TEMPE, Ariz. (AP) — The Arizona Coyotes were confident more than two decades of instability were coming to a close.

A ‘yes’ vote on a referendum for an entertainment district would allow the franchise to finally build its own arena.

When Tempe voters said no in Tuesday’s election, the team was left in shock and with no clear path to the future.

‘What is next for the franchise will be evaluated by our owners and the National Hockey League over the coming weeks,” Coyotes President and CEO Xavier A. Gutierrez said.

The Coyotes’ internal polling showed the three propositions related to the arena would pass easily.

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Voters had other ideas, overwhelmingly saying “no” to the proposed $2.3 billion Tempe Entertainment District, leaving the franchise still in a state of flux.

“The National Hockey League is terribly disappointed by the results of the public referendum regarding the Coyotes’ arena project in Tempe,” NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman said. “We are going to review with the Coyotes what the options might be going forward.”

The Coyotes have faced instability almost since moving to Arizona from Winnipeg in 1996.

The franchise shared then-America West Arena with the NBA’s Phoenix Suns before moving to Glendale’s Gila River Arena in 2003. When former owner Jerry Moyes took the Coyotes into bankruptcy, the NHL stepped in and ran the organization for four seasons.

A new ownership group brought hope in 2013, but turmoil resurfaced two years later, when the city of Glendale backed out of a long-term, multimillion-dollar lease agreement. The Coyotes leased the arena on an annual basis until Glendale announced it was terminating the contract after the 2021-22 season.

The Coyotes’ temporary solution was to share Mullett Arena, a 5,000-seat building that’s by far the smallest in the NHL, with Arizona State University.

Now the organization has to shift gears yet again after voters rejected a proposed new arena.

The Coyotes said on Wednesday they will play in Mullett Arena next season, but it is not a long-term option. Playing at such a small arena hurts the overall league revenue and the Mullett, while nice, is not up to NHL standards.

NHL PLAYOFFS: Ranking the four potential Stanley Cup Finals

“During the 2023-24 season, the Arizona Coyotes will play at Mullett Arena,” Gutierrez said in a statement. “We remain committed to Arizona and have already started re-engaging with local officials and sites to solidify a new permanent home in the Valley.”

One option could be to move back downtown and share what’s now called the Footprint Center with the Suns. The Coyotes had an icy relationship with former Suns owner Robert Sarver, but new owner Mat Ishbia might be more amenable to a partnership.

The Coyotes have said there was a backup plan if the Tempe deal fell through — perhaps a move to another Phoenix suburb — but have kept it under wraps.

A return to Glendale is likely out because of the team’s strained relationship with the city, though another city might be willing to work something out. Phoenix is surrounded by tribal lands, but any deal there would be complicated, particularly if owner Alex Meruelo wants a casino to be part of the development.

Relocation rumors have followed the Coyotes for years and the rejection by Tempe may lead to a road out of the desert. Bettman has been adamant the franchise will remain in Arizona.

Maybe the Coyotes and league can look at relocating somewhere like Portland, Oregon, Kansas City, Houston, Milwaukee or Salt Lake City. Canadian fans in non-NHL cities have clamored to have a team of their own, so perhaps the Coyotes head back to Canada, maybe to Quebec City or Hamilton, Ontario.

From an on-ice perspective, the Coyotes will attempt to continue to operate as if nothing has changed.

But the rejection vote could hamper the team in free agency, with some players unwilling to head to the desert when there’s so much uncertainty. It may also impact their ability to sign first-rounder Logan Cooley and the Coyotes’ other draft picks, who might not want to join a team when they don’t know if it’s still going to be in Arizona.

The Coyotes are in a tough spot all around. The optimism surrounding a possible escape from instability turned into more chaos with the “no” vote.

NEW YORK — New York Yankees pitcher Domingo Germán was suspended for 10 games Wednesday by Major League Baseball and fined for violating the sport’s prohibition of foreign substances on the mound.

The penalty was announced following Germán’s ejection in the fourth inning Tuesday night at Toronto for what an umpire said was “the stickiest hand I’ve ever felt.”

