The WWE Regret That Haunts Honky Tonk Man

[@TheHannibalTV]

Honky Tonk Man The Hannibal TV playlist: kzbin.info/aero/PLvoIHF4T3-L7Do3DQztyUHR_2WlDLuXRW

[@Rizzlyricist]

Honky Tonk is literally Elvis 😂. We got a somewhat skinny Honky, now a chubby one. God bless his heart.

[@Tonyscasa]

What a complete self reflection . He was looking at himself and talking to himself

[@TheKongZilla]

I've always really liked Honky's interviews. I often think he doesn't get the credit he deserves. I mean this guy got over with a friggin Elvis gimmick in the wacky 80s. lol Idk how many guys could've pulled that off.

[@Zekeratt]

He did a good little twist back then, I enjoyed watching him.

[@poindextertunes]

literally Jerry Lawler?

[@TheKongZilla]

@@poindextertunes yea I guess. You know it’s weird. I never really thought of Jerry as an Elvis type gimmick.

[@TalkingToTheBirds]

You’re a goof.

[@pingamalinga]

He made a career solely by body slams, punching, kicking and using a final move. He was awesome and he did so little technically.

[@rampageclover9788]

Where’s the full shoot? Love hearing Honky Tonk’s stories

[@stevenseagal4664]

Honkey does the best interview I could listen to him all day long.

[@wallypalmer4704]

The song was called "For What it's Worth" by Buffalo Springfield.

[@c0uchsl0uch]

For what it's worth, buffalo Springfield

[@ranielalmaria6612]

The song is FOR WHAT IT'S WORTH by Buffalo Springfield.

[@MichaelJones-pl7xh]

Hes mellowed out over the years

[@battlestarmarc]

Honky was a great heel. He was awesome as a heel announcer. Honky Savage feud was fabulous.

[@3sox4ozzy]

Not sure what it is. But I love to listen to this guy...

[@BDEisMe22_4]

What’s sad is, I really liked him as a face. I get how great he was as a heel, but most heels, make great faces, Hogan, Sid, Bret, Piper, Roberts, Hennig, to name a few, but so, so many others during and after this era.

[@fooledman]

That is the environment on any toxic job nowadays.

[@NeoNyder]

I could listen to Honky Tonk all day.

[@14spokenwords]

Everyone in my family loved the Honky Tonk Man ... that 1990 Thanksgiving Survivor Series when Rhythm & Blues came out it was insane. We were supposed to have it on in the kids room at my Grandma's house but the cable company messed up so the whole family watched it. It was legendary when the Undertaker came out, but I remember there was a huge mixed reaction for Rhythm & Blues. They still had heat

[@manchuriancandybar864]

Yes, Honky walked out of the WWE to Herb Abrams' UWF. If that was better managed, Honky would have had a better career there given his experience.

[@TheHannibalTV]

Then Herb bounced checked on him which he famously reported to the athletic commision

[@lapepitadeorooficial]

honkeee taaaawnk maaaaan is the beest maaaaan in all the maaaaanhooooood! damn!

[@solecreator4844]

Well we all do remember how the Honky Tonk Man began as a babyface. Nobody liked him, probably more because he potrayed an "Elvis impersonator'. What did finally work out for the Honky Tonk Man? Becoming a heel! And what a heel he was! You wished sometimes you could take away his guitar to hit it onto his head. That is how mean I thought he was and how I felt about him. But at the same time I liked it. Liked it to hate him. But who knows how it could have worked out if he had listened. I can understand him very well. I'm also a person who would walk out when something gets thrown at me that I don't like to hear and of which I immediately sense they are trying to screw me. I only have three Hasbro action figures of the WWF back then in my collection. I have the Macho Man, The Macho King and my most favourite of them all : The Honky Tonk Man with his guitar. The greatest Intercontinental Champion of all time! And who can forget his entrance song?

[@groovelife415]

I met Honky Tonk Man when I was a kid. It was before the event that night at a signing. I still have the photo stuffed away in a drawer. That man single handedly destroyed wrestling for me. He was a complete prick. I left that day and never watched wrestling again until I was much older and WWE was well into the attitude era of Stone Cold. This makes me wonder if he was really going through a lot if shit with WWE the night I met him.

[@danreid4344]

Wow I'm happy someone else just confirmed my thoughts about him.... I LOVED honky as a kid, then I met him.... He didn't even look at me when talking.... And this was when he was washed up working a independent show, biggest prick, rude and totally full of himself....I told him this on twitter and he promptly banned me lol

[@hendo338]

He's Jerry Lawlers cousin. It runs in the family.

[@poindextertunes]

@@danreid4344The ban tells you everything

[@MasteroftheDDT]

"Into you mind it will creep. It starts when you're always afraid. Step outa line, the man comes and takes you away". I'm sure there was some dope smokin involved but I think the tune's about a protest in the 60's

[@makedreamsareality3634]

Sometimes it takes a while to recognize things like this! Good for you HTM!

