The Honky Tonk Man was born Roy Wayne Farris on January 25, 1953. He is the real life cousin of another famous wrestler, Jerry "The King" Lawler. Honky Tonk started wrestling sometime in 1977 but would not become a household name until he entered the WWF in the mid-80's, where he held the Intercontinental Championship for a record 64 weeks.
During a television taping on June 2, 1987 in Buffalo, New York, Honky replaced an absent Butch Reed in upsetting Rickey "the Dragon" Steamboat and winning the WWF Intercontinental Championship; Honky reversed Steamboat's inside cradle and grabbed onto the bottom ropes for extra leverage to get the pin. One of the first wrestlers to congratulate Honky on the win was a man who at the time was finishing a fierce feud with Steamboat, but would go on to be one of Honky's most bitter rivals: Randy "Macho Man" Savage. Honky quickly adopted a cowardly heel persona, often getting himself counted out or disqualified on purpose against challengers such as Steamboat, Billy Jack haynes, Bruno Sammartino, and George "The Animal" Steele, as titles cannot be lost by these methods. Also during this time, Honky began using the entrance theme, "Cool, Cocky, Bad," a 50s-styled, narcissistic-themed song performed by Honky Tonk.
By September 1987, Savage was in the midst of a face turn and began challenging Honky for the Intercontinental title (after Honky had made comments about himself being "the greatest Intercontinental champion of all time" and disparaging comments about former champions, particularly Savage). Although they had several matches beforehand — they had also met in 1986, when the then-heel Savage was champion and challenged by the face Honky — the first Savage-Honky match to air on national television was on the October 3, 1987 edition of Saturday Night's Main Event. During that match, Savage nearly defeated Honky until Honky's allies, the Hart Foundation (who had interfered throughout the match), ran into the ring and brutally attacked Savage, getting Honky disqualified. Savage's valet, Miss Elizabeth, attempted to stop the carnage but Honky shoved her down and she fled to the locker room; meanwhile, Honky completed his attempt to break his guitar over Savage's head. Shortly thereafter, Elizabeth returned with Savage's former rival, Hulk Hogan, who aided Savage in running off the heels (leading to the formation of The Mega Powers). Honky continued his bitter feud against Savage. Frequently, Honky would make advances toward Elizabeth — including one such incident at the 1987 Slammy Awards — to agitate his challenger. Honky retained the title in matches with Savage and Brutus "the Barber" Beefcake, Honky's next major rival.
During the Beefcake-Honky feud - which began at Wrestlemania 4 and continued during the spring and summer of 1988 - Honky vowed not to let Beefcake cut his ducktail hair, something Beefcake often said he would do in promos.
At the inaugural SummerSlam, The Ultimate warrior needed just 32 seconds to pin Honky to claim the Intercontinental Championship. Honky had been scheduled to face Beefcake for the title at SummerSlam, but Beefcake fell victim to "Outlaw" Ron Bass' sneak attack at a WWF Superstars of Wrestling taping (aired the weekend before the event). Honky, now thinking he was without an opponent, brazenly issued an open challenge to any wrestler for the title. His confidence disappeared when the Ultimate Warrior's entrance music began to play. Honky had been the champion for one year, two months and 27 days, a record that still stands today. Honky was unsuccessful in his bid to reclaim the title. Honky Tonk would wrap up his wrestling in the WWF sometime in 1990.
The Honky Tonk Man, along with Ryan Smith and a host of others, ran a series of controversial wrestling websites from 2000-2006. TheHonkyTonkMan.com featured frequent updates from the Honky Tonk Man himself, a highly interactive message board community, extensive photo gallery, audio updates, and more. Notable online feuds began between the Honky Tonk Man and Jerry "The King" Lawler, "Rowdy" Roddy Piper, and others. These often intense online rivalries became a major drawing point for fans. The website unexpectedly closed without much explanation in December 2006. The site now forwards to various new ventures of former website manager Ryan Smith, who remains tight-lipped about the closing.
Honky Tonk still wrestlers to this day from time to time on the independent wrestling scene and has popped up on WWE programming a few times the past few months.
Click Here to check out his wikipedia page where I got a lot of this info.
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