Since Wednesday night, the wrestling world has been mourning the loss of Superstar Billy Graham, who died at the age of 79 stemming from complications from a number of compounding illnesses. The primary topic in discussions of his legacy has been his influence on the business, particularly the slew of copycats he spawned who generally became big stars in the wrestling business in their own right, with Hulk Hogan being the most famous. In an interview on Thursday’s episode of SiriusXM’s “Busted Open Radio,” Graham memoir co-author Keith Elliott Greenberg shared how Vince McMahon envisioned Superstar as filling Hogan’s role in WWE’s national expansion if his mental health hadn’t gone on a steep decline after dropping the WWE Championship in 1978.

“I believe, and I think [Graham] would have concurred with me on this, that the ‘kung-fu’ character [he had when he returned n 1982] was an extension of that breakdown he had,” Greenberg explained. “He came in, [and] Vince McMahon Jr., now, in ’82, was running things, and he’s like ‘Superstar, you didn’t tell us this is what we’re getting here.'” As Greenberg recounted earlier in the interview and as Graham has claimed in the past, despite Graham knowing when and how he’d lose the title the moment he got it, he lobbied to Vince McMahon Sr. to keep the title and turn babyface, which the elder McMahon turned down, something that Graham said served to fuel his depression. “Vince McMahon Jr. had told me that had he been in charge and not his father in 1978, he would have acquiesced to Superstar Billy Graham’s demand. And in Vince McMahon Jr.’s words, ‘He would’ve been my Hulk Hogan.’ So it was that close.”

Though Graham came back to the WWF in 1986, this time as the old tie-dye wearing Superstar, that run was cut short by his need for a hip replacement. Though he returned after the surgery, his body couldn’t hold up to the nightly pounding, so he retired from in-ring wrestling after about three more months of matches.