A feud to remember: Ric Flair vs Greg Valentine
by Bobby Virtue
Ever since I can remember, wrestling has been a big part of my life, and watching live pro wrestling continues to be my favourite pastime. I tend to forget lots of birthdays and trips and events from my youth, but I remember moments from my childhood like watching tv and cheering on Ultimate Warrior’s frenetic sprinting to the ring and rope shaking, laughing and being overjoyed at the sight of the flustered Bobby Heenan indignantly riding backwards on a camel, the seething hatred I had for Owen Hart and his treatment of brother Bret and other members of his family, and the dastardly Tatanka turning his back on Lex Luger and the fans by being bought out by the Million Dollar Man Ted DiBiase.
And really, that’s the magic and power that good wrestling has; it leaves you with unforgettable memories, and when enough people experience good wrestling and the spectrum of emotions that it can evoke from joy to fear, anxiety to anger, dread to excitement, when wrestling’s done right, it also brings fans together.
The feud that was the most significant to me, the one that had the most impact even though I wasn’t able to watch footage and read about it until years after it had occurred was undoubtedly Ric Flair vs Greg Valentine. Before either of these two individuals achieved the legendary status they saw later in their careers, in 1980, they were involved in a bloody, violent feud originating from one of the most famous double crosses in wrestling history.
To provide you with some short personal background before I go too much into Flair and Valentine’s history, my father’s family had moved to Toronto while he was a teenager and he grew up there until his mid-twenties at which time he got married to my mother, moved to Montreal, and I was born a bit later.
While still in Toronto, he was aware of wrestling and watched some of it on tv, but was by no means a die-hard fan at the time (now he watches every RAW and Smackdown weekly!) In 1980, at the insistence of a friend, he attended wrestling at the historic Maple Leaf Gardens with the main attraction being a match between Ric Flair vs Greg Valentine, two big names that he knew and was excited to see. This was the match that started it all for his fandom.
If we go back a few months before this match, at the time, the legendary Mid-Atlantic promotion headed by Jim Crockett Jr. and Maple Leaf Wrestling headed by Frank Tunney had a relationship in place which benefitted MLW by Crockett (and George Scott) lending them some of their talent. Due to this, some of the bigger Mid-Atlantic feuds would carry over to Toronto and fans would get to experience it live at Maple Leaf Gardens.
So let me set the stage of for you —
Valentine and Flair, a once veritable dream team, a despicable duo who terrorized a who’s who of wrestlers, had gone their separate ways. During this time, Flair’s popularity and success grew and he saw the light, seeing the error of his rule breaking ways. Valentine did not. Much to Valentine’s chagrin, when he and Flair crossed paths again in Mid-Atlantic, Flair refused to team with him due in part to his attitude, even though he did acknowledge that he and Valentine were previously a formidable tag team and once even closer than brothers. This apparent insult incensed Valentine, and with the seeds having been planted, he plotted. Insults were traded, but time passed and insincere apologies were made, and as the old adage goes, “revenge is a dish best served cold.”
The stage was set and eventually Flair accepted help to fight Gene Anderson’s (aka Anderson’s Army) masochistic tag team of Jimmy Snuka and Great Hossein Arab (aka The Iron Sheik). That fateful date was June 8, 1980, and the match took place in Greensboro, North Carolina. The fans were near rabid in their support for Flair attempting to get revenge on Snuka, Hossein Arab, and Anderson, and now with Valentine back together, they knew in their hearts that it was possible.. . but it was not to be that day. During the match, Flair was being beat down as he had been in the past by Anderson’s men, and reached out to Valentine who refused to tag him twice in the match. In one of the most memorable double crosses of all time, the trap was set, Valentine joined Snuka and Hossein in beating Flair. This culminated in Valentine disfiguring him with Anderson’s walking cane with which he maliciously broke Flair’s nose!
Valentine had finally won back Flair’s trust before this ordeal, and these two men who were once closer than brothers had been torn apart by Valentine’s insecurities. Fans were shocked, saddened, and outraged! Their feud would carry on into the new year and included two title changes in July in Charlotte, North Carolina, and November in Greenville, South Carolina of the illustrious US Heavyweight Championship.
Ric Flair and Greg Valentine fought tooth and nail in bloody battles, one of which was the first Maple Leaf Gardens wrestling show that my father attended. This turn and double cross, the preceding and subsequent promos, the matches, the interactions in and out of the ring between them, everything was perfect and like I said, memorable. The vitriol spewed from both men was palpable and some of it can be found on YouTube, which I encourage everybody reading this to search out.
(I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention that, as seemingly all feuds go in wrestling, the two did team up two years later with Flair having returned to his evil ways and had a few matches together and against each other, including the infamous 60-minute NWA Championship defense at Final Conflict in 1983. In my opinion, nothing of theirs surpassed their initial feud in 1980.)
If not for this feud, my dad might not have gone to watch live wrestling at Maple Leaf Gardens. There is a chance that I would have picked up wrestling on my own much later, but without my dad’s support, I wouldn’t have been watching WrestleManias on TV as a child, I wouldn’t have had all of the merchandise that I did, I wouldn’t have attended WWF events with my friends and my younger brother, and for that I thank him for these cherished memories. Other dads threw a baseball around or taught their sons how to fish, mine watched and talked wrestling with me, that’s how we bonded. I’ve had a few chats about this feud in particular, and he remembers the craziness and the bloodshed between Valentine and Flair fondly… good, wholesome family time conversation.
Even though I didn’t have the opportunity to watch Ric Flair vs Greg Valentine live, it’s the feud that means the most to me, it’s the feud that’s led me to this hobby and passion that is professional wrestling. This feud signifies family, history, and memories to me.
A company like Capitol Wrestling states that it’s wrestling for the people by the people. It’s here to strive to provide the best wrestling matches possible and hopefully best wrestling moments and memories for fans to remember for a lifetime.
