- John Hitchcock

Johnny Valentine was the wrestler that made wrestling real for me. His matches were stiff and brutal affairs and anyone over 40 who saw one live, never and I mean NEVER forgot him. The first time I saw him was on cable television and I think it was in Florida about 1970-71. Valentine appeared in this territory for about a month. Within this short time frame Valentine would have some really hard-hitting matches, break somebody's leg, and then get suspended for life from the territory. I figured this guy was all business and nobody wanted to wrestle him. 

I was not far from the truth. 

I heard that Valentine was going to wrestle in the Mid-Atlantic area and I couldn't wait to see him. I had to work at the Big Bear grocery store on Valentine's first night in Greensboro. But I was very curious just what happened. There was this young girl that worked there who was a check out girl and somebody told me she went that night. She stopped by the bottle room to talk and I asked her if she went to the matches. 

"Did you see Johnny Valentine?" I asked. 

"Yes I did! And that man is the devil!" 

I started joking around with her but she would not change her mind. She was totally scared of Johnny Valentine. Valentine was in the middle of the card that night and he was in the main event from then on. I knew from that moment on, I would never miss a Valentine match. 

And I didn't. 

Johnny Valentine was about six-two and about two- fifty. His body was always tanned and he looked chiseled in stone. He always wore a black robe with a red lining. And he was the one guy that everybody feared and respected.

Valentine started this gimmick with one thousand silver dollars in a fish bowl reward for anyone who could defeat him in ten minutes. It was a brilliant idea and made all his matches seem important. Every television match was interesting and Valentine would methodically run his hands through his sliver dollars to help kill time on his match. Trust me when I tell you that was the easy part of any Valentine match. When he got in the ring he would just crush people physically with his slow methodical style. Valentine would slowly stalk his opponents in the ring. Then he would grab them, pull them over the ropes and deliver the most punishing forearm smash in wrestling history. One television match Valentine was tagging with Ric Flair versus Johnny Weaver and a big young kid named Tony Atlas White. White was a body builder from Virginia and Valentine couldn't wait to teach him a punishing lesson. Valentine bent White over the top rope and delivered the Hammer-ing forearm and he knocked the air out of him with one blow. White immediately fell to his knees trying to regain his breath. Valentine just grabbed him up and did it again. This was totally a legal move. Simple but devastating and White was pinned soon after. 

I would have paid big money to see him do that to the Road Warriors.  

There was a night where his next TV opponent surprised Valentine. Climbing in the ring to challenge was Tim Woods who was a big name under the mask as Mr. Wrestling#1. It was a very smartly designed match that took me by surprise. Valentine sold everything that Tim Woods did during the match. He even took a monkey flip out of the turnbuckle which made you believe this Woods guy was the real deal and Valentine was just a bully who was picking on a bunch of jobbers all this time. 

Well, it worked and the crowd was going nuts cheering for Woods.  

Then Valentine bent him over the ropes and delivered the Hammer and all bets were off. Valentine jerked up Woods and then fell on his leg with an odd twisting motion and broke Tim Woods leg. Woods was lying towards the far turnbuckle screaming for help. Valentine just stood over him like a wolf over prey. Valentine was amazing with his body language. He really looked hungry and proud that he was sending a brutal message to everyone not to mess with him. 

And then he did his interview telling everyone that this is what you will get if you try to embarrass him in the future. Valentine was yelling during this interview, which was not his normal composed self. Johnny even began  to blame Crockett for bringing in a ringer and trying to embarrass him on television, it really worked to perfection.   

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