Jimmy Valiant James Harold Fanning ( August 6 , 1942 ) is a former American professional wrestler and author better known as Jimmy Valiant . Personal life . 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 Felicia , he has his youngest son Handsome . He is now married to Angel . He has 6 grandchildren : Lonna , Jenae , Beau , Chassie , Clarissa , and Delilah . Career . 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 " brother " Johnny held the tag belts as noted above , 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 pass ) . 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 " that began , " I ' ve been rolling into Mempho . . . TWA . . . [ T ] ell all the women Handsome Jimmy ' s on the way . . . " The song was used in wrestling arenas as his entry music , and it 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 . In the early 1980s , Valiant returned as a babyface to NWA ' s Jim Crockett Promotions as " Boogie Woogie Man " Jimmy Valiant and called his fans " The Street People " . His theme music around this time was " Boy From New York City " , by The Manhattan Transfer . While in Jim Crockett Promotions , he would sometimes appear in a black bandit - style mask and call himself " Charlie Brown from Outta Town . " This usually occurred when Valiant was ( in kayfabe ) " banned " from wrestling . " Charlie Brown " was billed as someone other than Valiant , despite " Brown " having Valiant ' s legendarily prodigious beard . January 1984 , Valiant was attacked by Paul Jones and The Assassins . They tied him to the wrestling ring ropes do Jones could cut his beard off . This led to a grudge match ( with hyped supershow called ' Boogie Man Jam ' 84 ' in Greensboro , North Carolina . For this match Dusty Rhodes in Valiant ' s corner was tied by a rope to Paul Paul Jones . Valiant defeated Assassin II , who was unmasked and revealed as Hercules Hernandez . Due to the beard cutting attack Paul Jones , he feuded heavily with Paul Jones and his " Army " of wrestlers , from 1984 thru late 1986 . This army of wrestlers included The Barbarian , Baron Von Raschke , Teijho Khan , and The Assassins . During this three - year feud , Valiant received help from Héctor Guerrero and " Raging Bull " Manny Fernandez . Although Jimmy Valiant would lose a Loser Leaves Town Tuxedo Street Fight to Paul Jones at Starrcade 1984 in Greensboro , North Carolina the feud with many of Paul Jones stable which would come to include Abdullah The Butcher . In 1985 , Valiant and Ragin Bull Manny Fernandez formed a team called " B and B Connection " ( " Boogie Woogie " and " Bull " ) , Junkyard Dog , In the spring of 1986 Pez Whatley turned on Valiant shaved his head and joined Jones ' Army as Shaska Whatley . During the Great American Bash 1986 summer shows Paul Jones adopted a military style look in his long feud with Valiant and labeled his stable of wrestlers " The Army " . Valiant would beat Shaska Whatley in a hair vs hair match but with outside interference lost a hair vs hair match to Paul Jones only weeks later . In the fall of 1986 , The Ragin Bull Manny Fernandez , Valiant ' s best friend accepted Jones ' money and turned on Valiant starting a feud between the two . Paul Jones at this point shortened his army to his newly acquired tag team of Ragin Bull and Rick Rude . The war between Valiant and Paul Jones climaxed at Starrcade 1986 with Valiant putting up the hair of " Big Mama " against the hair of Paul Jones in a No DQ Match which Valiant won ( while the Ragin Bull was placed in a cage above the ring ) . In the late 1980s , he teamed with Hector Guerrero ( then masked as Laser Tron ) and Bugsy McGraw and feuded with The New Breed . When Jim Crockett Promotions became WCW , Valiant left and returned to Memphis to wrestle in the USWA . Since then , Valiant has primarily wrestled in the independents and managed to wrestle in five decades , his ostensibly last match prior to retirement occurring on January 29 , 2005 at " WrestleReunion " . He is now officially retired from active competition in the sport and enjoys his time with his wife Angel and training wrestlers at Boogie ' s Wrestling Camp located in Shawsville , Virginia . However , Valiant recently wrestled on November 25 , 2012 with The Ragin ' Bull Manny Fernandez as his tag team partner in Winston - Salem , North Carolina . Jimmy currently wrestles under the ACW Banner ( American Championship Wrestling ) around the Roanoke Virginia Area . He has also recently wrestled with George South , Stan Lee and Ricky Morton in ASW Wrestling and New OCW in Ashland , KY with Matty B and Violet Rayne against Beau and Misty James and Scotty Ace . Valiant remains in the wrestling world today with continuing to appear at independent shows signing autographs while his students appear In a few matches on the card . He keeps in touch with fans through his official Weebly website . In 2014 a 2 disc DVD set will be available chronicling his 50 years in professional wrestling . Most recently , Valiant lent his name to a forward for a fiction novel called “ Only The Beginning ” It is a book set in the 1980s about a girl ' s life during high school . While the book is not wrestling related , the author Jason Strecker is a personal friend of Valiant ' s and in the forward Valiant responds to his friendship with the author along with the book ' s message of being of strong character and doing positive actions for others . The book also has a forward by Nikolai Volkoff . Books . " Woo . . . Mercy Daddy ! " Welcome to My World The Jimmy Valiant Story