[@JeffreyJetsKohut]

Honky Tonk Man can look at Greg Valentine to see what the end result would have been. He teamed with Honky Tonk Man as Rhythm and Blues and after Honky Tonk Man left, Valentine turned face and dropped down to lower-mid card.

[@someparts]

BUT..he was still working.

[@themadviking5746]

They were already mid card but being pushed .

[@IRVSMITH1]

Valentine turned face and promptly started losing every match on his way out the door, lol.

[@GigBossMan]

I think a baby face Honky Tonk would have been money. That was a dumb move on his part.

[@StarOasis26]

You know better, you did the right thing.

[@robmetaldeth1889]

He pretty much type-casted himself as the ''Greatest intercontinental champion of all time''. Man, if he could have just followed Savage up to the World champion ranks. Revisiting another Savage feud. A Hogan feud. A bad guy vs bad guy with Rude would have been gold. An Undertaker match. A Hitman Match. The tag team thing was a turn to the lower ranks. He came in as a good guy and the fans hated him.

[@DerWutendeMetzger]

Wow! It's the Haunty Tonk Man!

[@ryanvannice7878]

While I appreciate his self reflection, I hope he can also see that his fate in WWF likely wouldn't have changed significantly, whatever his behavior. As we learn more, we also learn that WWF is the classic toxic work environment. He and the other wrestlers, save Hogan, had little organizational power and were outnumbered, Vince and his minions against him.

[@poindextertunes]

save hogan? you mean Hogan blocked the only chance they ever had at a wrestlers union by snitching on jesse ventura to Vince so he could score brownie points and fxck over all his co workers who were just trying to feed their families?

[@JTJT-lo2vf]

@@poindextertunesin this context, “save Hogan” means “except Hogan,” meaning that Hogan was the only wrestler who had that kind of influence. Which is how he was able to shut down the union talk.

[@emmitbrown5631]

Too bad he didn't wanna be a baby face. As a kid, I actually really liked Honkey. 👍

[@thebipolarbear1]

You look great Wayne keep up the good work. Elvis who?

[@carlosmorales5811]

In Wrestlemania 3, the Savage vs Steamboat was the best. The Andre vs Hogan was so predictable.

[@JohnnyDouchbag-nr5yf]

The interviewer is wearing a high quality toupee!! It's not a wig!! I can tell because I sell high quality rugs for bald mens!

[@someparts]

That's a dead squirrel.

[@Adam-kn3tv]

Are you sure it's not some weird comb over?

[@greenonions7492]

​@@someparts😂😂🦫😵I'm dead, bruh.

[@NathanielIReiff]

You can tell he’s done a lot of introspection lately

[@humanvideosponge4529]

You know. Back in the day (in my mind at least) wrestling was all about the really big names like Hogan and Macho Man and Warrior and so forth. And to be honest, back then when I saw matches with names like Honky Tonk Man or Greg Valentine or whatever, I would just be annoyed and felt like it was a waste of time. Now so many years later, I see that although someone like Hogan might have made everything possible, he was really kind of a boring character and I do remember Honky Tonk Man and others like him as being more interesting. He was a perfect heel. He really was. Almost all of the heels of that era were just gold. Some of them could pull off a face turn and some of them couldn't but I think being a really good heel is probably as hard as anything else. It's easy to make people not like you but it takes something special to make them hate you so much they wouldn't even accept a face turn.

[@MortGoldbergTalent]

Is Scott Thorson the guy interviewing Honky?

[@concierge1892]

I thought it was the Feinstein guy

[@MortGoldbergTalent]

@@concierge1892 this guy is too normal to be Feinstein.

[@stangsswang8355]

just as fruity

[@MortGoldbergTalent]

@@stangsswang8355 just as fruity but not as fruitcake. This guy seems pretty cool.

[@wade-be7sz]

Honky was a great heel.....love to hear his stories.....like most wrestlers he tends to remember shit in his favor.

[@bradvestby]

He comes off more bitter than he does remorseful..

[@natediaz1863]

Sometimes that's all that's left in the end.

[@poindextertunes]

finally somebody without biased take

[@BuJammy]

Did anyone mention him being remorseful, or did I miss something?

[@bradvestby]

@BuJammy The title of the video might help you out broski..

[@ROGER45211]

I loved Honkey he was awesome wish he'd stayed around a little longer

[@joemendoza2292]

I'm guilty of being the same way, so I get it.

