Boogie, Angel, Big Dog & Jamie welcomed 'Nature Boy' Buddy Landel to the program this week. The phone lines seemed to be jammed even more than usual & the questions for Landel just kept coming. If you tuned into the show this week you were treated to great stories from Buddy about such varied topics as pitching a song to Bobby Bare, taking over Memphis Wrestling television w/the Bill & Buddy Show, perfecting his corkscrew elbow drop finisher, wrestling Ric Flair, how his faith in Jesus provided his greatest wrestling memory, his reasons for moving to Virginia, how his wife helped him in his wrestling career & so much more. There was even an unexpected surprise as a fellow NWA wrestling star & former tag team champion called in to chat w/Boogie & Buddy. This one is sure to go down in Main Event Thursday history as a classic! Angel informed us of Boogie's upcoming appearances including next week's big NWA Wrestling Legends Fanfest in Charlotte, NC. With Boogie at the big Legends event next week, the program for this coming Thursday, August 5th will feature an encore presentation of the Cowboy Bob Orton show. If you didn't catch that particular installment the first time around, this is your chance to hear what you missed. If you heard it before, I know you will definately want to tune in again to hear it one more time. Main Event Thursday returns live in two weeks on August 12th with special guest 'The Perfect 10' Baby Doll! Be sure to call 1-888-639-4900 on Thursday the 12th of August to be a part of the show & ask Baby Doll a question!
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In the seventies, Indiana's World Wrestling Association featured such legendary wrestling talents as Dick the Bruiser, Wilbur Snyder, Crusher, Moose Cholak, Baron Von Raschke, The Valiant Brothers & their manager Major Duke George. This week's Main Event Thursday show featured a special WWA reunion as Handsome Jimmy reunited w/his former manager, Major Duke George, to discuss wrestling past, present & future w/Angel, Big Dog, Jamie & the listening audience. George answered calls & e-mails about such topics as leading the Valiant Brothers to the WWA World Tag Titles, treating the up & coming wrestlers w/respect, what he enjoyed most about his time w/the Valiants, why he drank orange juice after the matches, where he was when he heared that Elvis died, his new career as a professional poker player & much more. Angel announced where her & Boogie will be appearing this weekend including appearances Thursday, Friday & Saturday at the New River Vally Fair in Dublin, VA to greet the fans & sign copies of Woo... Mercy Daddy & Angel's children's book, Piggy In A Blanket. Boogie announced next week's guest as "Nature Boy" Buddy Landel. Be sure to call in this coming Thursday, July 29th at 5pm to ask Buddy Landel a question at 1-888-639-4900.
Boogie recently sent me this great interview & asked me to share it w/all of his street people:
Terrence: Tell me about yourself, your family, and your wrestling camp. Jimmy Valiant: T-Bone I started wrestling in 1964. I wrestled in over 10,000 matches and drove over 4 million miles on US highways to get to those matches, so you can imagine I had a pretty exciting career. Of course, I wrote my autobiography called “Woo…Mercy Daddy!” It's 566 pages long and the book is a hardback and weighs three pounds. I tell people to buy two of the books and put one in each hand and work out with them. I have the wrestling camp here, something that my wife Angel and I founded in 1992 and this is the 18th year. This is something that I give back to my students and the fans over the years to make their dreams of becoming a wrestler come true. I have already lived my life out and with quite a career. Now it’s their turn. You can check all of that out at www.jimmyvaliant.weebly.com. Boogies Wrestling Camp Hall of Fame Museum is open 52 Sundays a year from 12 to 4pm. Everybody’s welcome, there is no charge once you get here T-Bone. I want to personally invite you and all the people from Arkansas to come be my guest any Sunday and spend all day with us. You will have access to any building in the camp. You can visit the museum and watch my students wrestling. Everything is free once you get here. This is how Angel and I give back. Terrence: Everybody, including myself, is probably wondering how you got the nicknames of “Handsome” Jimmy Valiant and “The Boogie Woogie Man” Jimmy Valiant: Well I was born handsome and hit the floor Boogie Woogie man. When I started wrestling my first mentor was one of the Volkoffs, the original Volkoff. They named me Jimmy Valentine and I used that some at the beginning from California. They billed me from Los Angeles and Hollywood. Then I went to Detroit and they billed me as Big Jim Valen and then I went to Oklahoma and Minnesota and they called me Jimmy “The Body” Valen and St. Louis and they called me the same. I was called "The Body" before Jesse Ventura. Finally in the late 60’s I went into Dallas, TX and when I got