“My fingers had a hard time coming off his palm,” crew chief James Hoye explained after the game.

The punishment was imposed by Michael Hill, MLB’s senior vice president for on-field operations. Germán did not appeal, and his penalty began with Wednesday night’s game in Toronto.

Germán had retired his first nine batters Tuesday night. He denied Hoye’s assertion, saying he didn’t have anything on his hand other than rosin.

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OPINION: Let’s make it clear; Yankees’ Aaron Judge wasn’t cheating

“It was definitely just the rosin bag,” Germán said through a translator. “It was sweat and the rosin bag. I don’t need any extra help to grab the baseball.”

Germán’s ejection was the fourth since Major League Baseball started its crackdown on prohibited grip aids two years ago, and the second this season.

Hoye’s crew examined the 30-year-old right-hander during an April 15 start against Minnesota, when Germán retired his first 16 batters, but allowed him to stay in that game. Hoye had asked Germán to wash rosin off his hand and some had remained on the pitcher’s pinkie.

Mets pitcher Max Scherzer was suspended for sticky stuff on April 20, and Seattle’s Héctor Santiago and Arizona’s Caleb Smith were suspended in 2021.

After all, the greatest two-way player in baseball history won’t solidify his 2024 destination for months. And Ohtani and the Angels have never reached the dance floor together, anyway.

Yet the snake-bitten and at times inept franchise and the sport’s most compelling global superstar – oh, and Mike Trout, too – find themselves in a familiar spot under unfamiliar circumstances: Trying to lift Ohtani and Trout to the playoffs, only this time under a deadline.

Ohtani’s impending free agency isn’t exactly adding urgency to the Angels’ season. They are professionals, after all, who respect the grind of a season and attack it with vigor on the daily. Still, it’s hard to ignore that a winning season (which hasn’t happened in Anaheim since 2014) and October glory (the Angels’ last playoff win was 2009) might somehow help the Angels retain Ohtani beyond November.

Even if reality suggests otherwise.

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“We never talk about it, but everyone wants to be on a winning team,” Angels closer Carlos Estévez tells USA TODAY Sports. “Hopefully, it might attract him here and he gets to stay and it’s amazing.

“But at the same time, it is what it is. He’s going to do what’s best for him and his family.”

That decision will surely involve a contract nearing or north of $500 million. While Ohtani has never ruled out a return to Anaheim, he hasn’t suppressed his desire to play for a winner.

And should the Japanese icon prefer extending his stay on the West Coast, prosperous suitors await like so many Great White Sharks in the Pacific: The Dodgers, Giants and Padres all boast playoff track records, an ability or willingness to spend big and, in L.A.’s case, a concerted effort to save a few bucks for the Winter of Ohtani.

So where does that leave the Angels for one final, potentially cruel summer?

“We’re trying,” says Estévez, who is signed through next year. “If we get there, we get deep in the playoffs, hopefully, and he comes back, that would be amazing to play another year with him.”

First, to get there.

Fifteen wins a month

After they were swept out of the AL Division Series by Kansas City in Trout’s first MVP season of 2014, the Angels were the club of near-misses, winning 85 games in 2015 and 80 in both 2017 and ’18, Ohtani’s rookie year. They’ve merely been bad and unstable ever since, playing .454 ball even as Ohtani won the 2021 AL MVP and could have (maybe should have?) won it last year.

If the middling performance made Anaheim a harder future sell for Ohtani, he’s currently playing for his fourth manager in five years, and for an owner who put the franchise on the market, only to pull it off before this season began.

That leaves Phil Nevin – who took over for the fired Joe Maddon in May 2022 – managing on a one-year contract. Yet an offseason focused on depth rather than one of owner Arte Moreno’s ill-fated free agent baubles might serve the team well.

While the Angels are off to a 22-21 start, the track record of several players – Ohtani included – suggests a higher gear is in the offing.

