David
Chappell: Boogie, thanks for giving the Mid-Atlantic Gateway
some of your time this evening.
Jimmy Valiant: All right,
David
….this should be good.
Chappell:
I’d like to start with your entry into
Jim
Crockett Promotions in the middle of 1981. Many people forget that
when you first came into the Mid-Atlantic area, you wrestled as a
heel. Tell us about your start with Crockett.
Valiant:
Well, believe it or not, it really all started when Jerry Lawler
broke his leg in 1980.
Chappell:
Now, we’re talking about the
Memphis
territory, right? Wasn’t Lawler out almost the whole year with that
broken leg?
Valiant:
Yes, yes. So, (Jerry) Jarrett brought me in over there basically
to take that shot…to take that position. Jarrett was the big boss
over there.
Chappell:
How long were you in
Memphis
for Lawler?
Valiant:
I did that for like nine months…or until he came back. Soon
after [Lawler] came back, that’s when I came into
Charlotte
. That was my first shot in
Charlotte
.
Chappell:
There was a lot of moving around in those days, wasn’t it?
Valiant:
Years ago, [the promoters] would place you different places….I
mean, they would give you choices. If you had somewhere you wanted to
go yourself, you could often do that. In this case, Jarrett told me I
could either go to
Atlanta
if they wanted me…or to
Charlotte
.
Chappell:
And as you said, at that time, you had never wrestled in
Charlotte
before.
Valiant:
That’s right…and I told Jarrett I had never been to
Charlotte
.
David
….me and Johnny (Valiant) went to
Atlanta
around 1976 and worked that territory as a tag team then. So, I’d
been [in
Atlanta
] before.
Chappell:
It sounds like the Mid-Atlantic area held some interest for you in
1981, mainly because you’d never been there before.
Valiant:
Yeah…
Charlotte
sounded great because it was a new place that I’d never been to
before.
Chappell:
But
Charlotte
must have been one of the few places you hadn’t been to
then….because you really got around!
Valiant:
I was very fortunate. I went to the WWWF three different times,
and I stayed there over a year each time. I was in the AWA a couple of
times with (Verne) Gagne, as you know. Of course, I was in the WWA
with Bruiser. I was fortunate to work a lot of the real big
territories.
Chappell:
Now, who actually brought you into the Mid-Atlantic area? Hadn’t
Ole Anderson just become Crockett’s booker when you first came in?
Valiant:
Yes, yes. George Scott had just left and Ole was there then. But
the whole thing was, they really weren’t ready for me in
Charlotte
when I got there. They didn’t know what to do with me.
Chappell:
How was that?
Valiant:
(
Greg
) Valentine was getting ready to go to the WWWF at that time. So they
threw me together briefly with him as ‘King James Valiant.’
Chappell:
Didn’t Lord Alfred Hayes manage you as the heel, King James
Valiant?
Valiant:
Yes, Al Hayes was managing then. So…Valentine had been feuding
then with (Sweet) Ebony Diamond and, I think, Bad Bad Leroy Brown. I
guess it was sort of natural…Valentine and I were two blondes.
King
James Valiant
Chappell:
Since you came in as a heel…there was probably no other heel in
the territory then with more heat than
Greg
Valentine!
Valiant:
It was really great, because of course I took all of his heat. He
was over, and I just blended right in there.
Chappell:
But your run as a heel in the King James persona was very brief.
Valiant:
Like I said, they didn’t really know what to do with me then. At
that point they didn’t have a real solid spot for me. And Valentine
left pretty soon. But it was a start for me. I guess I was only in
that first time for about five weeks.
Chappell:
What was the story on your leaving?
Valiant:
It gets interesting here!
Chappell:
I think it’s been interesting all along!
(laughs)
PART
TWO |