The Honky Tonk Man, he was cool, cocky and bad. That is at least according to Jimmy Hart and the self proclaimed greatest Intercontinental champion of all time The Honky Tonk Man.
On the surface an Elvis impersonator gimmick seemed like an absolute failure. However Honky Tonk took what could have been a really bad gimmick to another level.
He was a natural at getting heat from the fans. His rivalries with Macho Man Randy Savage , Ricky The Dragon Steamboat, and The Ultimate Warrior are stuff of legends.
Honky Tonk Man was infamous for his “greatest hits” which was usually a guitar across the head. The fans loved to hate him. Before Jeff Jarret and Elias there was the Honky Tonk Man.
The Honky Tonk Man’s real name was Roy Wayne Farris. He started his career in 1977 as enhancement talent under the name “Dynamite” Wayne Farris. Jerry Brisco saw Farris and teamed him with Larry Latham under the name the Blonde Bombers.
They frequently wrestled Jerry Lawler and Bill Dundee. The King was actually Farris’s cousin, so wrestling royalty does run through the Honky Tonk Mans veins. Farris spent some time in the AWA, NWA, and Stampede Wrestling.
Cool in Calgary Before He was The Honky Tonk Man
It was in Stu Harts Stampede Wrestling in 1982 that “Dynamite” Wayne Farris channeled his inner Elvis, transforming into Honky Tonk Wayne.
Along with his friend David Shultz, Farris headed to Calgary. Stu Harts territory was like no other. It was a matter of survival especially in the winter.
Anyone who spent a long time in those conditions became a fraternity. Farris first started tagging with Dr.D then he turned on him. Dr. D David Shultz was the first Honky Tonk Man victim of the guitar shot .
In 1985 Honky Tonk won the International tag team championship with The Cuban Assasin. One year later he captured the North American Heavyweight Championship from another soon to be WWF heel Bad News Allen. In 1986 Honky’s blue suede shoes led him to the World Wrestling Federation.
World Wrestling Federation
It was surprising to know that Honky Tonk Man actually debuted in the WWF as a babyface. They even had the devious one Mr. Fuji give a promo during the match to get Honky over as a face.
Jeese The Body Ventura, who was doing commentary even called Honky Tonk a ” buddy of Hulk Hogan”. The WWF was determined to make Honky Tonk a face.
Later on Honky Tonk Man did say that he felt completely uncomfortable in a baby face role. It wasn’t what the character was created for.
The character at its soul was delusional. That’s what got the heat. He couldn’t sing, he couldn’t dance, he could not play guitar, but he could work.
WWF would not give up on their King of Rock n Roll impersonator. They even had Hulk Hogan give a promo on him showing his support.
In October 1986 he defeated the WWF Intercontinental Champion, Macho Man Randy Savage by DQ. The fans just would not get behind Honky.
In about six months, the WWF decided to give the heel Honky Tonk a try. It was on Jesse Venturas Bodyshop where Honky Tonk turned heel after the fans rejected him.
His demeanor changed. He started calling the fans babies ugly and that he was tired of shaking their greasy hands. Then Honky Tonk Man aligned himself with The Mouth of the South Jimmy Hart.
The fans hated Jimmy Hart. His trademark megaphone annoyed most of them. Jimmy was a genius. Many things that make up what wrestling is came from the mind of Jimmy Hart. The pairing was meant to be. To complete the gimmick Honky Tonk Man called Hart the colonel.
Honky’s first feud in the WWF was with the Jake The Snake Roberts. Jake had been a heel until that day. The WWF needed to find a way to get Jake over as a face and HTM over as a heel.
During a Snake Pit episode Honky hit Roberts with a guitar. Jake’s eyes glazed back in his head. Jake Roberts was now a fan favorite, and they hated Honky.
This led to a match at WrestleMania III that Honky won by using the ring ropes to his advantage. To add to Roberts face turn, rockstar icon Alice Cooper accompanied him to the ring.
The Greatest Intercontinental Champion of all time
Surprisingly on June 13, 1987 The Honky Tonk Man defeated WWF Intercontinental Champion Ricky The Dragon Steamboat. He again used the ropes for leverage.
An interesting fact is that originally Steamboat was supposed to lose to Butch Reed. Luckily for Honky Tonk , Reed did not show. Honky Tonk Man was only supposed to be a transitional champion however at that time he became the longest reigning Intercontinental Champion.