“We haven’t played our best baseball yet,” says outfielder Hunter Renfroe, “There’s still some room to grow there, and that’s a good thing. We always come in here and talk about hey, 15 wins a month. That’s all it takes to get in the playoffs. Anything over that is gaining some ground.

“Once we hit our groove, 15 wins is going to be just the bottom. As long as we keep grinding it out, our pitching staff has been good and they’ll get better. From the hitters’ standpoint, Shohei, Mike, they’re going to get going here in a little bit and it’s going to be fun to watch.”

Renfroe, who has hit a team-high 10 home runs, reached the World Series with the 2020 Tampa Bay Rays and the ’21 ALCS with the Boston Red Sox. Infielder/outfielder Brandon Drury was a key contributor into the 2022 NLCS for the Padres while lefty starter Tyler Anderson had a breakout year for the 106-win Dodgers.

While acquiring so-called “winning players” guarantees little, it does not hurt to have an expanded core that knows 15 wins a month equals roughly 90 for the year – which gets you into the conversation in this era of the expanded postseason.

“Everybody plays hard. We kind of play a hard-type baseball,” says Anderson, who signed a three-year, $39 million deal in November, and figures to improve upon his 5.26 ERA so far. “ Our offense is obviously really resilient, and rakes, and guys put really good at-bats together, 1 through 9.

“And our pitching, we haven’t really hit our stride yet.  I think we have a lot of arms that can be really good. We haven’t really found our rhythm and got it going all at once as a team. Which is a great sign. We’re playing well, but we have the potential to play a lot better.”

 How, then, does this franchise get over the hump?

“You can’t eat an elephant all at once. You gotta eat it one bite at a time,” says Anderson. “The season’s one big elephant. You’re just trying to take it down, you know?”

And then there’s that elephant in the room.

‘We gotta get into the playoffs’

Playing with Ohtani means allowing a moment to be awestruck even if he’s just one of 26 players in a clubhouse.

Well, two players, but you get the idea.

Perhaps Ohtani’s 2021 season – when he hit 46 home runs, drove in 100, stole 26 bases, posted a .965 OPS, struck out 156 and posted a 1.09 WHIP – will remain his apex. Maybe we’ll never see another 2022, when Ohtani the batter posted a 143 adjusted OPS and Ohtani the pitcher’s adjusted ERA was 174 – with 219 strikeouts in 166 innings.

But it’s clear that given good health, something in that range is a new normal for Ohtani, who turns 29 in July. So far, he’s batting .296 with nine homers and a .910 OPS, and has a 3.23 ERA with 71 strikeouts in 53 innings.

And then there are moments like Monday.

Not at his best on the mound, Ohtani gave up three homers to the Baltimore Orioles – he’s now yielded eight after giving up 14 last year – and was headed for a short outing facing a 4-3 deficit after four innings.

“He was struggling a bit pitching and I said, ‘Buddy, just go out there and do your best. We got your back,’” says Renfroe.

“Obviously, he had his own back.”

Ohtani slammed a 456-foot, three-run home run in his next at-bat, finished a double shy of the cycle and reached base five times, making history as only he can.

It also makes his throw nights appointment viewing.

“That’s every day,” says Nevin. “Not just on his pitch day. He seems to do something special to help us win every day.

“But on his pitch day, you’re looking at that going, ‘Wow, what am I going to see that day?’ There’s a certain feeling on days he pitches.”

All this while trailed by a phalanx of Japanese tasked only with documenting his exploits. And as a future destination and a half-billion dollars – give or take – awaits at the end of this rainbow.

“He’s got a whole country behind him and the way he carries the weight of a whole country on his shoulders is amazing,” says Estevez. “You see him smiling, joking, getting after it, hitting a grounder to short and beating it out, and then stepping on the mound and throwing 100 with these crazy pitches.

“It’s like my God, this guy is having the most fun out here – and he’s got the toughest job. It’s really cool to see that.”

Says Anderson: ‘I think he’s just the perfect guy for that. It seems to have no effect on him. He’s really prepared and I think he’s really good at just being in the moment. That old mental adage: Be where your feet are. Be in the moment. Be present. It seems like he can separate the things in his life.’

