Jimmy Valiant

Jimmy Valiant
Valiant at the Big Apple Con, November 14, 2008.
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 (1942-08-06) (age 69) 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 and author better known as Jimmy Valiant.

Personal life

Jimmy Valiant was born in Franklin County, Tennessee, near Tullahoma as the youngest of five children of James and Effie Fanning. He later incorporated the names of his four sisters - Louise, Christine, Charlena and Patrica - into the spider web tattoo on his upper arm.

He later moved to Willingboro, New Jersey. He married Clara, with whom he fathered three children: Robin, Rhonda, and Dana. With Felicia, he has his youngest son Handsome. He is now married to Angel. He has 6 grandchildren: Lonna, Jenae, Beau, Chassie, Clarissa, and Delilah.

Career

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.^[2]

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.

After 1983, he feuded heavily with Paul Jones and his "Army" of wrestlers that included The Barbarian, Baron Von Raschke, Teijho Khan, and The Assassins. During this three-year feud, Valiant received help from Hector Guerrero and "Raging Bull" Manny Fernandez. In late 1985, Valiant and Fernandez formed a team called B and B Connection ("Boogie Woogie" and "Bull"), Junkyard Dog, Pez Whatley (who however turned on Valiant, shaved his head and joined Jones' Army as Shaska Whatley), Dusty Rhodes and Ron Garvin.

At a supershow called 'Boogie Man Jam '84' in Greensboro, NC, which also featured an NWA World title match with Ric Flair defending vs. Ricky Steamboat that went to a one hour draw, Valiant defeated Assassin II, who was unmasked and revealed as Hercules Hernandez. At one point, Valiant shaved Jones' head, leading to Jones adopting a more military look. In the summer of 1986, Fernandez accepted Jones' money and turned on Valiant starting a feud between the two. Jones' dissolved his Army shortly afterwards, ending the feud.

In the late 1980s, he teamed with Hector Guerrero (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 five 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.

In wrestling

Valiant in a CCW show in 2006.

• Finishing moves
  • Body slam
  • Elbow drop
  • Forehead bite

• Managers
  • Major Duke George
  • Grand Wizard
  • Lou Albano
  • Lord Alfred Hayes
  • Big Mama
  • The Goon
  • Jimmy Hart
  • Bobby Heenan

Championships and accomplishments

• All Pro Wrestling
  • APW Heavyweight Championship (1 time)^[3]

• 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

• Maple Leaf Wrestling
  • NWA Television Championship (2 times)

• Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling
  • NWA Television Championship (2 times)

• Northern Wrestling Federation
  • NWF Championship (1 time) ^[4]

• 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.

• United States Wrestling Association
  • USWA Southern Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
  • USWA Unified World Heavyweight Championship (2 times)

• 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 ^[5]

• Wrestling Observer Newsletter awards
  • Worst Tag Team (1987) with Bugsy McGraw

References

1. ^ Johnson, Steven (2004-05-25). "From 'Handsome' to 'Boogie' and back". Canadian Online Explorer. http://slam.canoe.ca/Slam/Wrestling/2004/05/25/471954.html. Retrieved 2009-02-16. 
2. ^ http://www.midatlanticgateway.com/Resource_Center/interviews/valiant/valiant01.htm
3. ^ Royal Duncan & Gary Will (4th Edition 2000). Wrestling Title Histories. Archeus Communications. ISBN 0-9698161-5-4. 
4. ^ "Independent Wrestling Results - July 2004". onlineworldofwrestling.com. http://www.onlineworldofwrestling.com/results/other/2004-07.html. Retrieved 2008-07-05. 
5. ^ "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

Professional wrestling portal

• Official website
• WWE Hall of Fame Page with Johnny Valiant
• Memphis Wrestling History

Persondata
Name	Valiant, Jimmy
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	August 6, 1942
Place of birth	Franklin County, Tennessee
Date of death
Place of death