Johnny Weaver Kenneth Eugene Weaver ( November 17 , 1935 – February 15 , 2008 ) was a professional wrestler and wrestling commentator in the National Wrestling Alliance , better known by his ring name , Johnny Weaver . During Johnny ' s career , he was credited with being the first wrestler to use the sleeper hold ( rear naked choke ) as his finisher of choice . Career . 1960s . Weaver ' s career spanned four decades in many different territories in the NWA . He held championships across the southeast United States , the first of which was the Mid - Atlantic ( Carolinas , Virginia ) version of the NWA Southern Tag Team Championship , which he won with Cowboy Bob Ellis on December 2 , 1963 . His best known run was with partner George Becker in the Mid - Atlantic in the 1960s . The two held the NWA Mid - Atlantic Southern Tag Team Championship five times together , and they were household names in the territory for a period of nearly eight years . The team had memorable feuds with Rip Hawk and Swede Hanson , Lars Anderson and Gene Anderson , Gene Anderson and Ole Anderson , Aldo Bogni and Bronko Lubich with manager " Colonel " Homer O ' Dell , the Infernos with manager J . C . Dykes , and many others . Weaver ' s next major success came in Championship Wrestling from Florida , where he teamed with Becker to win the Florida version of the NWA Southern Tag Team Championship in February 1967 . He also competed as a singles wrestler , winning his first NWA Florida Southern Heavyweight Championship that year by defeating the Missouri Mauler . He dropped it back to the Mauler but regained the belt on October 25 , 1967 . The following summer , he won the belt for a third time . He lost the belt to Hiro Matsuda but then regained it in a rematch in late 1968 . 1970s . Returning to the Carolinas , Weaver was a successful tag team wrestler in Mid - Atlantic Championship Wrestling . He teamed with Becker to win the NWA Mid - Atlantic Tag Team Championship on May 1 , 1969 . They held the belts for over nine months before dropping them to Rip Hawk and Swede Hanson on February 17 , 1970 . Weaver and Becker regained the title exactly one month later , however . They lost the belts to Gene and Ole Anderson but regained them on June 3 , 1971 from Hawk and Hanson . Once again , Weaver and Becker dropped the titles to Hawk and Hanson but regained them in a rematch . The following year , Weaver teamed with Art Neilson to win the title twice more . Weaver returned to Florida to compete in 1975 and won the NWA Florida Tag Team Championship by teaming with Dick Slater . He also competed in Texas , where he won the Amarillo version of the NWA International Heavyweight Championship in November 1976 . After a brief absence from the Mid - Atlantic territory in 1975 , he returned for one more main event run in 1978 with Baron Von Raschke for the area ' s Television championship . 1980s . His final championship reigns came in 1981 while wrestling in the Mid - Atlantic area . He teamed with Dewey Robertson to win the NWA Mid - Atlantic Tag Team Championship in 1981 by defeating Genichiro Tenryu and Mr . Fuji . They lost the belts to Chris Markoff and Nikolai Volkoff later that year , but Weaver regained the title on November 27 , 1981 while teaming with Jay Youngblood . Weaver ' s last years in the ring were in an " elder statesman " role , helping establish new stars just entering the territory , most notably Roddy Piper . He also helped book the Mid - Atlantic territory for nearly 8 years as well , roughly between 1966 and 1973 . In the early 1980s , Weaver also booked the house shows in the southern part of the territory . He began his broadcasting career in 1979 as color commentator with World Wide Wrestling host Rich Landrum . He became Landrum ' s permanent sidekick for the early 1980s , where he became famous for singing " Turn Out The Lights , The Party ' s Over " at the end of matches ( a tip of the hat to Don Meredith , who did the same thing on Monday Night Football ) . When Landrum left the company in 1983 , Weaver then worked briefly with David Crockett , before becoming paired with the longtime voice of Mid - Atlantic Wrestling Bob Caudle , whom he worked with until leaving the company in 1988 . He made a brief in - ring return in the Fall of 1987 in the corner of the " American Dream " Dusty Rhodes who was using sleeper hold , calling it the " Weaver Lock , " and chasing down Lex Luger and the N . W . A . United States Title . During this angle , Weaver was placed in a Japanese version of the sleeper by Hiro Matsuda , causing him to bleed from the mouth . Weaver was in Rhodes ' corner at Starrcade ' 87 : Chi - Town Heat , when Rhodes defeated Luger in a steel cage after DDT ing Luger onto a steel chair . Legacy . CWF Mid - Atlantic out of Burlington , North Carolina promotes the Johnny Weaver Cup tournament every August with Weaver in attendance to present the winner with the Weaver Cup trophy . Past tournament winners have been " Dangerous E " Corey Edsel ( 2004 ) , Jesse Ortega ( 2005 ) , Gemini Kid ( 2006 ) and " Handsome " Mitch Connor ( 2007 ) . Personal life . Weaver was a deputy sheriff with Mecklenburg County , North Carolina . In his 50s , Weaver became one of the oldest people to take the basic law enforcement test and ultimately joined the sheriff ' s office . He spent most of his nineteen - year career transporting prisoners on the same back roads he ' d traveled as a wrestler and promoter . Weaver was married to female wrestler Penny Banner for decades . They had a daughter together named Wendi . In her self - published autobiography , Banner Days , Banner describes decades of physical abuse at the hands of her controlling , womanizing husband - who she referred to as " Johnny Ace " instead of naming him for the " non - smart " fans . She finally divorced him after what she describes as a drunken murder attempt when he nearly killed her with his wrestling finisher , the sleeper hold . Weaver died of natural causes on February 15 , 2008 , aged 72 .