Now, to extend that ride a few more weeks.

With Justin Verlander out of the division and an early spate of injuries, the Houston Astros – division champs the past five full seasons – are a pedestrian 23-19 out of the gate. The Texas Rangers’ 26-16 start is not insignificant, but potentially not sustainable, while the wild card Seattle Mariners are flirting with .500 alongside the Angels.

There’s no clear path to the postseason, but no immovable object, either. It’s part of the reason why Renfroe, Estevez and others signed on in the first place.

That, along with transcendent stars who could use their turn in the spotlight.

“The two greatest players of the game right now on the same team – we gotta get into the playoffs. We gotta get there,” says Estevez. “I feel like the urgency to win they’re showing, that’s what attracted me.

“Now that I’m here, there’s no question in my head. There’s no maybe. It’s like, we’ve got the stuff to do it.”

And maybe one last chance with perhaps the greatest to ever do it.

Last year’s conference finals featured Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl, Nathan MacKinnon, Cale Makar, Artemi Panarin, Adam Fox, Nikita Kucherov, Steven Stamkos and Andrei Vasilevskiy. They’ve all been eliminated.

Last season’s Stanley Cup finalists, the defending champion Colorado Avalanche and the three-time conference champion Tampa Bay Lightning, were knocked out in the first round, as were the record-setting Boston Bruins.

All four teams are from the Sun Belt for the first time, shutting out some of the NHL’s biggest markets.

So what does that mean for the excitement level of the Stanley Cup Final? USA TODAY Sports ranks the four potential matchups, top to bottom.

1. Vegas Golden Knights vs. Florida Panthers

Either team would be a first-time Stanley Cup winner, with the last such matchup occurring in 2018 when the Washington Capitals beat the first-year Golden Knights. If Vegas wins, it would become the fastest non-Original Six expansion team to win a championship. The Panthers are a good underdog story after upsetting the Bruins and Toronto Maple Leafs. There is star power with Florida’s Matthew Tkachuk and Aleksander Barkov vs. Vegas’ Mark Stone and Jack Eichel. Plenty of top defensemen, too, with Florida’s Brandon Montour and Aaron Ekblad vs. Vegas’ Alex Pietrangelo and Shea Theodore. Plus, Florida is responsible for the Golden Knights’ early success. Then-general manager Dale Tallon left Jonathan Marchessault unprotected in the expansion draft and traded Reilly Smith to the Golden Knights. Marchessault had a hat trick and Smith also scored in the Golden Knights’ Game 6 win vs. the Edmonton Oilers.

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2. Dallas Stars vs. Florida Panthers

This is the matchup of the biggest TV markets (Carolina isn’t far behind), so TNT would like it. Dallas has a lot of name players (Jason Robertson, Joe Pavelski, Jamie Benn and Tyler Seguin), Roope Hintz is the playoffs’ top remaining scorer and defenseman Miro Heiskanen is fun to watch. Dallas’ Mason Marchment and Evgenii Dadonov used to play for Florida. Plus there’s the Peter DeBoer factor. He’s currently facing the team (Vegas) that fired him during the offseason in the Western Conference final. He began his coaching career in Florida, missing the playoffs three times before establishing himself elsewhere. He’d have a chance to win his first Stanley Cup after two previous trips to the final. Just like with Vegas-Florida, the winning coach would be in his first season with the team.

3. Carolina Hurricanes vs. Vegas Golden Knights

This could be the most competitive series. They’re the top remaining teams in playoff scoring and five-on-five play. Their power plays are about even, as are the save percentages for Vegas goaltender Adin Hill and Carolina’s Frederik Andersen. The big advantage goes to Carolina in penalty kill (90% vs. 60%). Though Vegas won the season series 2-0, this has the feel of a series that could go seven games. A knock on the series is that Carolina’s most exciting player, Andrei Svechnikov, is on the sidelines with an injury.

