Valiant’s entrance into pro wrestling no walk in park

In the second of a two-part series of my interview with wrestling hall-of-famer, the Boogie Woogie Man Jimmy Valiant, the longtime superstar shared how he broke into the business and then stayed active in the squared circle for four decades.

‘You couldn’t go in like a wise guy back then or they’d break your arm or leg and put you out of the business before you got started,’ Jimmy said, recalling the difficulty some prospective wrestlers found trying to get their foot in the door. ‘Those were some tough cats back then. If they didn’t like you, then you were going to have an unpleasant day.’

Valiant said he was always into physical fitness and body building but back when he was growing up in the 1960s, there weren’t a lot of programs for students and there sure weren’t wrestling schools like the one Jimmy runs today from his residence/museum/wrestling camp in Shawsville, Va.

‘I would do push ups and grapple with my buddies, we’d even put a mattress on the floor in the basement and wrestle,’ Jimmy said. ‘I loved playing football because it was a contact sport and then I’d work out in a gym after school and that’s where I met a guy who got me into the business.’

Jimmy said he learned on the job, actually turning pro weeks after first getting into the business saying he took to it like a ‘duck on the water.’ However, the former singles and tag team champion pointed out wrestling life was not easy.

‘During my career I wrestled over 10,000 matches and traveled four million miles,’ Jimmy said. ‘Sometimes we’d drive 400 miles to wrestle a match then get back in the car and drive another 300 to wrestle the next night. We’d wrestle seven days a week, twice on Saturday and Sunday.’

Jimmy pointed out there were no guaranteed contracts back then and that if a wrestler didn’t wrestle, he didn’t get paid.

‘If you broke a finger then you’d just tape it to a good one and get back in there, or maybe brace it with a popsicle stick,’ Jimmy said. ‘I’ve had all my fingers broken and my nose broken four or five times but I wrestled through it. This is just how it was done back then. You had to feed the family.’

Jimmy said he has no problems with the big contracts wrestlers get now but pointed out such guaranteed paychecks sometimes allow performers to miss time for injuries their predecessors would have wrestled with.

‘Some of them (today’s professional wrestlers) get a hang nail and they’re out for six weeks,’ Jimmy said, noting he rarely watches television wrestling now because there is too much talking and not enough action. ‘Back then you couldn’t get by if you missed work for the little things.’

The consolidation of major wrestling under the WWE and TNA has also greatly changed things for wrestlers. Jimmy worked for Vince McMahon Sr., father of the current WWE head, back in 1970. However, back then federations were run in separate territories whereby fans did not know wrestlers from other areas since there were no real major wrestling broadcasts.

‘I had to prove myself again and again, just like starting over, in every territory I went into,’ Jimmy said. ‘And you didn’t stay long back then. The territory owners would always tell you that if you were going to buy a house, then buy one with wheels on it because they’d constantly be bringing in new people to keep things fresh. If you weren’t drawing money, they’d yank you.’

While not keeping up with wrestling today, Jimmy said his students at his wrestling camp always fill him in on the latest storylines.

‘Back then we could do our talking and still get five matches on television. Nowadays you’re lucky to get two in an hour,’ Jimmy said. ‘We didn’t have to use all the bad language back then. And yeah, we had good looking girls, but they were actually wearing clothes.’

Jimmy’s wrestling camp is open free to the public from noon to 4 p.m. each Sunday at his home Shawsville, Va.

‘It’s a way for me to give back to wrestling, a career which gave so much to me,’ Jimmy said.