there Johnny Valentine was there and Von Erich told me that Jimmy Valentine was too close to Johnny Valentine. He then told me that my new name was Handsome Jimmy Valiant. The first day I came in and within two minutes he gave me my new name. This was like in 1969. That name stuck with me the rest of my career. Once he sent me to New York with Vince McMahon Sr. in 1970 and I went over and that was my big break. That name stuck and then 1980 or 1981 I went into Mid-Atlantic for Jim Crockett and there were a lot of pretty boy blond types. Ric Flair was there. It was then that I changed that all around and threw away my razor and let my beard grow out. I was the first to come out to music for that promotion. Man I started going down the aisle kissing and hugging everyone and that is when I started calling myself the Boogie Woogie Man. I actually reinvented myself. I had two different careers one as the bad guy and one as the good guy. Terrence: Tell me about you career in Memphis. I know that you had a career there in Memphis for a time. Tell me about that. Jimmy Valiant: You bet brother, T-bone I went into Memphis and Nashville in the 60’s. When I did go in 1977 it was in August just two weeks before Elvis died. I locked horns with King Fish Jerry Lawler I sold out the Memphis Coliseum for 6 months. I usually go back for legends shows but that has been going on for like 30 years. So I was King whenever Lawler broke his leg at one point there and he was out for a year and I was the head man until he got back on his feet. There were stars there like Bill Dundee, Jerry Lawler, Austin Idol, Dutch Mantel, and Kojo. It was a great territory. Terrence: What was your most memorable match in your career? Jimmy Valiant: There really isn’t a match that sticks out because I was very fortunate to work with all the world champions like Bruno Samartino, Harley Race, and Jerry Lawler. Me and my brother Johnny Valiant were tag team champions in the WWWF and held the belts for over a year in New York and worked with all of the greatest tag teams. I had big feuds with Ivan Koloff, Paul Jones and his Army, which consisted of Superstar Billy Graham and Abdula the Butcher. Every match was the match of my life. Terrence: You know it is honorable to be inducted into a Hall of Fame in an independent promotion, but what was your reaction to finding out that you were being inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame? Jimmy Valiant: That was incredible, it was the icing on the cake, you know. I just wanted to be the goodwill ambassador for professional wrestling. That did it for me and I just want this to help my wrestling camp and help other kid’s dreams come true. You can see all the awards including the WWE Hall of Fame award in the Hall of Fame building at Boogie’s Wrestling Camp. Just this year they (WWE) came out with the Hall of Fame rings which I wear to my book signings and outings that I go to. It has the logo and the date we were inducted, it’s like our “Super-Bowl” ring. Terrence: What was your reaction when ASWF Wrestling wanted to name their new building after you, calling it the Valiant Arena? Jimmy Valiant: I was honored. You know Ricky Rowland and his mom were really great people. In my book I mention both of them, it has a great story. You have to check it out. When they asked if they could do this and I said sure I would be honored and they are doing it right. It’s just a great place for people to go and see matches weekly like it was preserving the old territories. There are not too many organizations doing this and they are bringing it back. I was just really honored. Terrence: I understand that you are currently retired from wrestling. Are you enjoying your retirement? Jimmy Valiant: Yeah, it’s great. I have plenty of time to do charity work and my wrestling camp. You can check my jimmyvaliant.weebly.com site and see where I’m going. I’m not lacing my boots but I will special guest referee and stuff like that. T-Bone what I do now is just maintain BWC Compound. It is only open for four hours on Sundays. Terrence: Wrestling has been a big part of your career, if you didn’t choose wrestling as your career what path would you have chosen? Jimmy Valiant: I probably would have chosen body building. It's good clean living and I’m not saying I lived the cleanest life but I started out that way and I am ending up that way. I talk about all that in my book, about all that I went through. Terrence: Since retirement do you miss getting into the ring and wrestling? I know that you have expressed through this interview that you love wrestling and I understand that totally, otherwise I wouldn’t be in it. It’s fun and entertaining and brings a smile to the fans faces. Jimmy Valiant: Not really, I am constantly around it with my wrestling camp and I look at the kid’s faces and they tell me “Boogie I just love it here.” I have been doing this 18 years and I can relive it through them. I will say this in closing that next year in 2010 I am going to lace