4. Carolina Hurricanes vs. Dallas Stars

The winner would be a repeat champion, though it has been a while. Carolina last won in 2006 and Dallas won in 1999. Max Domi wasn’t much of a factor when the Hurricanes acquired him last season at the deadline, getting six points in 14 playoff games. Now he has 11 points in 13 games with Dallas. Both of their regular-season games went to overtime, meaning games could be close.

DENVER — Doc Rivers is a good coach.

So is Mike Budenholzer and Monty Williams. Same with Nick Nurse, Frank Vogel and Ty Lue.

Maybe even excellent coaches.

What do they have in common? They were all dismissed after multiple successful seasons that included championships for Budenholzer (2021, Milwaukee Bucks), Vogel (2020, Los Angeles Lakers), Nurse (2019, Toronto) and Lue (2016, Cleveland).

Williams was Coach of the Year in 2021-22. Rivers helped the Sixers to the third-best record in the league this season. 

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Good coaches get fired in the NBA.

“The most volatile aspect of employment within the NBA is being an NBA coach, hands down,” Lakers first-time head coach Darvin Ham said.

Of the coaches since 2015 to have won a championship, just Golden State’s Steve Kerr remains with that same team.

For Williams, Budenholzer and Rivers – all fired after losing playoff series in April and May – results didn’t meet expectations this season.

With owners and front offices trying to capitalize on legitimate championship windows – star players are only star players for so long – patience is tight-rope wide, and coaches are the easiest scapegoats.

“None of those guys I’ve been surprised,” Denver coach Michael Malone said. “We all understand the jobs that we sign up for. If you wanted to have a job where you’re going to be secure for 40 years, being an NBA coach is not that job.”

Not that they don’t know that. Malone is the son of former NBA assistant Brendan Malone, who spent two decades in the NBA.

“Now, there’s a reason my father tried to talk me out of becoming a coach,” Malone said. “He had lived it with six kids, and he understood the pitfalls of that job. I was just too dumb and stubborn to listen to him. … But we all understand the rules when we sign up for this, and it’s unfortunately one of the nasty parts of our business.”

The Nuggets hired Malone in 2015, and eight seasons in, he is the fourth-longest tenured coach with the same team behind San Antonio’s Gregg Popovich, Miami’s Erik Spoelstra and Kerr.

Over the past three seasons, Milwaukee, Philadelphia and Phoenix were the top three most victorious teams. With Giannis Antetokounmpo on the Bucks, MVP Joel Embiid on the Sixers and Devin Booker and Kevin Durant on the Suns, championship expectations remain. Had any of those players voiced unhappiness about a coaching change, it’s unlikely a change would’ve been made. Likewise, if any player wasn’t pleased with the incumbent, that also would have prompted change.

Those are coveted jobs, and the franchise − either front office or ownership − wants someone else. Sixers president of basketball operations Daryl Morey inherited Rivers as new Suns owner Mat Ishbia did with Williams. Owners and front-office execs like to be involved in selecting a coach.

That’s part of dismissing a good, or great, coach. Another part is human relations.

A new voice and approach are necessary to re-energize players. Those championship coaches all replaced coaches who fell short. Kerr for Mark Jackson in Golden State. Lue for David Blatt in Cleveland. Nurse for Dwane Casey in Toronto. Vogel for Luke Walton.

Change does work.

Not always.

But it’s worth the risk for certain teams. And if the new coach doesn’t win a title soon, they will be out of work, too. It comes with the job.

Follow NBA columnist Jeff Zillgitt on Twitter @JeffZillgitt

Aw, nothing like a cheating scandal, real or imagined, to ignite a rivalry. 

It’s the kind where everyone openly accuses each other of suspicious activity, but has nothing concrete but a little rosin and foreign substance mixed in. 

Come on, wasn’t baseball’s Pitchcom technology supposed to wipe out sign stealing forever? 

Unless someone broke into a team’s control room, or intercepted a team’s sound waves, how can you possibly pick up signs when there’s no longer a need for catchers to flash signs with their fingers?

