The Honky Tonk Man
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Dear Greg,
I am happy that you published my article, I just did not want people that are new to the sport of wrestling ( there have been plenty joining the bandwagon in the past few years) to think that the Honky Tonk Man was some low life wrestler that somehow skated through a fifteen month title reign.
As promise though I will tell you more about the heat
Honky Tonk Man and Dynamite Kid have with each other. The story with Out Back
Jack goes is that Dynamite and Davey Boy Smith poisoned Out Back Jacks drink
and many wrestlers saw
this such as The Honky Tonk Man, B. Brian Blaire and Jake Roberts.
All of them stuck up for Out Back and I believe in the
book B. Brian Blaire is currently writing (if it is not yet finished) has this
story. Blair also mentioned something about how Davey Boy and Dynamite superglued
Out Backs hat to his head. I know
Dynamite and Davey Bow were known as ribbers back then (practical jokers) but
that is just cruel. They could have killed Out Back Jack. This situation started
the heat between them, however other things fueled it.
Dynamite Kid was very good friends with Harlery Race since Dynamite started wrestling in Calgary in the late 1970's. Harley was known to drink alot and always carried a gun on him. He has been known to threaten other wrestlers with it or people at bars; whether he is just playing around or being serious I don't know.
This kind of behavior is dangerous and made alot of wrestlers hate Race. How would you feel if you were threatened at gun point?
Anyway around 1988 Harley Race was having some digestive track problems I think and had to have a huge part of his gut removed. Thus why Haku became King.
Anyway one night the Honky Tonk Man was getting in a car with four other wrestlers, one of them was Randy Savage, and he made a comment like "I bet Race wishes he had this cheque." Savage told Dynamite and Dynamite cornered the Honky Tonk Man the next day and told him that he was a piece of shit.
Dynamite is his own book Pure Dynamite claims The Honky
Tonk Man slumped against the wall and cried. I highly doubt that happened Dynamite.
Dynamite also claims the Honky Tonk Man would kiss his ass after this incident
and brink him coffee. Okay. Now I do not condone what Honky said about Race,
but Honky could have been one of Races victims at gun point too. Anyways Honky
hates Dynamite because of this incident and because Dynamite does not feel sorry
for any of the
bad things he did in life such as his ribbing, taking steroids, hurting other
wrestlers in the ring. Dynamite use to love to hit other wrestlers hard in the
ring for no reason.
Anyways if you want to hear about other people the Honky Tonk Man has heat with such as Jerry Lawler, Randy Savage, or Hulk Hogan write back.
Peace,
Moonbaby moonbaby@elvis.com
PS: Awesome letter again. I reckon this dude might be a pro wrestler or at least a well known person in wrestling. He has the inside dirt / scoop on so much stuff. I used to respect Harley Race, I don't now after hearing about the gun stuff. Stay tuned wrestling fans for more inside stuff from this mysterious writer. Note the @elvis.com e-mail address ...interesting : )
First off I would like to say I really love your site, an Owen Hart tribute needs to be made though. The Honky Tonk Man was the greatest Intercontinental champion. The Honky Tonk Man has admitted himself that he was not the greatest technical wrestler, fastest, or the strongest.
He was however golden on the mic and was a very good bump taker. If you do not believe me go back and watch tapes of him. See who takes all the bumps, him or his opponent. The Honky Tonk Man was not any worse in the ring than any one else in the WWF when he wrestled there in 1986-90. The people he defended his title against such as Brutus Beefcake, Jake Roberts, Jim Duggan, Bruno Sammartino, and George Steele were all worse than him in terms of performance; however here is an interesting fact. The Honky Tonk Man use to be one of the best workers in the Memphis area and Calgary with Stu Hart in the late seventies and early eighties.
He use to do alot of high impact maneuvers, wrestle in the crowd, and had some bloody feuds with his cousin Jerry Lawler, Dr. D David Schultz, and other Stampede Wrestlers.. His hair color is not even jet black! It is really blonde and he use to be in a tag team called The Blonde Bombers. He just stopped doing all the fancy maneuvers when he became the Honky Tonk Man. His gimmick was that he would talk alot of shit and a fan favorite would then whoop him pillar to post and eventually Honky would cheat and turn it around for the victory. It was a great gimmick! How would you feel if your favorite wrestler like Randy Savage of Jake Roberts was inches from becoming the new Intercontinental champion and then the Honky Tonk Man would cheat and win? It made fans irate so Honky got huge boos every time he wrestled, especially after he thanked them for all there support after they booed.
I am not writing this to be mean, I just wanted to defend The Honky Tonk Man. If he has gripes with other wrestlers it's because he has a reason to. Dynamite Kid almost killed Out Back Jack by poisoning his drink, so what was the Honky Tonk Man suppose to do when he this, stand by and let this happen. I have more history between Honky and Dynamite if you want to hear it, as well as heat between him and other wrestlers he has reason to dislike. If you want to hear more e-mail me back.
