One of the more successful midcard wrestlers of WWE’s Golden Era of the 1980s and early 1990s had one of the more ridiculous gimmicks possible. The real-life cousin of Jerry “The King” Lawler, Ron Farris spent the early 1980s all the way to his retirement in 2019 wrestling as an Elvis Presley impersonator named the Honky Tonk Man.
With full Elvis regalia, an acoustic guitar he used as a weapon, and a swinging neckbreaker called “Shake, Rattle, and Roll,” Honky proved to be a memorable fixture of WWE in the era. But not everyone was around for him so let’s go over what fans need to know about the Honky Tonk Man.
10 Didn’t Start Out As Honky
Ron Farris did not start his wrestling career with his famous Elvis impersonator gimmick. Debuting in 1977, the future Honky Tonk Man wrestled as “Wayne Farris,” initially working as a jobber. However, by 1979, Wayne Ferris would prove to be a successful tag team specialist, teaming with Larry Latham (a.k.a. Moondog Spot) as a heel duo called The Blonde Bombers, and the two would end up scoring five tag team title runs in Tennessee-area wrestling promotions, and even wrestled Jerry Lawler on one particularly violent occasion.
9 Developed The Gimmick In Canada
In the early 1980s, Farris moved on to Canada, where he’d be a regular in Stu Hart’s Calgary-based Stampede Wrestling. There, he would become a full-on Elvis impersonator, wrestling under the name Honky Tonk Wayne. While he would eventually capture the North American Heavyweight Championship, he’d spend much of his run as a tag specialist, scoring three reigns with the Stampede International Tag Team Championship and clashing with the British Bulldogs on multiple occasions.
8 Debuted In WWE As A Face
During his run with Stampede, WWE briefly owned the company, and Honky Tonk Wayne would thus sign with WWE in 1986, tweaking his name to Honky Tonk Man. While Honky would become best known to fans for his work as a heel during this era, he actually started off as a babyface.
Honky Tonk Man’s early days involved strong co-signs from popular stars like Junkyard Dog and even Hulk Hogan, but not even the Hulkster could get the singing and dancing hero to get over with the fans.
7 Turned Heel Via Fan Letters
It became abundantly clear that fans just weren’t gravitating to the Honky Tonk Man, so WWE turned it into a storyline. During an interview with Jesse Ventura, Honky Tonk Man asked for a “vote of confidence,” beseeching fans to write letters to WWE expressing their opinions about the character. A week later, it would be revealed that an astonishing majority of the letters were negative, upsetting Honky enough to facilitate a heel turn.
6 Managed By Jimmy Hart
In turning heel, Honky Tonk Man gained a manager in the form of Jimmy Hart. Nicknamed “The Mouth of the South,” Hart was already a seasoned manager in the Memphis wrestling scene when he signed to WWE in 1985, and managed King Kong Bundy, the Hart Foundation, and Greg Valentine. In adopting Honky as a manager, Hart received a new nickname, “The Colonel,” which was a reference to Elvis Presley’s famous manager, Colonel Tom Parker.
5 WrestleMania Match With Jake Roberts And Alice Cooper
After becoming a villain, Honky Tonk Man entered a feud with Jake “The Snake” Roberts. Roberts was a recovering heel who proved to be popular with fans, so Honky proved the right foe to solidify a face turn. Their rivalry led to a match at WrestleMania 3, with rock star Alice Cooper backing up Roberts in the fight. Honky Tonk Man would score a cheap rollup victory, but his manager would face punishment at the hands of not only Jake Roberts, but also Alice Cooper, who wielded Roberts’ snake.
4 Legendary Intercontinental Title Run
A couple of months after WrestleMania 3, Honky Tonk Man scored arguably the biggest win of his career, defeating Ricky Steamboat to become the new Intercontinental Champion. Honky’s reign would be the mother of all cowardly heel runs, as he regularly avoided losing the title by taking intentional losses via countout or disqualification
Honky Tonk Man’s 454-day reign would come to an end at SummerSlam 1988, when a surprise challenger turned out to be The Ultimate Warrior, who trounced Honky in about 30 seconds.
3 Rhythm & Blues
Like pretty much every WWE midcarder in history, Honky Tonk Man was eventually thrown into a tag team with a mildly clever name. Both Honky and Greg “The Hammer” Valentine were managed by Jimmy Hart, so the two formed a duo called Rhythm & Blues, with Valentine dying his hair black and adopting Honky’s Elvis impersonator look. Together, Honky and Valentine feuded with The Bushwackers and challenged The Hart Foundation for the tag team belts on the house show circuit. The two split in late 1990, but Honky departed WWE before the two could have an official break-up match.
2 WCW Run
Honky Tonk Man eventually surfaced in WCW in 1994, reportedly at the behest of Hulk Hogan’s then-manager, Jimmy Hart, to a reluctant Eric Bischoff. There, Honky feuded with the similar character Johnny B. Badd, leading to a match for Badd’s TV Title at Halloween Havoc, but refused to lose to the younger competitor, so politics turned the bout into a time limit draw. The veteran was set for a rematch at Starrcade ‘94, but continued backstage politics led to Honky Tonk Man’s firing and replacement in the match by Arn Anderson.
1 Rockabilly
In 1997, Honky Tonk Man returned to WWE, working as a color commentator on TV before becoming a manager himself. Billy Gunn, formerly of the Smoking Gunns tag team, was embarking on a singles run, and thus became a client of Honky. To go along with his manager, Billy Gunn was repackaged into a similar character, Rockabilly. After about seven months of this, eventually Rockabilly smashed a guitar over the head of Honky Tonk Man and formed The New Age Outlaws instead.