up my boots one more time. I am not coming out of retirement, but it’s a personal record to me. In 2010 I will have wrestled in six decades. I wrestled in the 60’s, 70’s, 80’s, 90’s, 2000 and then 2010 and that will make six decades. Terrence: Well in closing is there anything that you would like to add before we conclude this interview. Jimmy Valiant: I just want to tell Ricky and his mom and all the boys there in Arkansas that Handsome Jimmy loves you all and I am so proud of everyone there and the Valiant Arena. Ricky brings me down every one or two years. And T-Bone if there is anything that I can do for you or the people of Arkansas just email me. Be sure to check out my website, www.jimmyvaliant.weebly.com. Handsome Jimmy Valiant is probably one of the nicest people you will ever meet. He has truly made his mark in professional wrestling. If you would like to purchase "Woo...Mercy Daddy!" go to www.jimmyvaliant.weebly.com to find our how you can own this biography on the WWE Hall of Famer. I would like to thank Handsome Jimmy for allowing me to do this interview and hope that younger and older audiences alike continue to carry on the sport of professional wrestling. T-Bone Terrence Ward Be sure to check out T-Bone Terrence Ward's blog at thebonefactor.blogspot.com This week on the Main Event Thursday show, WWE Hall of Fame legend Cowboy Bob Orton joked that he went from being known as the son of Bob Orton, Sr. to being known as Randy Orton's dad. Of course we all know that in between those two distinctions, he had his own time on top of the wrestling world. From holding the NWA World Tag Team championship, to matches w/Ric Flair & Hulk Hogan, to making multiple Wrestlemania appearances, Orton had plenty to talk about & the listeners had plenty to call in & ask. Cowboy Bob talked about the Orton family legacy, teaming briefly w/Jimmy Valiant in the NWA, being inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame by his son Randy (including a funny backstage story involving Sylvester Stalone), getting his start as an amateur wrestler at the young age of 9 years old, wrestling injured, advice he gave Randy & much more. Boogie & Bob both talked about topics such as adapting to the style of your tag team partner, the demanding schedule of a pro wrestler & continuing their in-ring careers by wrestling occasional matches. Angel gave us all the info about Boogie's busy weekend including camp & appearances at two wrestling shows. Boogie closed out the show by announcing next week's guest as his former manager, Major Duke George! Be sure to tune in & call in next Thursday, July 22nd, to talk to this integral figure in Boogie's legendary career.
This week Jimmy Valiant welcomed fellow WWE Hall of Famer Nikolai Volkoff to the coolest wrestling show on the radio! Nikolai sat down for a nice conversation about wrestling & other topics w/Boogie, Angel, Big Dog, Jaime & the many listeners who tuned in & called in to the show. Topics of discussion included his current love of raising goats, his all time favorite episode of the Hulk Hogan's Rock N Wrestling cartoon, being inspired by his world wrestling champion grandfather, teaming w/the Iron Sheik, the first ever time he sung the Russian National Anthem in the ring, the history of finishing moves in wrestling & much more. He also encouraged aspiring wrestlers to stay natural & avoid steroids. Angel told us where Boogie could be found this weekend & invited everyone to BWC this Sunday. Boogie closed out the show by announcing next week's guest who will be Cowboy Bob Orton. Be sure to tune in to the show next Thursday, July 15th & more importantly call 1-888-639-4900 for the opportunity to talk to both of these WWE Hall of Famers at the same time!
This week's program was a perfect example of the diversity of the guests that Boogie & Co. bring to the Main Event Thursday show each & every week. Big John Murray is a former pro wrestler who was trained by the legendary Les Thatcher & went on to gain nationwide fame as Bret Michaels' friend & bodygaurd as documented in three seasons of the smash hit VH1 show, Rock of Love. Big John discussed a wide variety of topics including finding his soul mate, the Rock of Love show, his very first wrestling match, getting in the zone, the Brian Pillman memorial shows, how his background in wrestling prepared him for his current success, being Bret Michaels' bodyguard & friend, how Bret turned the tables by saving his life, & much more. Jimmy discussed his recent return to the ring in Shawsville & both wrestlers talked about the importance of overcoming addictions. At the end of another top notch show, Angel announced Boogie's upcoming appearances & invited everyone to BWC for the Fourth of July this Sunday. Boogie closed the show by announcing next week's guest as WWE Hall of Famer & former tag champ, Nikolai Volkoff. Be sure to call 1-888-639-4900 this Thursday, July 8th, to ask either Hall of Famer a question.
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