| Jimmy Garvin | |
|---|---|
| Ring name(s) | "Gorgeous" Jimmy Garvin Beau James Jimmy "Jam" Garvin |
| Billed height | 5 ft 10 in (178 cm) |
| Billed weight | 235 lb (107 kg) |
| Born | September 25, 1952 Tampa, Florida |
| Debut | November 1, 1968 |
| Retired | 1994 |
James Williams (born September 25, 1952 in Tampa, Florida) is a retired American professional wrestler. He is best known by his ring name "Gorgeous" Jimmy "Jam" Garvin and as a member of the legendary Fabulous Freebirds.
Throughout his career, Garvin competed in the Mid-Southern and Florida regions, along with World Class Championship Wrestling (WCCW), the American Wrestling Association (AWA), the Global Wrestling Federation (GWF), World Championship Wrestling (WCW), and the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA). Since his retirement from professional wrestling, Garvin has become an Airline Transport Pilot.
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Garvin began his wrestling career in November 1968 at the age of 16 as Beau James. He soon took the name "Gorgeous" Jimmy Garvin and was given two "brothers", Terry and Ron Garvin, whom he briefly managed.
He toured the Mid-Southern and Florida territories from 1978 until 1983. In 1982, Garvin (while holding the NWA Florida Global Tag Team Championship with Big John Studd) won the NWA Southern Heavyweight Championship from Sweet Brown Sugar. As a reward, Garvin's manager, J.J. Dillon, presented him with a valet named Precious. The original Precious was not the same woman as Garvin's wife, Patti Williams, who would later assume the "Precious" name. During his title defenses, Garvin often became distracted by Precious and flaunted his good looks to impress her. This would cause his opponents to recover and attack him. Due to her quiet-but-distracting nature, Garvin quickly lost the NWA Southern Heavyweight Championship to Dusty Rhodes, while he and Studd lost the NWA Florida Global Tag Team Championship to Ron Bass and Barry Windham. Garvin then replaced the original Precious (whom he later claimed in a shoot interview had been causing problems outside the ring with his marriage to Patti) with his cousin, Sunshine, and joined World Class Championship Wrestling in 1983.
Along with his valet Sunshine, Garvin competed in WCCW as a heel. He started a feud with beloved David Von Erich which he lost and ended up spending a day with Sunshine on David's ranch, doing ranch type duties such as washing the five dogs owned by David (as he relaxes and shoots skeet right over Jimmy and Sunshine's head) and relocating several bales of hay without the use of a truck. However, towards the end of the day, Garvin draws the line at cleaning out the old horse barn and the two go at it.
He next moved on to feud with Chris Adams. Around this time, he introduced his wife, Patti, as "Sunshine II", who was supposed to work as an assistant to the original Sunshine. After the interference of Sunshine II cost Garvin a match, Sunshine II blamed the original Sunshine for the botch. Garvin then fired the original Sunshine and renamed Sunshine II as "Precious" (not to be confused with his original valet of the same name). Precious and Sunshine (now aligned with Chris Adams) feuded while Garvin traded the American Title with Adams. During this time, the couples competed in mixed tag-team matches. Sunshine temporarily left WCCW in 1984 (with the storyline excuse that she had been injured by Garvin and Precious) and was replaced in the feud with her "truck driving aunt", Stella Mae French (Tanya West). Adams and Stella Mae continued to compete in mixed tag team matches against Garvin and Precious until they defeated them in a "Loser Leaves Town" cage match in July 1984. Garvin and Precious then left World Class for the American Wrestling Association. Garvin and Adams would revive their feud ten years later in the Global Wrestling Federation, but the promotion went out of business before that angle got off the ground.
In the AWA, he formed a tag team with "Mr. Electricity" Steve Regal (not to be confused with WWE wrestler William Regal, who performed in WCW was "Lord" Steven Regal) and they won the World Tag Team Titles from the Road Warriors with the help of the Fabulous Freebirds.
After losing the titles to Scott Hall and Curt Hennig in 1986 in Albuquerque, New Mexico, he went to the NWA's Jim Crockett Promotions. He debuted as a heel often taunting Wahoo McDaniel, calling him "Yahoo." Garvin and McDaniel would feud throughout the summer and fall of 1986 in a series of "Indian Strap" matches. He also feuded with Brad Armstrong and was in the middle of a feud with Magnum T.A. when Magnum had the car wreck that would end his career.
In 1987, Jimmy's "brother" Ron (Jimmy's real-life stepfather), was in a feud with Jim Cornette and his stable. During a match with Cornette's Midnight Express, Cornette threw fire in Ron's face. Several faces came out to help and then Jimmy ran out and helped take him to the back. Jimmy flew into a rage and stormed into the heel dressing room and brutally attacked Cornette and it took several wrestlers, heel and face, to pull him off of him. Jimmy and Ron's friend and partner Barry Windham then took Ron to the hospital.
Jimmy turned face and helped Ron feud with the Midnight Express. One of the bigger matches during that feud was when the two teams were matched against each other during the 1987 Jim Crockett Memorial Cup tag team tournament. The Midnight Express won by countout to advance.
