Quick Highlights
---Debut: 1977
---American Wrestling Association (AWA) 1979
---World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) 1986-1990, 1997-1998, 2008
---World Championship Wrestling (WCW) 1994
---Held the WWF Intercontinental Championship
---holds a record of the longest Intercontinental title reign
---Cousin of Jerry The King Lawler
---Cousin once removed of Brian Christopher
---#15 in the WWE'S 51 Worse offenders
DP: Everyone knows you from your
long run in the WWF, which has been covered to death already, so let's start
with this. What are you doing now?
HTM: I have been doing the Indy stuff for several years now.
DP: So you are remaining active. Do
you have a web page where people can contact you for bookings or find out where
you are at?
HTM: Yes, you can contact me at:
www.thehonkytonkman.com This year I have been to Switzerland,
Scotland, The Netherlands, Yukon Territory, and Alaska. I stay very busy and I
enjoy what I do because I am in charge of my own business.
DP:
What made you want to relocate to Phoenix, where you now live, after so
many years down south?
HTM: It was simply the weather. My son was into sports and the weather is a bit better hear than in Calgary or Memphis. My wife never liked Memphis due to the Ebonics spoken by most of the people there. She could not understand whitey or blackie.
DP: What advice would you give new
comers to wrestling about finding bookings, being wary or whatever?
HTM: We all get burned from time to time by some dirty dealing promoters.
That aspect of the business has no social or economic boundaries. WWE will burn
you as bad as any small time promoters! It is hard for young guys to break in
now because there is just not too many places to get steady work. Steady work
is the only way to learn the business. The fellows on the east coast seem to do
ok with bookings but in other areas there is one or two shows a month or every
3 months.
DP: A lot of new guys read this page,
so what else might you suggest them to do to help themselves out? What do you
think promoters look for when they take people?
HTM: My advice to the new guys is try to perfect your gimmick. try
different approaches until you find that little something that you can do very
well. Learn your role so to speak. I don't know what promoters are looking for
today. Hardcore is not it for sure. I think you have to be uniquely different
to get over nowadays. Too many guys all look the same, dress the same and so
on. Be different is the best way.
DP: Incidentally, a couple of Dibiase's wrestlers for his Christian
promotion did some interviews with me for this page. For a compare and
contrast, you have been a major critic of this promotion. Why?
HTM: The idea was stolen from Jake Roberts first of all. He created the
whole wrestling for the Lord gimmick. Ted took it from Jake after Jake fell off
the wagon too many times. I am critical because I do not think these
non-religious wrestlers need to use religion as a tool to change people's lives
or beliefs. I would want to be part of a group that traveled the country and
gave uplifting speeches and testimonials about how you can become a better
person by having high self-esteem, desire, dedication to your job,family and so
forth, along with working hard to succeed. I do not want to be part of telling
someone how to get to heaven. That is something that is within a person and it
is none of my business what someone believes or how they think they are going
to get a ticket through the pearly gates. There is a thing in our country
called separation of church and state. I think this was one of the best laws
ever passed because it keeps people from inflicting their views on us in civic
and municipal places. I also think there should be a separation of wrestling
and religion! Churches were built for worship, not wrestling
rings!
DP:
I did not interview Ted, but the guys I spoke to seemed sincere. Do you
think the bulk of these people are just working the religious angle?
HTM: Yes, I do think it is an angle for dough. I know first hand from some
of Ted's disciples that they only do it for the dough. I have seen them drink,
smoke dope, chase women, snort coke, the
whole nine yards. They pass it off as, "I fight with my demons everyday,
sometimes I win, and sometimes the demons win." Heck of a way to praise
the Lord I say. To me it comes off like
a prescription from your doctor. Every time you fall short of the Lord, ask to
be forgiven and you will be. So how many times a day or a week or a month do
you ask? Once a day for 30 days, 2 x's a day for 7 days. My little sister died
at age 4. She was not baptized so therefore she will not get to heaven. Jeffery
Dalmer killed numerous people and ate them. If he asked the Lord to be forgiven
just prior to having his skull caved in by another inmate, then he is in
heaven. My little sister isn't. I don't get it.
DP: Have you ever spoken to Ted
about it? I mean, to be frank, if you are not working with them, why do they
bother you so much?
HTM: It doesn't bother me at all. I have not spoken with him a about it.
Nor do I intend to pursue the issue with him. I am not part of them because of
my own.
DP: Aside from this then, let's get
back to you again. You have wrestled many, many men, but with whom did you
enjoy working the most?
HTM: That is a hard question because there were so many and so many good
ones. Jake Roberts, Snuka, Steamboat, Savage, and of course Hogan. The answer I
give most of the time is, "the guy I could make the most money
with!"
DP:
And the least, if you would like
to talk about it?
HTM: The least was Ultimate Warrior. He was dangerous and I never wanted to
leave the business on a stretcher.
DP: Did you create that shake, rattle and roll neck breaker or was it
someone else's idea?
HTM: I gave it the name and McMahon loved it. I thought I needed something
as a finish that was different and had a catch phrase to it that fit in with
the Elvis gimmick. That simple swinging neck breaker still stands out today as
a trademark of the Honky Tonk Man.
DP: You were trained by?
HTM: Herb Welch of the famous Welch/Fuller family
DP: One final thing I have to ask. Years ago I heard you on a WWF promo and
you said "The people want to HEAR the Honky tonk Man dance, they want to
hear the Honky tonk man sing." Just hows do you HEAR someone dance? Was
this a slip or intended?
HTM: That was a slip for sure and it
has happened a couple of times since! LOL
DP: Closing comments?
HTM: For all the young people who want to be in the wrestling business, I
say, have a strong desire, be serious, be dedicated, and work hard. Anything is
possible if you take that "prescription."
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