Jimmy Valiant
| Jimmy Valiant | |
|---|---|
Valiant at the Big Apple Con, November 14, 2008.
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| Birth name | James Harold Fanning |
| Born |
August 6, 1942 Franklin County, Tennessee |
| Residence | Shawsville, Virginia |
| Professional wrestling career | |
| Ring name(s) | Handsome Jimmy Valiant Big Jim Vallent Boogie Woogie Man Charlie Brown From Outta Town King James Valiant |
| Billed height | 6 ft 2 in (1.88 m) |
| Billed weight | 250 lb (113 kg) |
| Billed from | New York City |
| Trained by | Verne Gagne |
| Debut | May 5, 1964 |
| Retired | 2005 |
James Harold Fanning (born August 6, 1942) is a retired professional wrestler and author better known as Jimmy Valiant.
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 Township, New Jersey. He married Clara, with whom he fathered three children: Robin, Rhonda, and Dana. With Monika, he has his first son Todd. 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.
Fanning 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 in the AWA, they were managed by Bobby Heenan.
Valiant had entered the WWWF as a babyface, but quickly switched to heel. He had title matches against champion Pedro Morales in secondary arenas, such as Philadelphia, and feuded with short-term tag partner Chief Jay Strongbow. Jimmy and his kayfabe brother Johnny held the tag belts and main evented Madison Square Garden against Chief Jay Strongbow and Bruno Sammartino (Strongbow and Sammartino won 2 out of 3 falls, but one fall via disqualification; hence the belts didn't change hands).
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", which was used in wrestling arenas as his entry music and 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.
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