Later that year, Jimmy had one of the most memorable feuds in his career with Ric Flair, who was eyeing Precious. He sent her gifts and this caused lots of buildup for a big cage match between Flair and Jimmy during the 1987 Great American Bash stop in Greensboro, North Carolina for Flair's NWA World Title. The stipulation was added that if Flair won the match, he would get a date with Precious. During the match, Jimmy attempted a leap frog at one point but landed on one knee instead of his feet. Pain in the knee was "sold" by him during the rest of the match. This match got so heated that a fan actually attempted to climb into the cage to help Garvin. The fan was apprehended just at the moment he was about to get in. Flair ended up winning the match when he put Jimmy in the figure four leglock, Jimmy blacked out from the pain in his knee and his shoulders hit the mat for a count of three. Ron Garvin then entered the cage when the match was over and attacked Flair in order to defend Jimmy from further damage to his knee. When the date with Precious that Flair won occurred, Flair and James J. Dillon ended up being punched out by Ron Garvin, who was dressed in his "Miss Atlanta Lively" outfit. Just two months later, Ron successfully unseated Flair as NWA World Champion, holding on to the title until Starrcade '87 when Flair regained the belt.
In 1988, Garvin had a feud with Kevin Sullivan and his Varsity Club. This one was over Precious too but it was never made clear why Sullivan wanted her. He made references to her calling her "Patti" instead of Precious, possibly referring to the past somehow. Sullivan would stalk her and taunt her with papers in his robe, but they never revealed anything. Jimmy had some memorable matches during this feud including challenging Varsity Club member Mike Rotunda for the NWA World TV Title at the first Clash of the Champions event during March of that year. Rotunda pinned Jimmy to retain the title.
During the 1988 Great American Bash in Baltimore, Maryland held in July, Jimmy and Sullivan each captained 5 men teams opposing each other in the first ever "Tower of Doom" match. This match was actually a copied idea from World Class Championship Wrestling based out of Dallas, Texas who held a similar match a short while before this. It involved three cages stacked up on top of each other. A member of each team would start out climbing a ladder and facing off in the top cage. Every few minutes, new members from each team would enter the top cage in a similar fashion. Every so often, the doors between the cages would open for ten seconds allowing wrestlers to slip through to the next level. Jimmy's teammates consisted of Ron Garvin, Steve Williams, and the Road Warriors. They were victorious over Sullivan's team but the feud between Jimmy and Sullivan was not quite yet over.
In September 1988, Garvin left to sell a broken leg that he had gotten from Sullivan and Mike Rotunda. On the September 3 edition of NWA World Championship Wrestling from the TBS studios, Sullivan broke cement blocks over Jimmy's leg. Jim Ross commentating at the time yelled out "He's breaking blocks all over his leg! Jesus!"
Garvin returned to Jim Crockett Promotions in June 1989 minus Precious and became the newest member of the Fabulous Freebirds (he had been associated with the Freebirds since 1983) by winning the World Tag Team Titles with Michael Hayes at Clash of the Champions VII. The titles were won as part of a tournament for them that had been ongoing. That night, Hayes and Garvin scored victories over the Dynamic Dudes in the semifinals and the Midnight Express (Bobby Eaton & Stan Lane) in the finals. They feuded with the Midnight Express some more following that, as well as Rick & Scott Steiner. Garvin had worked in the past with Hayes, Buddy Roberts and Terry Gordy during the height of the Freebird-Von Erichs feud in World Class, and was always considered "The fourth Freebird".
In 1991, under the new company name of World Championship Wrestling (WCW), the Freebirds added a masked Freebird, Badstreet, and they feuded with the "Southern Boys" (Steve Armstrong & Tracy Smothers). They also added two managers, Big Daddy Dink & Diamond Dallas Page. By 1992, Badstreet and their managers were gone and the Freebirds had no direction. They briefly added Precious as their manager but she only made one appearance at WrestleWar '92. During this period, Hayes and Garvin won 1 World Tag Team title, 1 World Six-Man Tag Team title (with Badstreet), and 2 United States Tag Team titles.
At around this time they also had a manager of sorts, "Little Richard Marley" (wrestler Rocky King).
They had some minor feuds and then Garvin left WCW in September 1992 and went to the Global Wrestling Federation, where he reformed the Freebirds with Terry Gordy and Hayes. He won the Tag Team Titles with Gordy in 1994. They were the last champions before the promotion folded in September 1994 and he retired shortly thereafter.
During his stint in GWF, Garvin made one final appearance in February 1994 at SuperBrawl IV in place of the "injured" Michael Hayes in a losing effort to Hayes' scheduled opponent Johnny B. Badd.
Garvin is prominently featured in The Triumph and Tragedy of World Class Championship Wrestling DVD released by World Wrestling Entertainment in late 2007. The DVD was composed of interviews with former WCCW stars as well as footage and matches from various WCCW broadcasts.
Garvin also appeared on an installment of "Legends" on WWE Classics on Demand discussing managers. Garvin spoke on a number of subjects, including the often contentious relationship between Sunshine, Precious and Missy Hyatt, as well as his own experiences as a manager.
Williams and his wife Patti, better known as Precious have two daughters.[1]
1Garvin's reign with the Mid-Atlantic version of the NWA World Tag Team Championship occurred after the Mid-Atlantic promotion was sold to Ted Turner in November 1988 and remained World Championship Wrestling. It was also prior to the championship being renamed the WCW World Tag Team Championship.