Career
He began his career as the storyline brother of Dr. Jerry Graham after fellow wrestler Frankie Cain (The Great Mephisto)suggested they resembled each other. They began wrestling together in 1963 in Stampede Wrestling. Later that summer, Johnson wrestled a series of matches against Chief Big Heart.
He wrestled in the World Wide Wrestling Federation (WWWF) with Jerry Graham beginning in 1964. They won the WWWF United States Tag Team Championship from Don McClarity and Argentina Apollo, holding it for eight months, before losing the belts to another heel tagteam, Gene Kiniski & Waldo Von Erich. It was during this time that he became known as "Crazy" Luke Graham.
Graham enjoyed most of his success for the Los Angeles territory in the mid to late 1960s. He held the WWA World Title for that office in 1965. He dropped the belt to Pedro Morales. In the late 60s, he was a mid card performer for Verne Gagne's American Wrestling Association (AWA) out of Minneapolis.
After leaving the AWA, Luke had a brief run with Tarzan Tyler as the first WWWF Tag Team Champions in 1971. One story was that the team allegedly defeating Dick the Bruiser and The Sheik for the belts, however, no record of any match between the two teams has ever been documented. The other story is that they won it from Bepo & Geeto Mongol. Once champions, the team held the belts for six months while feuding with Chief Jay Strongbow, Gorilla Monsoon, and Pedro Morales.
In 1974, he was the United States Champion in the Pacific Northeast. He retired in the late 1980s. He teamed with his son, Luke, Jr., however, in 2001 and started Galaxy Championship Wrestling, Inc. Galaxy Championship Wrestling, Inc. went on to become publicly-traded under the symbol GXCW on the NASD OTCBB and was eventually merged with FUSA following Luke Sr. heart attack and deteriorating health.
Read more about this topic: Grady Johnson
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