Johnny Weaver's Ten-Bell Salute!

Johnny Weaver (The Grappler,Ultimate Assassin)

Passed away on February 15, 2008 at the age of 72. It is listed as Natural Causes .

Championships include :

4 time NWA Florida Southern Heavyweight Champion, NWA Florida Southern Tag Team Champion, NWA Florida Tag Team Champion, 6 time NWA Atlantic Coast Tag Team Champion, 2 time NWA Mid-Atlantic Tag Team Champion, 6 time NWA Southern Tag Team Champion, NWA Television Champion, NWA International Heavyweight Champion

A tag team specialist who wrestled mostly in the Mid-Atlantic territory for Jim Crockett Promotions. In 1960, Weaver was called "the current 'rage' of the teenagers," and the "Rage" nickname stuck with him in his early years. He was initially paired with Sonny Myers as Sonny and Johnny Weaver. He won his first title, the NWA Southern Tag Team titles, with partner Cowboy Bob Ellis in December 1963. George Becker would become Weaver’s most familiar partner over the years. Becker was a big name in the San Francisco territory before settling in the Mid-Atlantic area in the mid-1960s. The two would capture the NWA Mid-Atlantic Tag Team titles five times. Weaver would also win the Mid-Atlantic Tag Team titles with partners Art Nielson (on two occasions), Dewey Robertson (who later became The Missing Link) and Jay Youngblood.

A deputy sheriff with Mecklenburg County in Charlotte, North Carolina since 1989 until his death. In his 50s, Weaver became one of the oldest people to take the basic law enforcement test and ultimately joined the sheriff's office. He spent most of his nineteen-year career transporting prisoners on the same back roads he'd traveled as a wrestler and promoter.

Considered the inventor of the Sleeper Hold, which he called the "Weaverlock" when he used it.

Johnny Weaver was once married to female wrestler Penny Banner.

CWF Mid-Atlantic out of Burlington, North Carolina promotes the Johnny Weaver Cup tournament every August with Weaver in attendance to present the winner with the Weaver Cup trophy. Past tournament winners have been "Dangerous E" Corey Edsel (2004), Jesse Ortega (2005), Gemini Kid (2006) and "Handsome" Mitch Connor (2007).

He began his broadcasting career in 1979 as color commentator with World Wide Wrestling host Rich Landrum. He became Landrum's permanent sidekick for the early 1980s, where he became famous for singing "Turn Out The Lights, The Party's Over" at the end of matches (a tip of the hat to Don Meredith, who did the same thing on Monday Night Football). When Landrum left the company in 1983, Weaver then worked briefly with David Crockett, before becoming paired with the longtime voice of Mid-Atlantic Wrestling Bob Caudle, whom he worked with until leaving the company in 1988.

He made a brief in-ring return in the Fall of 1987 in the corner of the "American Dream" Dusty Rhodes who was using sleeper hold, calling it the "Weaver Lock," and chasing down Lex Luger and the N.W.A. United States Title. During this angle, Weaver was placed in a Japanese version of the sleeper by Hiro Matsuda, causing him to bleed from the mouth. Weaver was in Rhodes' corner at Starrcade '87: Chi-Town Heat, when Rhodes defeated Luger in a steel cage after DDTing Luger onto a steel chair.