Superstar Billy Graham Reportedly Celebrated WWF Title Win By Eating A Hot Dog

The wrestling world is mourning one of the pillars of the style that would come to be known as sports entertainment, Superstar Billy Graham, who passed away yesterday at 79. On this morning's "Busted Open Radio," longtime wrestling photographer George Napolitano shared his memories of the famous night in 1977 when Superstar beat "The Living Legend" Bruno Sammartino for the WWE Championship.

"I know the date, April 30, 1977," Napolitano began. "[Graham] says, 'You drive me to Baltimore?' and I said 'Baltimore?' and he says 'Yeah, I'm gonna go face Bruno,' and I go, 'Ok.' It was Saturday night, and driving up there he says to me, 'Hope you got a lotta film, you're gonna need a lotta film for that camera.'" Napolitano believed that the WWE Hall of Famer was ribbing him, as he'd taken countless photos of Graham wrestling Sammartino. "He goes, 'No, this is a good one, it's gonna be good.'"

Napolitano continued to think nothing of it, saying the atmosphere at the Baltimore Civic Center was as unassuming as he had been in the car. Napolitano assumed that if anything special was going to happen, Graham would've given him more warning. 

"I just figured, it's just another match," Napolitano chuckled. "If I knew it was gonna be that important, I would've taken more pictures than what I did." According to the photographer, Graham pinned Bruno and then immediately pointed to Napolitano to make sure he'd got the shot, which Napolitano did. Napolitano went to the back and was immediately called to take Graham home.

Graham got in the car in his wrestling gear and changed into his street clothes at a rest stop. According to Napolitano, Graham's big celebration meal? A hot dog. 

"That's how it happened," he said. "That's truly the way it was."