Ricky ‘The Dragon’ Steamboat had just come off his greatest match at WrestleMania III against the Macho Man Randy Savage. Ironically, Savage was the first to congratulate Honky Tonk.
Steamboat said he never had a problem losing as long as it was a good match. He did say, however, he was surprised at the decision due to Honky’s in-ring character. During his championship reign Honky Tonk Man often got deliberately disqualified or counted out to retain the title.
Honky Tonk Man is the longest-reigning Intercontinental champion at that time, until Gunther’s recent reign. Honky Tonk also cut his first hit song.
It was his entrance music. He was the Honky Tonk Man coming to your town in a pink Cadillac. He’s the Honky Tonk Man. He’s cool, he’s cocky, he’s bad.
This song was featured on the WWF theme music album Piledriver. During Honky Tonk’s reign another Hall of Famer and former Intercontinental Champion, ‘Macho Man’ Randy Savage was getting more and more popular.
Savage took particular exception to Honky’s claim as the greatest Intercontinental champion of all time. In late 1987, Randy Savages popularity was skyrocketing.
Macho Madness was beginning to equal the popularity of Hulkamania. Honky Tonk Man has said that every show he and Savage main-evented was sold out.
He also said that his matches with Macho were the first time Elizabeth became a part of the action. Savage trusted Honky Tonk Man.
Feuding with the Macho Man
Macho Man would challenge the Honky Tonk Man at Saturday Night Main Event on October 3,1987. Savage came within seconds of defeating Honky.
Unfortunately for Savage , Honky Tonk Man’s allies the Hart Foundation interfered. Miss Elizabeth, Savages’ manager, begged them to stop. Instead Honky Tonk Man shoved her to the ground.
Elizabeth then ran out of the ring to the locker room. Then Honky Tonk took his guitar and hit Randy Savage in the head. Elizabeth then returned but this time she had Hulk Hogan with her. This was the begininng of the mega powers.
Honky Tonk Man began to say that Elizabeth wanted him not Savage. He claimed he was going to take her to the heartbreak hotel.
This infuriated Savage more. A rematch was scheduled for Friday Night’s Main Event on February 5, 1988. This was the same night Hulk Hogan lost the WWF Championship to Andre The Giant.
Andre gave the belt to ‘the Million Dollar Man’ Ted Dibiase. Honky arrived with a surprise. He had Jimmy Hart but also in his corner was Peggy Sue.
This was Honky Tonk Man’s girlfriend. In reality, Peggy Sue was Sensational Sherri. She was in disguise due to already being in the WWF as women’s champion.
That night Honky Tonk Man had two of wrestling s greatest managers in his corner Jimmy Hart and Sensational Sherri Martel.
Macho Man Randy Savage claimed Honky Tonk Man was in the Danger Zone. Savage was not a happy man. The Match finally ended when Honky Tonk Man lost by countout.
This was not the retribution fans wanted. Years later Honky revealed that he had no problem losing to Savage. It’s just the WWF had other plans.
In a few months, Macho Man Randy Savage was going to become WWF Champion. Honky Tonk would go on to his next challenge in Brutus ‘The Barber’ Beefcake.
Beefcake was gaining a lot of popularity for cutting and strutting. After he defeated his opponents with the sleeper he would give them a fresh new haircut.
Honky had those Elvis-like sideburns that the fans wanted to see shaved off. After several matches on Superstars, Honky defended the Intercontinental Championship against Beefcake.
The referee got knocked out while Honky Tonk Man was in the sleeper, so Honky retained. Honky escaped retaining his title, but Jimmy Hart did not retain his locks.
The Barber gave the fans a treat and gave Jimmy a nice new haircut. Another secret about Honky Tonk Man’s girlfriend is on TV it was Sherri, but at House shows it was Jimmy Hart in drag.
Ultimate Demise
Beefcake was closing in on the Intercontinental title, when he was attacked by Outlaw Ron Bass. The attack sidelined Beefcake for several months.
He was scheduled to face the HTM one last time at SummerSlam. Instead Honky would defend against a mystery opponent.
That mystery opponent was Hall of Famer The Ultimate Warrior. Honky Tonk Man lost his title that he held for 454 days in 31 seconds.
