John Hill, best known as Guy "The Stomper" Mitchell, passed away yesterday at the age of 68.
Hill held the IWA world heavyweight championship in Australia, beating Bearcat Wright, in 1966, using the name The Destroyer, when that was the top wrestling territory in the world.
He later worked as half of the WWF tag team champions, using the name "Gentleman" Jerry Valiant in 1979. The Valiant Brothers, Jimmy & Johnny, who were a tremendous hit as tag team champions in 1974 and 1975, had returned to the territory, but Jimmy took ill and couldn't wrestle for several months so Hill, known as Guy Mitchell for most of his career, was brought as their third brother, teaming with Johnny to win the tag titles on March 6, 1979, at the TV tapings in Allentown from Tony Garea & Larry Zbyszko. They lost the titles on October 22, 1979, in Madison Square Garden against Ivan Putski & Tito Santana.
The Valiant Brothers team inducted into the WWF Hall of Fame did not include Jerry.
He came out of Hamilton, ONT, which was a wrestling factory in the 50s, but ended up settling in Indiana, which became his base.
As a trivia note, Hill was the first wrestler ever managed by Bobby Heenan, and also wrestled under the name Jerry Heenan and Guy Heenan as "brother" and tag team partner.
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