Honky Tonk Man

[Lady Redfield]

The greatest IC champ of all time.

​

The man who got fucking robbed in less than a minute of his IC championship after holding it for over a year by one of the most overrated wrestlers of all time, The Ultimate Warrior. Over 30 years later, I am still mad, because wrestling is still real to me, and the Ultimate Warrior sucked. One of the best heels of all time, one of the best theme songs of all time, he would be my GOAT if there was no Piper. Cousin to Jerry the King Lawler.

The chants from people who know when they are looking at a LEGEND.



All Pro Wrestling
APW Universal Heavyweight Championship (1 time)

Big Time Wrestling
BTW Heavyweight Championship (1 time)

International Championship Wrestling
ICW Heavyweight Championship (1 time)

Legends Pro Wrestling
XWF/LPW Hall of Fame (class of 2008)

Mid-Eastern Wrestling Federation
MEWF Heavyweight Championship (1 time)

Mid-South Wrestling Association
MSWA Tennessee Heavyweight Championship (1 time)

NWA Mid-America/Continental Wrestling Association
AWA Southern Tag Team Championship (4 times) – with Larry Latham (3) and Tojo Yamamoto (1)
NWA Mid-America Tag Team Championship (3 times) – with Larry Latham

North Atlantic Wrestling Association
NAWA Tag Team Championship (1 time) – with Paul Hudson

Northern States Wrestling Alliance
NSWA Tag Team Championship (1 time) – with Greg Valentine

Pro Wrestling Illustrated
Ranked No. 159 of the top 500 singles wrestlers in the PWI 500 in 1992

Ring Masters Entertainment
RME Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
RME Tag Team Championship (1 time) - with Bobby Collins

Southeastern Championship Wrestling
NWA Alabama Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
NWA Southeastern Heavyweight Championship (Northern Division) (1 time)
NWA Southeastern Tag Team Championship (1 time) – with Ron Starr
NWA Southeastern United States Junior Heavyweight Championship (1 time)

Stampede Wrestling
Stampede International Tag Team Championship (3 times) – with Ron Starr (2) and The Cuban Assassin (1)
Stampede North American Heavyweight Championship (1 time)

Ultimate Championship Wrestling
UCW Tag Team Championship (1 time) – with Bushwhacker Luke

Ultimate Championship Wrestling (Virginia)
UCW Heavyweight Championship (1 time)

Universal Wrestling Association
UWA Heavyweight Championship (1 time)

World Wrestling Council
WWC Caribbean Heavyweight Championship (1 time)

World Wrestling Federation/WWE
WWF Intercontinental Championship (1 time)
WWE Hall of Fame (Class of 2019)

XJAM Pro Wrestling
XJAM Heavyweight Championship (1 time, current)



​

 

[Bad News Booty]

I’m a fan of Honky Tonk he made a gimmick that should of flopped get nuclear heat.
But Razor is the greatest IC champ of all time.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

 

[Bobby Barrows]

Decent wrestler, his feud with Lawler in Memphis was great. Involved in one of the greatest concession stand brawls of all time.

 

[Mitch Buchannon]

I love watching old Honky, such a great talker and like Booty said he was a great heat magnet

 

[Kiffy Lube]

I am a god damn huge fan of the Honky Tonk Man. He deserves all the respect in the world for makin' his gimmick work. And also yeah fuck the Ultimate Warrior

 

[GreenLawler]

So of all the wrestlers the WWE made famous, there's very few who's previous life has been totally forgotten

As the real life cousin of Jerry Lawler, Lawler helped break Wayne into the business.

But lets talk pre-WWF

Over the years Wayne has either acknowledged Lawler's help or said Lawler did not help him a bit based on the level of kayfabe he wanted to give off at the time. Its really not clear how much Wayne and Lawler like/dislike each other.

He cut his teeth working the low cards in Memphis and St Louis to get experience. But pretty quickly turned on his cousin Lawler in Memphis during the hot Lawler vs Valiant feud. He would team with Jimmy Valiant, as the guy who could eat pins Handsome Jimmy would not. They were also involved in a feud vs Mike Bowyer and Frankie Lane.

He then traveled to Florida where he and Larry Latham (Moondog Spot) would first become the Blonde Bombers and win his first title

The Blonde Bombers would then travel to Tennessee and wrestle for both Gulas and Jarrett in the midst of the Tennessee split paired with manager Danny Davis (future boss of OVW) the team was pushed to the top immediately. In Gulas' promotion they feuded with The Jet Set (George Gulas and Bobby Eaton), in the Jarrett faction they would also be pushed.

The team was placed against the two biggest stars of the Jarrett company Bill Dundee and Jerry Lawler and the height of that feud was the legendary Tupelo Concession Stand Brawl, the blueprint of every Hardcore angle from that time on. Little did Wayne know, he was a part of history that night.



After Wayne and Latham split up, Wayne would travel around to the other southern territories including Fuller's east Tennessee spot, the Caribbean, and the AWA

Wayne would get a brief face run in Memphis until once again he would turn heel and be put square in the middle of another classic Memphis angle as a part of the "Memphis gang war of 81" which featured Kevin Sullivan, Wayne Ferris, Bugsy McGraw, and the Nightmares managed by Jimmy Hart vs. Jerry Lawler, Bill Dundee, The Dream Machine, Steve Keirn and Dutch Mantell. This was actually a throw away transition angle Jarrett came up with because he had a small roster at the time and was waiting to refill the roster.....however the war got hot and Jarrett rode the angle for months. It was perhaps the hottest Memphis angle of all time. And that's not a small statement.



After the gang war ended Wayne would go to East Tennessee again,and actually do a Japan tour as Abdullah the Butcher's tag partner.

He would then tour most of the southern territories including Watt's Mid South, Deep South, and in Georgia he would first team with Balckjack Mulligan then feud with him.

But he would end up in of all places Calgary with the gimmick that would change his life.

Not many folks know this but Ferris used the "Honkeytonk Man" gimmick in Stampede. It was there he had a really long run as Honkeytonk Wayne. After a long run as a face he would became a heel. He would win multiple tag titles there and get one singles title.



He was then given his shot at the WWF, and the rest is history well known.

 

[Necro]

Actually was always a fan of his gimmick in the 80's and early 90's. As time went on though the gimmick was played out to me. I don't think something like that would work in current wrestling.