Well, as the New York Yankees and Toronto Blue Jays are proving loud and clear in their juicy four-game series this week, teams still can use their own ingenuity to spot tendencies, pick up flaws, and detect whether a pitcher is going to throw a fastball or off-speed pitch without a garbage can in sight. 

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The Yankees may indeed have spotted a flaw in Blue Jay reliever Jay Jackson’s mechanics to know what pitch was coming, and whether or not Aaron Judge really did take a quick peek and look for a sign, or wonder who was loudly yelling from his own bench, everything was perfectly legal. 

If you’re careless enough to let hitters know what pitch is coming, you deserve to be smacked around until you’re much more careful disguising your pitches. 

“What’s fair is fair, I think,’’ Toronto manager John  Schneider told reporters. “If our guys are giving stuff away, we have to be better at that. I think that if things are being picked up from people that aren’t in places they should be, that’s where I think the line should be drawn. … 

“The integrity of the game is so important and people are always trying to look for competitive advantages.’’ 

We may never know whether Judge knew exactly what pitch was coming on Monday night on his 462-foot homer off Jackson, his second of the night. But we do know that his 448-foot shot into the Flight Deck that broke the WestJet maple leaf logo, didn’t involve a single glance towards anyone but pitcher Erik Swanson, unless you count Judge looking and pointing towards the fans, or was it his bullpen, as he slowly rounded the bases getting sweet revenge. 

“Especially with the things that have happened in this game with cheating stuff,’’ Judge told reporters, “and to get that thrown out, I’m not happy about it.’’ 

Let’s be perfectly clear, Judge was not cheating. Maybe he was onto Jackson’s pitch selection, with Jackson telling The Athletic afterwards that he was tipping his pitches, but if that’s illegal, the sport would be shut down. 

The Blue Jays did speak with MLB officials, with Schneider saying they at least wanted to enforce the rule that the first-base and third-base coaches stay in the coaching box, even though there’s not a single coach or team that adhere to the rule. 

“It’s silliness. It’s ridiculousness,’’ Yankees manager Aaron Boone told reporters. “I hope everybody on both sides realizes it.’’ 

If you want actual cheating, look no further than Yankees starter Domingo German, who was caught red-handed, once again, with an illegal foreign substance on his hand, pants, glove, and everywhere you looked. 

He was immediately ejected and will be suspended 10 games, leaving questions on just how he’ll perform once he returns and must pitch with clean hands. 

That is cheating.

When Fernando Tatis Jr. tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs last year, that was cheating too. 

It would be grossly naïve to believe that all players are clean now, no matter how often they are tested. 

Baseball is a game deep-rooted with cheating, whether it’s players using corked bats, pitchers scuffing baseballs, flashing signs or lights in outfield bullpens, or widespread tampering among baseball executives and agents. 

Baseball has never been pure, and never will be, but it doesn’t diminish the sheer beauty of the game. 

We love our bitter rivalries in this game, where teams actually hate one another, whether it’s Bryce Harper challenging the entire Colorado Rockies team to a fight and calling them a loser [expletive] organization, Houston Astros owner Jim Crane telling Yankees GM Brian Cashman to keep his mouth shut, or Blue Jays All-Star Vladimir Guerrero Jr. saying he’d rather be dead than play for the Yankees. 

Now, in a matter of 48 hours, we have Schneider yelling to the Yankees’ bench, “Shut up, fat boy.’’ We have Boone screaming at the Blue Jays. We have Judge saying he’s furious with the Blue Jays broadcasters for suggesting he was stealing signs. And we have two teams comically trying to enforce coaches to stay inside their coaching boxes. 

What’s next, a crackdown on the fraternization rule that teams opposing players aren’t permitted to speak or acknowledge their buddies when the gates open before a game? 

The animosity has been created all thanks to a cheating scandal that’s not a scandal, unless someone actually believes that German is not acting on his own when he lathers himself with an illegal foreign substance and then tries to convince anyone who’ll listen that it was merely rosin. 

