s WWE Website Hall of Fame profile:  http://www.wwe.com/superstars/abdullahthebutcher

The Unsanitary Cutting Incident

The “unsanitary cutting incident” has been the subject of feature documentaries (Blood Feud, Don’t Bleed On Me, This Is Hannibal), TV and radio newscasts as well as major newspapers and magazine (The Atlantic, McLean’s) articles worldwide.  

The incident involves Larry “Abdullah the Butcher” Shreve allegedly assaulting a then newcomer pro wrestler fresh out of the Hart family dungeon by the name of Devon Nicholson in a 2007 match with a Hepatitis C infected razor blade.  Footage of the incident clearly shows Abdullah (who is known to be Hepatitis C positive) cutting Nicholson with the unsanitary blade and has been broadcast on the internet and Nationwide television in Canada.  

As pro wrestling is scripted and admittedly an “athletic performance,” where wrestlers are playing characters often created by professional writers, getting cut without permission by an unsanitary, potentially disease infected razor blade is not an accepted risk of the “entertainment” profession.  

Sharing razor blades is one of the most common ways of transmitting “blood to blood” diseases like Hepatitis C as it puts one person’s blood directly into another’s bloodstream

The Superstar’s Statement:

“Professional wrestling is no different than a Broadway play; both are totally scripted from beginning to end. If an actor in a Broadway play insisted on deviating from the script, that actor would be fired and replaced, pro wrestling promoters are more lenient. STILL, the promoter is the person who dictates which wrestler will win or lose a match, and if the promoter wishes to have a wrestler cut his head with a razor blade to produce real blood during that fake wrestling match, he will instruct that wrestler to do so.

“There is an unwritten code in pro wrestling that you are to “protect” your so called opponents body at all times.  This is because your opponent is giving you his body to do very complicated and dangerous moves which often leaves zero room for error.  I personally have told many of my opponents before a match “TAKE CARE OF ME OUT THERE” This is the code of pro wrestling, “The fans can see it but they can’t feel it.”

Regarding cutting one’s own head intentionally with a razor blade in a professional wrestling match, a wrestler only does this at the request of a responsible promoter. Unfortunately there are some extremely irresponsible wrestlers who don’t care if they cut your throat and you bleed to death in the middle of the ring.

“It is absolutely unacceptable to cut your wrestling opponent at any time during a match without your opponent’s knowledge and his prior consent. And NEVER with the same blade that you have just cut your own head with, especially in this day and age when AIDS is still prevalent and over 170 million people have Hepatitis C worldwide”.

Eldridge Wayne Coleman
AKA Superstar Billy Graham

Abdullah The Butcher’s WWE Hall of Fame Induction

Despite the protest of a plethora of fans, observers, and legendary wrestlers including Hulk Hogan, Graham and other WWE Hall of Famers, the worldwide conglomerate officially inducted Abdullah the Butcher into the Hall of Fame in March of 2011.

The Hepatitis C positive Abdullah The Butcher (who is currently facing charges of negligence, assault and battery in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice) publically disgraced the company to the media shortly after his induction.  He insulting them publically by flaunting the knowledge that he gave away his official WWE Hall of Fame ring the moment he got off stage to the public.  He claimed that he deserved more from the company despite never actually wrestling for them. Several WWE legends and Hall of Fame wrestlers have taken issue with these remarks.  

Graham has had his own horrible experiences and brushes with death because of the devastating effects of Hepatitis C virus which he is also positive for (Hepatitis C is the number one reason for liver transplants in the US).  Because of his disagreements on Abdullah’s induction due to the allegations that he purposefully spread the disease, Grahams made a public plea to have his own name removed from the index of the WWE Hall of Fame (in a nationwide article by award winning sports scribe of the Sun newspaper chain Tim Baines).  The WWE has yet to acknowledge his official removal request.

Billy Graham Video:

Superstar Billy Graham Statement:

Abdullah the Butcher’s intentional slicing of Devon Nicholson with a razor blade is a travesty.Abdullah has for the largest part of his career wrestled for independent wrestling promotions and has been allowed to roam freely with no control in his “rings of slaughter.”  Under the banner of pro wrestling, in competitive sporting competition, or on the street, to cut another man without consent screams of assault.

For the WWE to induct Abdullah the Butcher into their Hall of Fame, with knowledge of his recklessness and disregard of the health of his opponents, as well as never wrestling one single match in a WWE ring, is the height of stupidity.

Shortly after Vince McMahon (WWE Chairman and CEO) had bought out every other major wrestling promotion in the USA including Ted Turner’s World Championship Wrestling, I heard him say with my own ears, “We are now the care takers of this business and we can justify inducting people outside of the WWF because they now work for us.”

The WWE inducting Abdullah the Butcher, who has never wrestled one match under a WWE contract into their Hall of Fame shows absolute disregard for the respect of Devon Nicholson’s health condition.

World Wrestling Entertainment put a “do not cut your head open with a razor blade policy” in place in 2008 yet they induct a man who cannot restrain himself from not only cutting his own head but the head of his opponents without their prior knowledge or consent with the same razor blade that he just cut himself with in 2011.

I officially, in an article written by the highly esteemed reporter Tim Baines, asked withdraw my name from the WWE Hall Of Fame in 2011 and I’m still, in 2013 demanding that this company remove my name from their index of Hall of Fame wrestlers.

It is a shameless organization to induct a blood thirsty animal such as Abdullah the Butcher into their Hall of Fame that once held prestige to me.  I want the name of Superstar Billy Graham to be no part of it.  I want out!

Superstar Billy Graham

On The “Indian” Blade Attack Incident

When Superstar Billy Graham was beginning his career wrestling on a Native Reserve in Lethbridge Alberta Canada, he witnessed what he describes as “the most sickening display of violence of his life,” that is still burned into his memory to this day.  This story is written about in great detail in Graham’s 2006 Tangled Ropes book released through WWE.  The YouTube video of the former pro football player and boxer describing the incident has also become an internet sensation.

Superstar Statement:

This by far remains the most shocking and disgusting thing I have ever seen in pro wrestling, Abdullah the Butcher mutilating and slicing this poor Indian from ear to ear on his forehead with a razor blade. If this would have happened on the streets of any city anywhere in the US or Canada, Abdullah would have been arrested for assault with a deadly weapon.
Larry Shreve the real person behind the Abdullah the Butcher wrestling character is an animal!

Superstar Billy Graham