Johnny Graham

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Johnny Graham
Statistics
Ring name(s)	"The Indy Legend," "Lucious" Johnny Graham
Billed height	5' 8"
Billed weight	229 lbs
Resides	Mechanicsburg, PA
Billed from	Seattle, WA
Trained by	Lars Anderson
Debut	1987

[edit] Career

Born into a family of wrestling fans in the north east, Johnny Graham wanted to be a wrestler from the time he was very young. Given his small stature, he never believed the chance to live that dream would be realized. He was wrong.

In 1978, Graham joined the United States Marine Corps. During his early years, he bulked up, but remained a fan. In 1984 he was transferred to Honolulu, Hawaii. While there, he made some contacts and eventually was able to meet with the president of World Pacific Wrestling, Lia Maivia (Grandmother of "The Rock"). Mrs. Maivia made Graham an offer: Reach 200 lbs, and he would be trained to wrestle. Graham spent much of his time after that bulking up and hitting the gym. In March of 1987, Graham had met his weight goal. Fulfilling her promise, Lia Maivia arranged for Graham's training to begin.

On his first day, Graham was introduced to Lars Anderson. Anderson would go on to train Graham to wrestle along with help from a local favorite, Farmer Boy Ipo. After nine months of training and paying his dues, Graham was offered a chance to get in the ring for the first time during a TV taping.

Graham was to be managing The Hawaiian Dream Warriors that evening in their tag-team title match against Title Wave. One of the Warriors had suffered a knee injury that required surgery, leaving Graham to fill in. Johnny's ability to generate heat from the crowd with insults and quick wit earned him a spot hosting a local television wrestling show.

In late 1988, Graham moved to Seattle, Washington. A local wrestler, Moondog Moretti, was able to get Graham booked as a color commentator for Pacific Coast Championship Wrestling. While in the Pacific Northwest, Graham also worked for Vancouver Wrestling USA and later in Universal Independent Wrestling. In 1990, Graham formed a tag team with "Playboy" Buddy Rose. The respect and friendship they earned during their run as a team lasted through Graham's last match in the north west, where Rose entered the ring to save Graham from a two on one assault.

In 1993 Graham moved to Pennsylvania. He teamed with Rob Noxious, and together they would hold several tag team championships. By 1995 Graham was wrestling with several federations including American Commonwealth Wrestling and Pennsylvania Championship Wrestling. Graham also did a lot of backstage work for ECW. Eventually, Graham was brought in by International Championship Wrestling to wrestle many big name superstars such as Tony Atlas, Greg Valentine, and Hugh Morrus.

While working for New England Wrestling, Graham was asked to tag team with Corporal Punishment in a match against The Sultan and Rikishi Fatu. As luck would have it, journalists from Pro Wrestling Illustrated were covering the match. The article led to Graham being asked to work with wrestlers for their tryouts for World Wrestling Entertainment. In 1999 Graham began working with John Rambo, a promoter he had met while in the north west. In addition to working many of Rambo's shows, Graham spent time at Rambo's House of Pain training facility where he helped students gain some valuable ring experience.

In 2000, Graham began training female wrestler Tiffani Monroe. Both Graham and Monroe would continue to work for a variety of promotions over the next several years, including some time with World Star Wrestling where Graham would face stars such as King Kong Bundy and Tito Santana.

Over his 19 year career, Graham has wrestled all over the country for numerous different federations. He has faced names such as Tony Atlas, Tom Brandi, King Kong Bundy, Hacksaw Jim Duggan, Hugh Morrus, Rikishi, Tito Santana, Nikolai Volkoff, Larry Zbysko, and has formed tag teams with The American Patriot and Playboy Buddy Rose. He has held numerous titles over the years, and continues to tour the U.S. independent circuit. Graham currently works with Tiffani Monroe in the promotion that she started, Pennsylvania-based Pro Wrestling Entertainment (PWE), and is currently one-half of the PWE Tag Team Champions (with his son, Jey Graham). He also trains up-and-coming wrestlers at the federation's wrestling school. In addition to training Monroe, Graham has trained "Ace of Hearts" Shane Valentine, Jey Graham, Cowboy Dunk, and manager Max Speede. Graham is also currently working with new students at the school that have yet to certify.