John's Icons of Wrestling: Greg "The Hammer" Vale Quiz

Answer: Washington

Greg was born September 20th, 1951. He was born John Wisniski Jr. His father was a professional wrestler who went by the name Johnny Valentine. Greg had his debut match in 1970 in Canada. He was defeated by "King Kong" Mosca in five minutes.

Answer: Stu Hart

Greg had dropped out of college to pursue a career as a professional wrestler. His father brought Greg to Stu Hart for training. Stu ran a training school in Canada. Greg stayed with Stu for six months until he left for Detroit.

Answer: Johnny Fargo

Greg was paired with Don Fargo. The duo wrestled as "The Fargo Brothers" for several years. Their first titles were the NWF World Tag Team Championship. They bested the team of Dominic DeNucci and Tony Parisi twice for the titles. They eventually lost the titles for the last time to Wahoo McDaniel and White Owl.

In the year 1973, the duo defeated "Lord" Alfred Hayes and Nick Kozak for the NWA Western States Tag Team Championship. They lost the straps to Moose Morowski and Ricky Romero in May 1973.

Answer: Greg was hired to replace his father.

Johnny Valentine had sustained a serious back injury in 1975. It happened when the plane he was on crashed to the ground. His back was broken in the accident. Greg was brought in to be his father's replacement. He teamed with Ric Flair and the duo won the NWA World Tag Team Championship on two different occasions. During their title reign, they feuded with Gene and Ole Anderson.

The two teams traded the titles back and forth several times.

Answer: ankle

Flair and Valentine had just disbanded as a team. Greg quickly renewed his feud with McDaniel from his NWF days. Valentine defeated Wahoo on July 11th, 1975. He would not only win the NWA Mid-Atlantic Heavyweight Championship; he would also break Wahoo's ankle in their bout. Wahoo returned two months later and reclaimed the title. Greg defeated Wahoo one more time in September of 1977.

Answer: WWWF

World Wide Wrestling Federation was owned and operated by Vince McMahon. Valentine came into the operation under the management of "The Grand Wizard". He continued with his gimmick of breaking opponents legs by breaking the leg of "Chief" Jay Strongbow.

He was a major contender for Bob Backlund's WWWF World Heavyweight Championship. He was unable to win any gold his first time in the WWWF.

Answer: Ric Flair

Valentine had returned to the NWA and re-teamed with Ric Flair. The reunion was short lived when Greg abandoned Ric during a match. He left Ric against to fend off Jimmy Snuka and The Iron Sheik. Valentine defeated Flair for the title in Charlotte, North Carolina on November 24th. Valentine would also feud with Wahoo McDaniel over the United States title.

Answer: Johnny Valiant

"Luscious" Johnny Valiant had acquired Greg's contract from Jimmy Hart. Johnny teamed Greg with Brutus in hopes Greg could get Brutus over. The duo went by the name "The Dream Team". Valiant aided his charges in their title victory over "The U.S. Express". Valiant rubbed a lit cigar in the eye of Barry Windham allowing his men to claim the titles. Valentine and Beefcake defended the titles until "Wrestlemania II".

They lost to Davey Boy Smith and The Dynamite Kid. Smith and Kid were managed by former heel manager Lou Abano.

Answer: Maryland

Santana pursued Valentine in hopes of winning back the title. Greg had injured Santana during his title victory. Tito finally won the title back in Baltimore, Maryland. It was a steel cage bout in which both wrestlers pushed each other to their limits. Greg held the title for nine months before the loss. Tito would successfully defended the title until February 1986.

He lost the strap to Randy Savage.

Answer: Figure Four Leglock

Greg was a sound wrestler who had a number of different moves at his disposal. He used his elbow smash to defeat several opponents. In the beginning of his career, the NWA ran several promos on his elbow smash. The move he is most noted for however is the Figure Four Leglock. Once he locked in the move, he was almost always the victor in his bouts.