Jimmy Valiant

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James Fanning
Statistics
Ring name(s)	Jimmy Valiant Big Jim Vallen "Handsome" Jimmy Valiant "Boogie Woogie Man"
Billed height	6 ft 2 in
Billed weight	252
Debut	1964
Retired	2005

James Valen was a professional wrestler better known as Jimmy Valiant.

1 Career
2 Profile
3 Championships and accomplishments
4 Trivia
5 External links

[edit] Career

Jimmy Valiant (born James Fanning in Franklin County, Tennessee near Tullahoma, TN) 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 awhile.

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...Tell all the women Handsome Jimmy's on the way..." Despite this being a song to be used in wrestling arenas as his entry music, 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.

In the early 1980s, Valiant went to the 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. He feuded heavily with Paul Jones and his "Army" of wrestlers that included The Barbarian, Shaska, Baron Von Raschke, Teijho Khan, Manny Fernandez and The Assassins (then comprised of Jody Hamilton [the original Assassin] and Hercules Hernandez [Assassin II]). Valiant, Jones and Whatley all had their heads shaved during this 3 year long feud, and Assassin II was unmasked and revealed as Hernandez after losing a match to Valiant in Toronto, Ontario on April 15, 1984. 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 happily retired from active competition in the sport and enjoys his time with his wife Angel and training anyone wanting to be involved in wrestling at Boogie's Wrestling Camp located in Shawsville, Virginia.

[edit] Profile

Height: 6 ft 2 in (1.91 m)
Weight: 252 lb (113 kg)
Birthday: August 6, 1942
Hometown: Hammond, Indiana
Trainer: Verne Gagne
Other Gimmicks: Big Jim Vallen, Handsome Jimmy Valiant, Charlie Brown, Boogie Woogie Man Jimmy Valiant
Managers: Grand Wizard, Big Mama (his wife), Lou Albano, Street Lady, The Goon, Jimmy Hart, Bobby Heenan

[edit] Championships and accomplishments

American Wrestling Association

AWA Southern Heavyweight Championship (7 times)
AWA Southern Tag Team Championship (1 time) - with Rocky Johnson

Continental Wrestling Association

CWA Tag Team Championship (3 times) - with Bill Dundee (2) and Don Carson (1)

National Wrestling Alliance

Regional

NWA Florida Tag Team Championship (1 time) - with Johnny Valiant
NWA Florida United States Tag Team Championship (1 time) - with Johnny Valiant
NWA Georgia Tag Team Championship (1 time) - with Johnny Valiant
NWA Mid-America Heavyweight Championship
NWA Mid-Atlantic Television Championship (3 times)
NWA World Tag Team Championship (San Francisco version) (1 time) - with Johnny Valiant

Pro Wrestling Illustrated

PWI ranked him # 274 of the 500 best singles wrestlers during the "PWI Years" in 2003.
PWI Tag Team of the Year award in 1974 with Johnny Valiant.

United States Wrestling Association

USWA Unified World Heavyweight Championship (2 times)
USWA Southern Heavyweight Championship (1 time)

World Wrestling All-Stars

WWA World Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
WWA Tag Team Championship (3 times) - with Johnny Valiant

World Wide Wrestling Federation | World Wrestling Federation

WWWF World Tag Team Championship (1 time) - with Johnny Valiant
WWF Hall of Fame (Class of 1996)

Other Titles

All-American Heavyweight Championship (1 time)

[edit] Trivia

Jimmy was not really related to Johnny Valiant or Jerry Valiant.
Jimmy's wife, "Big Mama", appeared with Jimmy briefly in Jim Crockett Promotions and with Barry Darsow in the AWF.
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.