Greg Valentine

Greg Valentine
Valentine at the Big Apple Convention in Manhattan, October 1, 2010.
Birth name	Jonathan Anthony Wisniski
Born	(1951-09-20) September 20, 1951 (age 65) Seattle, Washington, United States
Residence	Tampa, Florida, United States
Spouse(s)	Julie Wisniski (m. 1995)
Children	2
Family	Johnny Valentine (father) Brian Knobbs (brother-in-law)
Professional wrestling career
Ring name(s)	Baby Face Nelson The Blue Knight Boxcar Willie Greg Valentine Johnny Fargo Johnny Valentine, Jr.
Billed height	6 ft 0 in (1.83 m)
Billed weight	243 lb (110 kg)
Billed from	Seattle, Washington
Trained by	Ed Farhat Stu Hart
Debut	1970

Jonathan Anthony Wisniski (born September 20, 1951) is an American professional wrestler, better known as Greg "The Hammer" Valentine. He is the son of wrestler Johnny Valentine.

In the course of his career, which has spanned over four decades, Valentine has held more than 40 championships, including the NWA United States Heavyweight Championship, WWF Intercontinental Heavyweight Championship and WWF World Tag Team Championship. An alumnus of the World Wrestling Federation and World Championship Wrestling, he was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2004, and was also inducted into the Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame in 2016.

Born in Seattle, Washington, Wisniski traveled around Texas in his teens with his father. During a summer vacation, he decided to drop out of college and become a wrestler. His father initially tried to deter him, but eventually ceded to his wishes and sent him to Canada in 1970 to train under Stu Hart in Calgary.

Wisniski was trained to wrestle by Stu Hart, wrestling his debut match in July 1970 against Angelo "King Kong" Mosca (he lost in around five minutes). Six months later, Wisniski relocated to Detroit to complete his training under the Sheik.

Initially reluctant to take his father's ring name, Wisniski wrestled as Baby Face Nelson before becoming Johnny Fargo, one half of the Fargo Brothers with Don Fargo between 1971 and 1974. The Fargo Brothers initially competed in the Buffalo and Cleveland based National Wrestling Federation before moving on to Texas. They split in 1974 and Wisniski went to Florida, where he began performing as Johnny Valentine Jr., hopeful that he could live up to his father's legacy. He later changed his ring name to Greg "the Hammer" Valentine, and was billed as Johnny Valentine's brother, not his son, because of fears that the elder Valentine would be thought of as too old to be a legitimate threat. Valentine remained in Florida for a year while also working in Los Angeles and in Japan under Antonio Inoki in 1975 and early 1976.