[@KriusAerion]

Long live the Honky Donk Maaaaaan

[@Dr.Dark1331]

As a kid i was neither a fan nor disliked Honky Tonk Man but now I see how awrsome he was whether right or wrong he did his career his way & I don't blame him as he tried the baby face style for years & couldn't get over with it but was a great heel & obviously did not want to lose what persona he had spent years building by some idiot armchair office booker with a penned script that would bury his career, if it ain't broke don't fix it, the Undertaker made the dead man gimmick work for over 3 decades with only briefly turning into a biker for a short period in the early 2000s but was very happy once he ditched that & went back to the dead man, wrestlers need to have more control over their personas & just booked whether they win or lose matches, I understand you can't have a whole roster of ripoff Stone Cold's or the Rock's but give wrestlers the option of at least 3 different gimmicks to choose from & let them pick out of those options & build their persona how the see fit in that gimmick & if they get over with it let them have control of how they feel is the best to portray their character & whether they prefer to be a face or heel periodically as some would probably like to try to switch & probably be successful at both roles but some like Honky Tonk Man could not be a face and continue making money & should have the option to say look Vince I sell tickets and make money being a heel cause the fans want to see me get my a$$ kicked but I can't be a face I tried for years & couldn't get over as a face so for me I think it is in our best interest to keep my a heel

[@datkiddjophat4290]

I understand where he’s coming from though

[@jimmybuckets5863]

I just don’t see an Elvis impersonator in the 80s who sings his own entrance music and hits people with guitars being a babyface. Unless he’s just gonna job out to all the heels.

[@TheHannibalTV]

A good Elvis impersonator could get over

[@thehappyheretic2136]

honkey was going to get the blue tights face turn

[@MortGoldbergTalent]

@@thehappyheretic2136 😂 yep like Don Muraco.

[@datkiddjophat4290]

Some people were just ment to be a heel and he definitely was a heel

[@chrismills2439]

PC might not be the term you were looking for, self conscious might have been

[@mikemazz3377]

For what its worth Buffalo Springfield

[@whitelotus1594]

He's cool. He's cocky. He's bad...

[@destronia123]

When did Honky Tonk turn iinto Humpty Dumpty?

[@poindextertunes]

Everything? The guy was constantly talking shxt in shoot interviews. A lot of the times about ppl who weren’t alive anymore to give their side of the story

[@roccoz2231]

Thirty-six years later, I still can't figure out Honky's logic in refusing to drop the IC belt to Randy on SNME -- in what surely would've been a solid, competitive match -- but had no problem jobbing out to Warrior in less than 45 seconds at SummerSlam '88. He never worked semi-event again in his life after that match.

[@rozay2437]

Happy that happened because it led to Macho winning the big one at Wm 4🙌🏽

[@MCastleberry1980]

If he's anything like Greg Valentine, it's because more people would see SNME than SummerSlam. Even if the PPVs were bigger shows, SNME by virtue of being on NBC had more eyes watching. For an example: Hogan vs Andre had about a million ppv buys. Their SNME rematch has 33 million viewers. These guys were obsessed with protecting their character and did not want to job to a ton of viewers.

[@roccoz2231]

@@MCastleberry1980 Great points, and a classic example of how wrestlers ultimately shoot themselves in the foot. An SNME loss to Randy would've garnered high ratings but likely would've been forgotten, especially given that show's main event. Meanwhile, HTM's squash loss to Ultimate Warrior at SummerSlam has been played and replayed constantly over the past 35 years. It's an iconic moment in Warrior's career and arguably the highlight of that PPV. Also, don't forget home video, which was huge at the time, and would've given more households the opportunity to see a live PPV they missed. The old SNME shows were never replayed or commercially released back then. So....I would argue more people have seen the Warrior/HTM squash match than would've seen an SNME match with Randy, hindsight being 20/20 and all.

[@Insert.anger50]

Adds adds adds adds do they want me to switch off??????

[@Adam-kn3tv]

Ads*

[@krisyallowega5487]

Honky, how many times did you attempt to have a dialogue with Vince about his plan for Randy? He would not return your calls until you met Jack in Winnipeg. You laid it out what you were going to do, then Vince was more than happy to negotiate with you....not really negotiate but at least talk. But you still ended up leaving...for the better at that time.

[@Burtkitchen]

I thought 😢he passed away

[@Youareme42o]

Idgaf what anybody says he was the greatest ic champ ever besides a couple of others lol jk

[@MortGoldbergTalent]

Can I comment on something weird about Honky? I can? Thanks. The dude has the face of someone in their 60's, fine. But his physique looks like someone in their 30's. Look how wide his f'ing shoulders are? The skin tone on his arms is decades younger.

[@Halbared]

His chin gives him away. He’s pretty good apart from that.

[@MortGoldbergTalent]

@@Halbared yep. His chin is from the undefeated, age.

[@poindextertunes]

I mean hormone therapy

[@robertcoggeshall3071]

Guy was a flash in a pan- had no talent, but his gimmick worked at the time, especially as a heel.

[@garethcullen9604]

4+ years isn't a "flash in the pan".

[@daveconleyportfolio5192]

His talent was making people dislike him. It is one of the two talents that actually matter. Everything else is just fanboy stuff trying to treat wrestling as if it were real.

[@IRVSMITH1]

and, most importantly, he is Jerry Lawler's cousin, lol.

[@robertcoggeshall3071]

@@garethcullen9604 1 year as ic champ, then nothing. Thats a flash in the pan.

[@jrodgibby]

Wayne Farris is completely full of bs.