- published: 13 Feb 2015
- views: 97245
John Wisniski, Jr. (born September 20, 1951) is an American professional wrestler, better known as Greg "The Hammer" Valentine. He is the son of wrestler Johnny Valentine.
Born in Seattle, Washington, Valentine traveled around Texas in his teens with his father. During a summer vacation, he decided to drop out of college and become a wrestler. His father initially tried to deter him, but eventually ceded to his wishes and sent him to Canada in 1970 to train under Stu Hart in Calgary. Wisniski remained in Canada for a year, wrestling his debut match in July 1970 against Angelo "King Kong" Mosca (he lost in around five minutes). Six months later, Wisniski relocated to Detroit to complete his training under The Sheik.
Initially reluctant to take his father's ring name, Wisniski wrestled as Baby Face Nelson before becoming Johnny Fargo, one half of The Fargo Brothers with Don Fargo between 1971 and 1974. The Fargo Brothers initially competed in the Buffalo and Cleveland based National Wrestling Federation before moving on to Texas. They split in 1974 and Wisniski went to Florida, where he began performing as Johnny Valentine, Jr., hopeful that he could live up to his father's legacy. He later changed his ring name to Greg "The Hammer" Valentine, and was billed as Johnny Valentine's brother, not his son, because of fears that the elder Valentine would be thought of as too old to be a legitimate threat. Valentine remained in Florida for a year while also working in Los Angeles and in Japan under Antonio Inoki in 1975 and early 1976.
Richard Morgan Fliehr (born February 25, 1949) is an American professional wrestler, better known by his ring name Ric Flair. Also known as "The Nature Boy", Flair is considered to be one of the greatest professional wrestlers of all time with a professional career that spans 40 years. He is currently working for Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA), and is noted for his lengthy and highly decorated tenures with the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA), World Championship Wrestling (WCW), and the World Wrestling Federation/Entertainment (now known as WWE). Flair is officially recognized by WWE, TNA and PWI as a 16-time World Heavyweight Champion (seven-time NWA Champion, seven-time WCW Champion and two-time WWF Champion) although his actual tally of World Championship reigns varies by source—Flair considers himself a 21-time world champion.
In World Championship Wrestling (WCW), he also had two stints as a booker—in 1989–1990 and 1994. Flair also became the first and only man to have won the WWF Championship in a Royal Rumble match, when he accomplished this in the 1992 edition of the event. In 2012, Flair became the first ever double inductee in the WWE Hall of Fame, first inducted in 2008 for his individual career, and for a second time in 2012 as a member of the Four Horsemen. He is also an NWA Hall of Famer (class of 2008). Flair's hair styles and mannerisms are based on those of Buddy Rogers, who previously and famously used the "Nature Boy" gimmick in the 1950s and '60s. Coincidentally, Flair also followed Rogers in becoming the second man to win both the WWF and the NWA World Heavyweight Championships.