Jimmy Valiant - Career

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. At one point, they were managed by Bobby Heenan who referred to them as "the worst tag team I managed in my life."

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 ... 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.

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.

Valiant wrestled on November 25, 2012 with The Ragin Bull Manny Fernandez as his tag team partner in Winston-Salem, NC.