“It was definitely not rosin,’’ crew chief James Hoye said. “I’ve felt hands with rosin. That wasn’t rosin. …The stickiest hand I’ve ever felt.” 

The drama has left us with baseball’s latest and greatest rivalry, at least for the rest of this season, making the Dodgers-Giants, Cubs-Cardinals and Yankees-Red Sox rivalries look like a lovefest. 

“It’s a competitive environment,” Schneider told reporters. “Things get said. People say things they may or may not regret.” 

Says Jays starter Kevin Gausman: “There’s definitely a bit of a dislike and that adds to the fuel.’’ 

These two teams, after they play again Thursday, don’t meet again until late September, when postseason berths should be on the line. 

Will tempers simmer over the next four months? 

Absolutely. 

Will this feud be forgotten in four months, particularly by these two rabid fanbases? 

Absolutely not. 

There is no cheating scandal here. Really, there’s nothing to see but two great teams fighting for a playoff berth. But why let a few facts get in the way or ruining a budding rivalry? 

See you in September. 

Follow Nightengale on Twitter: @Bnightengale 

WWE Hall of Famer ‘Superstar’ Billy Graham, who revolutionized the on-screen characters of professional wrestlers, has died at the age of 79, WWE announced.

‘WWE is saddened to learn that WWE Hall of Famer ‘Superstar’ Billy Graham has passed away,’ WWE said in a statement. ‘A former WWE Champion, Graham’s flashy fashion style, over-the-top interviews and bodybuilder physique created the archetype for a generation of Superstars that followed in his footsteps.’

Graham’s health issues

Graham, whose birth name was Eldridge Wayne Coleman, had health issues for many years after his wrestling career. In his autobiography, he detailed that he had a liver transplant in 2002 after a long history of drug abuse. He continued to have liver problems over the next decade.

In April, his family said he had been hospitalized for over four months, losing over 80 pounds while dealing with an infection in his ears, skull and sinus cavity, according to his Facebook page. On April 30, it was revealed Graham had acute kidney failure and dehydration and was battling organ failure. On Monday, his wife, Valerie, said doctors wanted to remove him from life support, but she refused.

The career of the ‘Superstar’

Graham had a brief stint in the Canadian Football League and was a prominent bodybuilder before getting into professional wrestling. He made his debut with the company, then known as the World Wide Wrestling Federation, in 1975, and won three world titles throughout his 15-year career, before becoming a manager and commentator.

But Graham became one of the biggest stars in the company’s early history for what he did outside the ring. His charismatic persona, mixed with his brash talk during out-of-the-ring interviews, unique wardrobe and different colored facial hair made him a crowd favorite, and shifted the company towards making their talent ‘larger than life’ characters. He was also famous for his tagline, ‘The man of the hour, the man with the power, too sweet to be sour!’

Many WWE stars, including Triple H and ‘Stone Cold’ Steve Austin, have credited Graham for inspiring their careers.

‘Graham was perhaps the single-most influential performer in WWE history whose interviews, fashion and physique inspired Hulk Hogan, Jesse ‘The Body’ Ventura and Scott Steiner,’ WWE said. ‘Just as WWE fans flocked to see ‘Superstar’ compete in the ring, so did they love to listen to him pontificate on the microphone, even if he was bad-mouthing the competitors they held dear.’

Graham was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2004.

WWE stars, legends pay tribute to Graham

WWE Hall of Famer Ric Flair thanked Graham for the influence he had on his career. Longtime WWE manager and former executive Paul Heyman said Graham left his mark on the company.

‘After Billy Graham left his mark, Vincent Kennedy McMahon decided everyone would be a WWE Superstar. A most heartfelt RIP to the man of the hour, the man with the power, too sweet to be sour!’ Heyman said.

WWE Hall of Famer The Iron Sheik called Graham his ‘brother for life,’ sharing a video of Graham praising him at an event.

‘HE WAS THE CHAMPION AND MOST OVER MAN IN THE BUSINESS. HE ALWAYS SHOW ME THE RESPECT. I LOVE HIM I MISS HIM FOREVER,’ he said.