 |
This biographical article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (October 2007) (Find sources: Jimmy Valiant – news, books, scholar) |
| James Valen | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Ring name(s) | "Handsome" Jimmy Valiant Big Jim Vallen "Boogie Woogie Man" Charlie Brown King James Valiant |
| Billed height | 6 ft 2 in (1.91 m) |
| Billed weight | 252 lb (113 kg) |
| Born | August 6, 1942 Franklin County, Tennessee |
| Resides | Shawsville, Virginia |
| Billed from | New York City |
| Trained by | Verne Gagne |
| Debut | 1964 |
| Retired | 2005 |
James Harold Fanning[1] (born August 6, 1942) is a former professional wrestler better known as Jimmy Valiant.
Contents |
Career
Jimmy Valiant was born in Franklin County, Tennessee, near Tullahoma. He later moved to Willingboro, New Jersey, hometown of WWE Hall of Fame professional wrestler Gorilla Monsoon, WWE referees Joey Marella and Mike Chioda, and Olympian Carl Lewis.
He started wrestling in 1964 as Big Jim Vallen. He went to the World Wide Wrestling Federation in the 1970s as Handsome Jimmy Valiant and formed a team with Johnny Valiant that would dominate the tag team scene for a while as WWWF Tag Team champions.
During the late 1970s - early 1980s, Valiant was a central player in the Memphis, Tennessee wrestling scene. He feuded regularly with Jerry Lawler and teamed with Bill Dundee to dominate the tag team matches of that time. He even recorded a song, "The Ballad of Handsome Jimmy" that began, "I've been rolling into Mempho ... TWA ... [T]ell all the women Handsome Jimmy's on the way..." The song was used in wrestling arenas as his entry music, and it became a mainstay on some Memphis radio stations for a few years. Despite the Memphis promotion desperately wanting to keep him in Memphis full-time, even offering to buy him a house in Memphis according to Jerry Lawler's biography, Valiant decided to move on after holding the AWA Southern Heavyweight title for roughly a year. Valiant also spent a brief amount of time in Jim Crockett Promotions in the late 1970s as the heel King James Valiant managed by Lord Alfred Hayes.[1]
In the early 1980s, Valiant returned as a babyface to NWA's Jim Crockett Promotions as "Boogie Woogie Man" Jimmy Valiant and called his fans "The Street People". His theme music around this time was "Boy From New York City", by The Manhattan Transfer. While in Jim Crockett Promotions, he would sometimes appear in a black bandit-style mask and call himself "Charlie Brown from Outta Town." This usually occurred when Valiant was (in kayfabe) "banned" from wrestling. "Charlie Brown" was billed as someone other than Valiant, despite "Brown" having Valiant's legendarily prodigious beard.
He feuded heavily with Paul Jones and his "Army" of wrestlers that included The Barbarian, Shaska Whatley, Baron Von Raschke, Teijho Khan, Manny Fernandez and The Assassins (then composed of Jody Hamilton [the original Assassin] and Hercules Hernandez [Assassin II]). Valiant, Jones and Whatley all had their heads shaved during this three year-long feud, and Assassin II was unmasked and revealed as Hernandez after losing a match to Valiant in Greensboro, NC at a supershow called 'Boogie Man Jam '84', which also featured an NWA World title match with Ric Flair defending vs Ricky Steamboat (who came out of retirement for this particular match) that went to a one hour draw, and it also featured an NWA US title match which pitted Champion Dick Slater (who was a heel) vs. a face Greg Valentine in a cage match.
Valiant had help from Hector Guerrero, Junkyard Dog, Pez Whatley (before he turned and became Shaska), Manny Fernandez (his partner in the B and B Connection until he turned on Valiant), Dusty Rhodes and Ron Garvin.
In the late 1980s, he teamed with Guerrero (who was then masked as Laser Tron) and Bugsy McGraw and feuded with The New Breed. When Jim Crockett Promotions became WCW, Valiant left and returned to Memphis to wrestle in the USWA.
Since then, Valiant has primarily wrestled in the independents and has managed to wrestle in 5 decades, his last match occurring on January 29, 2005 at WrestleReunion. He is now retired from active competition in the sport and enjoys his time with his wife Angel and training wrestlers at Boogie's Wrestling Camp located in Shawsville, Virginia.
Personal life
Born to James and Effie Fanning, Jimmy Valiant grew up the youngest of 5 children. He claims his family, wife Angel and his 4 children, Robin, Rhonda, Dana, and young son Handsome were his inspiration for wrestling. He has 4 sisters and incorporated their names into the spider web tattoo on his upper arm. Sisters Louise, Christine, Charlena, and Patrica. He was never from or resided in New York City. Along with his intelligent grand-daughter Clarissa.
In wrestling
- Finishing moves
- Body slam
- Elbow drop
- Forehead bite
- Managers
- Major Duke George
- Grand Wizard
- Lou Albano
- Lord Alfred Hayes
- Street Lady
- The Goon
- Jimmy Hart
- Bobby Heenan
Championships and accomplishments
- Cauliflower Alley Club
- Other honoree (1997)
- Championship Wrestling from Florida
- NWA Florida Tag Team Championship (1 time) - with Johnny Valiant
- NWA United States Tag Team Championship (Florida version) (1 time) - with Johnny Valiant
- Georgia Championship Wrestling
- NWA Georgia Tag Team Championship (1 time) - with Johnny Valiant
- All-Star Wrestling Federation
- ASWF Hall of Famer
- ASWF Venue named after Jimmy Valiant, dubbed, Valiant Arena - www.aswfwrestling.com
- NWA Mid-America / Continental Wrestling Association
- AWA Southern Heavyweight Championship (5 times)
- AWA Southern Tag Team Championship (1 time) - with Rocky Johnson
- CWA Tag Team Championship (3 times) - with Bill Dundee (2) and Don Carson (1)
- NWA Mid-America Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
- NWA Southern Heavyweight Championship (Memphis version) (1 time)
- NWA San Francisco
- NWA World Tag Team Championship (San Francisco version) (1 time) - with Johnny Valiant
- Pro Wrestling Illustrated
- PWI Tag Team of the Year award in 1974 - with Johnny Valiant.
- PWI ranked him # 274 of the 500 best singles wrestlers during the "PWI Years" in 2003.
- World Wide Wrestling Federation / World Wrestling Federation)
- WWWF World Tag Team Championship (1 time) - with Johnny Valiant
- WWF Hall of Fame (Class of 1996)
- World Wrestling Association
- WWA World Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
- WWA World Tag Team Championship (3 times) - with Johnny Valiant [3]
References
- ^ "From 'Handsome' to 'Boogie' and back". Canadian Online Explorer. 2004-05-25. http://slam.canoe.ca/Slam/Wrestling/2004/05/25/471954.html. Retrieved 2009-02-16.
- ^ "Independent Wrestling Results - July 2004". onlineworldofwrestling.com. http://www.onlineworldofwrestling.com/results/other/2004-07.html. Retrieved 2008-07-05.
- ^ "W.W.A. World Tag Team Title (Indianapolis)". Puroresu Dojo. 2003. http://www.wrestling-titles.com/us/in/wwa/in-wwa-t.html.
External links
- Official Website
- WWE Hall of Fame Page with Johnny Valiant
- Memphis Wrestling History
- 2008 Audio Interview with "The Boogie Woogie Man" Handsome Jimmy Valiant
|
|||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)