As a matter of fact Honky did not even get to remove his jumpsuit before he was pinned. Many might wonder why Honky Tonk Man was alright with a record-setting run being ended like that.
Honky has said later because he was approached correctly about it. He knew where the WWF was going with the Warrior. It wasn’t a last minute decision. Honky got to have input in how he would lose the title.
Rhythm and Blues
In 1989 Honky Tonk Man formed a tag team with another Hall of Famer Greg The Hammer Valentine. According to HTM Rick Rude actually named them.
They called themselves Rhythm and Blues. Valentine died his blonde hair black. The Hammer hated the idea. Here was this serious athlete now doing comedy.
The duo started a feud with the Hart Foundation who recently fired Jimmy Hart. At WrestleMania VI the tag team rode to the ring in a pink Cadillac driven by none other than WCW legend and Hall of Famer Diamond Dallas Page.
Honky Tonk Man along with Valentine joined Ted Dibiase’s Million Dollar Team at the Survivor Series . What was important about this was Dibiase had a mystery partner.
That mystery partner was none other than the Phenom The Undertaker. Honky Tonk Man then began to be a heel color commentator on Superstars before he eventually left the WWF in 1991.
After his time in the WWF , Honky Tonk Man joined UWF. However WWE threatened a lawsuit if he were to do the Honky Tonk Man at UWF.
Honky did a few shows as Wayne Ferris in USWA against his cousin Jerry Lawler and JJ Jeff Jarrett. In 1994 Honky Tonk Man appeared in WCW.
After a few matches on WCW Worlwide, Honky had his first feud with WCW television champion Johnny B Badd aka Marc Mero.
In their first match it both stars battled to a time limit draw. Honky finally got a rematch at Starrcade 94 , however Honky left the company before the match could take place.
As a matter of fact , Honky has said he was “getting in the car headed home as his entrance music was playing in the arena.” For someone who could not write a song to save his soul those words were poetic.
Rockabilly
After appearing at a few Indy shows, Honky Tonk Man finally returned to the WWF. He began doing color commentary on Monday Night Raw, Supertstars, and Shotgun Saturday Night.
In a few months, Honky Tonk Man became the manager of Billy Gunn who was now known as Rockabilly. In between the Smokin Gunn’s and the New Age Outlaws, Billy Gunn had The Honky Tonk Man as his mentor.
Obviously, this was not successful as Gunn went onto become Bad Ass Billy Gunn a mainstay in the WWF Attitude era. Honky Tonk Man himself hated the gimmick.
He hated it more because it was supposedly punishment for Billy Gunn threatening to go to WCW. After Gunn and Road Dogg formed the New Age Outlaws, Honky left.
He made a few surprise appearances at the Royal Rumble but beyond that Honky’s wrestling career was down at lonely street on heartbreak hotel.
Honky Tonk Man knew how to market himself. From 2000-2006 he ran Honkeytonkman.com which spawned several online feuds between Honky and his fellow contemporaries.
It was Twitter before Twitter. The website closed in 2006. He continued making several Indy appearances. He was also inducted in the 2008 XWF Hall of Fame.
WWE Hall of Fame
In 2008 Honky Tonk Man returned to the WWE. Santino Marella was the current Intercontinental champion. Marella’s goal was to break Honk Tonk Man’s record.
He even had a honk-a-meter displaying how many days he had been champion. At Cyber Sunday, Honky was elected to face Marella.
He won the match by DQ thus not winninthe title. On an episode of Raw after the ppv, Honky hit Santino with his infamous guitar shot. He also inducted KoKo B. Ware into the WWE Hall of Fame.
He made an appearance at an Old School Raw episode where he smashed Heath Slater over the head with the guitar. Finally in 2019 Honky Tonk Man himself was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame by Jimmy Hart.
In the 1980’s Honky Tonk Man brought a new kind of heel to the WWF. The delusional heel. Honky truly believed that all the boos the fans were giving him were really applause.
He used to grab the microphone and thank his audience, while they were throwing things at him. He would occasionally take a guitar shot to the head himself and end up thinking he really was Elvis.
Looking at it from an entertainment angle, Honky was not that delusional. The fans did love him, but they loved to hate him.
Honky used every opportunity he could to make WWF fans buy tickets to see him get his ass kicked. That’s the mark of a good heel. That’s the mark of a champion. Like the song said he’s cool, he’s cocky, he’s b-b-b-bad..
