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Revision as of 15:14, 21 March 2007 by Betacommand (talk | contribs) (removing inappropriate link per WP:EL, WP:SPAM, WP:RS, and WP:NOT)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)| Roy Wayne Farris | |
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| File:Honkytonkman.jpg | |
| Born | January 25, 1953 Tennessee |
| Professional wrestling career | |
| Ring name(s) | Danny Condrey Wayne Farris Honky Tonk Wayne The Honky Tonk Man |
| Billed height | 6 ft 1 in (185 cm) |
| Billed weight | 271 lb (123 kg) |
| Billed from | Memphis, Tennessee |
| Trained by | Herb Welch |
| Debut | 1977 |
Roy Wayne Farris (born January 25, 1953) is an American professional wrestler, better known by his ring name The Honky Tonk Man. Currently working on the independent circuit, he has previously worked for World Championship Wrestling (WCW) and the World Wrestling Federation (WWF). In an Internet poll, patrons of WWE.com named him "the greatest Intercontinental Champion of all time."
Career
Farris won several regional tag team titles as one half of the "Blond Bombers" with Larry Latham who went on to become Moondog Spot. In mid-1986 Farris also won the North American Heavyweight Title from Bad News Allen in Stu Hart's Stampede Wrestling as Honky Tonk Wayne.
The Honky Tonk Man debuted as a face in the WWF in late 1986 with promo endorsements from Hulk Hogan. The fans rejected Honky Tonk Man as a face, however. After conducting a poll in which an overwhelming majority of fans refused to give him a "Vote of Confidence", the WWF turned him heel.
As a heel, he was managed by Jimmy Hart, dubbed "The Colonel" in a reference to Elvis Presley's manager Colonel Tom Parker.
The Honky Tonk Man's first feud in the WWF was with Jake Roberts in early 1987. It began in "The Snake Pit" on Wrestling Challenge, where Honky struck Jake with his guitar after Jake made disparaging remarks about Honky's name and singing talent. (Both wrestlers tell differing stories about whether Jake was actually injured. Jake states in his DVD, that the Honky Tonk Man actually injured him, causing him to develop a painkiller addiction. Mick Foley also says this in his original autobiography. The Honky Tonk Man claims this is a lie and that Mick Foley actually apologized for not calling him earlier to verify the truthfulness of this before having it published.) The feud reached its height at WrestleMania III, where Honky used the ropes to pin Roberts.
The Honky Tonk Man (believed by some to have been a substitute for Butch Reed) won the WWF Intercontinental Championship from Ricky Steamboat at the June 2, 1987, "Superstars of Wrestling" tapings in Buffalo, New York. He would go on to proclaim himself the "greatest Intercontinental Champion of all time" due to his record 15-month title reign (454 days); many years later, this claim would be supported by a poll of fans conducted by the WWF.
One of his major feuds as champion was with Randy Savage. Honky disrespected Savage, who was trying to congratulate him for his win over Savage's most hated enemy, Steamboat. In the weeks that followed, Honky began to use his biggest catchphrase, "the greatest Intercontinental Champion of all time," and put down all who preceded him, including Savage, who was coming off an impressive year-plus long reign of his own. The feud exploded during an October episode of "Saturday Night's Main Event" on NBC when Honky shoved Miss Elizabeth to the ground and smashed a guitar over Savage's head. The two captained opposing teams at the inaugural Survivor Series pay-per-view on Thanksgiving Day 1987, with Savage, Steamboat and Roberts lasting as the "survivors" when Honky Tonk Man (the last remaining member of his team) deliberately took a countout. Honky and Savage met again on the Feb. 5, 1988, "Main Event" special live in prime time on NBC, with Savage winning by countout. Their feud would never reach a conclusion as Savage went on to win the WWF Championship at WrestleMania IV.
At WrestleMania IV, Honky Tonk Man defended his title against Brutus Beefcake. Honky was disqualified after Jimmy Hart knocked out the referee when it appeared Honky was about to lose to Beefcake's sleeper hold.
In correlation with an angle in which Beefcake was "injured" by Ron Bass just before a rematch at SummerSlam 1988, Honky lost the Intercontinental Championship at SummerSlam to the Ultimate Warrior in a 30-second squash match when he made an open challenge to anyone in the backstage area to wrestle him. The WWF was grooming Warrior for an eventual main-event push and felt that having him easily defeat the longest-reigning Intercontinental Champion would give him massive credibility. In later shoot interviews, Honky has said that he had no problem dropping the belt in such a short match, mostly because he and Warrior had such incompatible wrestling styles. Honky felt that anything longer than the match that occurred would've made both wrestlers look foolish, and would've killed any momentum going into the Warrrior's first title run, later saying that his suggestion to Vince McMahon was to make the match as short as possible.
After losing the Intercontinental belt, Honky feuded briefly with Warrior, then teamed with Greg Valentine in a brief feud with the Hart Foundation in early 1989. He spent much of 1989 feuding with the returning "Superfly" Jimmy Snuka before reuniting with Valentine as Rhythm & Blues. They sang at WrestleMania VI but were interrupted by the Bushwhackers, with whom they feuded through the summer. Rhythm & Blues also repeatedly challenged the Hart Foundation for the tag team titles. Shortly after Survivor Series 1990, Honky briefly did color commentary while continuing to team with Valentine. He left the WWF shortly into 1991.