Peace,
Moonbaby
PS: Awesome letter. I don't hate HTM as much now : ) I want to hear more, and I will be e-mailing Monbaby back! Greg T
Dear Greg!
As we all know, the wrestling world goes out of control many times. There are
bitter rivalries, rich dudes, poor dudes, good and poor matches, dudes with
attitudes and dudes who cause headaches everywhere they go.
I am dropping you this e-mail, because I wanna put THE HONKY TONK MAN in the
last category. Well, every wrestling fan of the 80's knows Wayne Ferris, a.k.a.
The Honky Tonk Man and what instantly comes to mind is that he was one of the
guys who held the WWF IC-Belt for a long period of time.
It's unquestionable that Ferris was a good entertainer but it is also unquestionable
that the man completely sucked as a wrestler. The man was so plump in the ring
and his moves... Well, at least he had a nice finisher named the shake rattle
and roll neckbreaker. Yeah, Honky no fool he, wanted to believe the world that
he is the real Elvis Presley. Once again I give him credit, the man is an Elvis
look alike.
Two matches come to my mind when I think about Honky:
1. The upset victory over Rick
Steamboat in Buffalo, NY which brought him
the IC-Belt.
2. The some seconds loss to the Ultimate
Warrior at Summerslam '88.
Not a bad achievement for a true undercard wrestler when it comes to ring skills.
Even Jesse Ventura
pointed out in some of Ferris' matches, that what the
guy was lacking in experience he made up with sheer luck. OK, that's some "kayfabe"
from the 1980's, of course the bookers and mostly Vince
McMahon and Hulk Hogan paved the way for
Honky.
Let's be honest: Steamboat defeated Randy
Savage at Wrestlemania III in a memorable encounter;
in fact a match, fans are still talking about. How many two-counts have we seen?
We have double digits there. It was also a technical clean match with exciting
moves. As a matter of fact this match was in my opinion the clear Main Event
at Wrestlemania III.
Only months later, Steamboat had to drop the belt to Mr. Ferris, what I would
call an insult to the wrestling world.
But let's calm down a little bit and analyze more. Like I said, the man had
a good run with the WWF. He had fame, even it has many times been questioned.
Honky had his time. But there is something going on with the former Superstars
who have to leave the spotlight.
Some can't get hold of their drug problems and others are still moaning and
groaning. And once again Wayne Ferris is no exception to the rule. Knowing that
his days are over, he needs something he can make a living.
And that has to be insulting other people mostly the DYNAMITE
KID, Tom Billington. Now everybody who has
read the book from Billington can see a little bit inside or behind the curtain.
Personally I like the book, but I don't want to be biased. Billington is a bitter
man, heck who wouldn't be, if the only thing that is carrying you through your
life is a wheelchair...
Certainly the man has paid his dues. Steroids
have taken their tolls on that man. He would do it all
over again. It is also a fact that Billington was not always the nicest guy
around. The tricks he delivered to other people sometimes hit new dimensions.
Some people felt betrayed and used others thought it was a nice change to their
heavy road and ring schedule.
Well, like Billington or dislike him, as an unbiased wrestling fan you had to
see the man's skills. I only mention one move: THE SNAP SUPLEX!!! To this day
I don't know a man who can deliver this move in Dynamite Kid's fashion.
The WWF was right at that time, that the Bulldogs should be their tag champs.
Take notice to the other great
teams the WWF had in the 1980's: THE CAN-AM
CONNECTION, THE KILLER BEES, THE ISLANDERS, THE HART FOUNDATION only to name
a few. So the competition was fierce.
So Billington and Honky had their time in the WWF, no doubt about it.
But like I said, Wayne Ferris is insulting other people. And to ridicule and
hassle Billington, because of his handicap, gets absolutely no excuse from me.
In the net Ferris stated, that he would come out of retirement and sit himself
in a wheelchair to go one on one with Billington. Yeah, that shows what integrity
this dude has.
Ferris knows that he was never able to outwrestle the Kid, so he had to wait
for all the damage Billington has suffered to get revenge of him. I personally
would like to see, if there is some tough guy out there to teach Ferris a lesson
and beat the shit out of him.
Compared one on one, Ferris would clearly lose on points against Billington.
Tom has been a no nonsense guy when it came to get the job done in the ring.
He didn't need to smack his opponents with a guitar. Just imagine the bout Honky
vs. Savage where Ferris hit the man with his guitar with a little help from
the Hart Foundation. Man, it nearly took hours to blast Savage.
Of course the WWF booking committee was responsible for those matches, but there
is no excuse in my mind to haunt other people.
Ferris should shut his mouth and reconsider what he is doing right now. As a
matter of fact he did not get off well in Billington's book, and yeah Tom is,
like I said a very bitter man.
The best thing I would consider is that both should meet, sit down and discuss
their problems. A profound talk can settle some scores. But blindsiding each
other won't help neither man.
What do you think?
Harry
PS: Harry, I think HTM speaks to much self opinionated *hit! He was an ok pro wrestler at best, could talk, had Jimmy Hart, and McMahon must be a genius to have turned this man into a wrestling star!
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