Why did WWE Hall of Famer Greg “The Hammer” Valentine confront Matt Cardona at Wrestlecon?
Matt Cardona recently called into Busted Open Radio with Dave LaGreca, Tommy Dreamer, and Bully Ray to tell the story and why Valentine initially had heat with him based on things he has said over the years on his podcast.
“Okay, I’ll try to keep a long story short, but there’s got to be some context here,” Matt Cardona began. “In a WWF magazine in like 1990, 1991 there was this Toys R Us ad like go get the new tag teams, there was Demolition, Rockers, Bushwackers, and Rhythm and Blues. And long story short, the Rhythm and Blues never came out. The Greg with the black hair, it was never released.
“Years later, I bought that prototype from that ad; it’s worth over $20,000. It’s like the Holy Grail of wrestling figures. But I’ve said in interviews, I’ve said on my own podcast that I bought it not because I’m a fan of Greg Valentine. I’m a fan of the figure and the history. Not that I’m not a fan of Greg. I’m just not a fan of Greg Valentine.
“Then last week at Wrestlecon, a fan went up to Greg Valentine and said, ‘Hey Greg. That’s the guy who has your prototype.’ He’s like, ‘That Zack Ryder guy? Let me find him!’ And he didn’t realize it; Greg has heat with me because, in interviews, I’ve said that I’m not a fan of his.
“So he came up to me. He’s waving his f**king fist at me with his Hall of Fame ring and said, ‘I heard you’re not a fan of me!’ And I was like, ‘Greg, I mean, I did say that.’ So I couldn’t backpedal because I’ve said it on multiple occasions that I’m not a fan of his. Not that I dislike Greg Valentine. I just didn’t grow up wanting to be the third member of Rhythm and Blues. It all worked out. We smoothed it over. We took a picture.
“But yeah, and then another part of the story is that Mattel, the company that makes the WWE figures now, they kind of recreated that Greg Valentine figure. So it’s not worth thousands of dollars. It’s worth whatever, 20 bucks. But it looks like the old figure did, and Brian Myers, he got it signed by Greg Valentine at Wrestlecon, and he put it up for auction, and I won the auction because I want that figure autographed, but I don’t want to go up to Greg and get him to autograph it.”
When Tommy Dreamer asked Cardona if he thought there was a chance that things were going to get physical, Cardona admitted that he thought at one point that Valentine was going to take a swing at him.
“At one point, I thought for sure he was going to swing at me, and even Brian Myers came over like, ‘Oh, what’s going on here?’ and kind of backpedaled when he saw how furious he was. I did not want to fight Greg for the record. I respect Greg. I would never fight Greg; he would probably kick my ass, especially with that ring on.
“But he was upset, and I understand, but I don’t think he realized that I wasn’t trying to be insulting. It’s just because I think even you, Tommy, said, ‘Oh, you must be such a big Greg The Hammer Valentine fan to want to spend 1000s of dollars on this figure.’ I’m like, no. It’s the figure that I didn’t have as a kid. Not that I really care about Greg Valentine or not.”
As Cardona noted in his recap of the events, the new Greg Valentine action figure is available in a Retro 4-pack on Mattel’s website. The other figures in the set are Doink The Clown, Tugboat and Lex Luger.
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