In 1994, the Honky Tonk Man was working for World Championship Wrestling and was challenging Johnny B. Badd for the WCW World Television Championship when he left due to a dispute with management. Honky Tonk Man was working in WCW without a contract. Eric Bischoff wanted Honky Tonk Man to lose to Johnny B. Badd on a PPV. Honky Tonk Man refused to do the job for Mero, unless he had a contract. Bischoff wouldn't budge, and Honky Tonk Man eventually left WCW. This left some heat between Honky and Hulk Hogan as it was Honky who was doing a favor to Hogan by showing up in WCW in order to make it "familiar" with WWF fans. Before Honky left WCW, Hogan alledgedly told him that there was nothing he could do in order to get Eric Bischoff to give Honky Tonk a contract. Honky doesn't believe this.
After a brief stint in the American Wrestling Federation, Honky later resurfaced in the WWF as a manager for Billy Gunn, who had begun a singles run. Under Honky's tutelage, Gunn became known as "Rockabilly," which was a short-lived and unsuccessful gimmick. Honky made an appearance in the 2001 Royal Rumble where he entered the Rumble, but got nailed with his own guitar by Kane and was quickly eliminated.
Today, the Honky Tonk Man still works for various independent promotions around the world. He was featured in The 50 Greatest WWE Superstars Of All Time, a WWE magazine released in December 2003. The article calls for his future induction into the WWE Hall of Fame.
In January 2007, Honky Tonk Man closed his website.
Trivia
- Honky was never actually scheduled to win the Intercontinental Title. Butch Reed, who was feuding with Steamboat at the time, no-showed a house event where he was supposed to win the title. But since Steamboat was already on his way out of the WWF at the time, the company had to have him drop the belt to someone. Hulk Hogan suggested Honky, who was one of the few notable heels in the organization at the time, and he got the nod and took the title.
- At WrestleMania VI, Honky Tonk and Greg Valentine were driven to the ring for their "Rhythm and Blues" performance in a pink Cadillac. The driver (and owner) of the car was a then-unknown Diamond Dallas Page.
- Farris is the cousin of professional wrestler Jerry "The King" Lawler, though the two have a somewhat acrimonious relationship. This relationship has been played on many times both whilst they were on good terms and bad terms.
- Originally introduced to fans as a face, the fans quickly turned against Honky, and WWF management gave fans the opportunity to write in and vote for whether or not he should be a heel. Dubbed "A Vote of Confidence: Yay or Nay", this system was one of the few times fans were openly allowed to influence a booking decision.
- Honky has had four theme songs throughout his career; first, a song even unbeknownst to Wayne himself used through most of 1987 called "That's All Right, Honky Tonk Mama"; then, "Cool, Cocky and Bad", which begins with the lyrics: "I've got long side burns and my hair's slicked back", the tune he and Greg Valentine performed at WrestleMania VI entitled, "Hunka Hunka Hunka Honky Love;" and, finally, the theme used during his short-lived WCW run, "You're just a Honky Dog Baby."
- According to pro wrestling legend, Honky was directly responsible for several changes in the WWF's long term title plans in 1988. Randy Savage was originally scheduled to go over Honky for the Intercontinental Title; Honky threatened to jump to Jim Crockett Promotions if this occurred. Although the WWF acquiesced, Savage threatened to shoot on Honky. To placate him, he was booked to win the WWF title tournament at WrestleMania IV instead of Ted DiBiase. DiBiase and Honky have allegedly had animosity towards each other since then.
- Honky is a familiar face to Vancouver wrestling fans in both his pre- and post-WWF careers, having competed in NWA All Star Wrestling as both a heel (while teaming with "Diamond" Timothy Flowers) and a face, and in Extreme Canadian Championship Wrestling, where he faced then-NWA Canadian Heavyweight Champion Vance Nevada in an October 2006 match in Vancouver and won by disqualification due to the interference of Seth Knight and referee-turned-heel manager Verne Siebert.
- Throughout his career, Honky would carry an acoustic guitar to the ring, and often used it to attack other wrestlers (i.e. the guitar shot, now widely imitated in hardcore matches). The guitar's ubiquity, coupled with the Elvis impersonator gimmick, led many fans to think that Farris, like his former manager Jimmy Hart, was a real-life musician. However, in a 2002 shoot interview, Honky amusingly admitted that in real life he doesn't know how to play a single note on the guitar, remarking, "I think everybody knew I couldn't play that damn thing."
In wrestling
- Finishing and signature moves
- Shake, Rattle and Roll (Swinging Neckbreaker with a hip-swiveling dance in the middle)
- Guitar shot
- Managers
- Wrestlers managed
Championships and accomplishments
- APW Universal Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
- Mid-Eastern Wrestling Federation
- MEWF Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
- Mid-Southern Tag Team Championship (4 times- 3 with Larry Latham 1 with Tojo Yamamoto)
- NWA Mid-America Tag Team Championship (3 times, with Larry Latham)
- NWA Alabama Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
- NWA Southeast Tag Team Championship (1 time with Ron Starr)
- NWA Southeast Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
- Northern States Wrestling Alliance
- NSWA Tag Team Championship (1 time, with Greg Valentine)
- Stampede International Tag Team Championship (3 times- 2 with Ron Starr, 1 with The Cuban Assassin)
- Stampede North American Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
- WWC Caribbean Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
- WWF Intercontinental Championship (1 time)
- Voted "The Greatest Intercontinental Champion Of All Time" by WWE.COM users.
References
- APW and MEWF title histories at the Wrestling Information Archive
- NWA Mid-America and Mid-Southern, Stampede, WWC and WWF title histories at Wrestling-Titles.com