Roy Wayne Farris (born January 25, 1953), better known by his ring name The Honky Tonk Man, is an American professional wrestler. He is currently appearing for World Wrestling Entertainment, as well as working on the independent circuit. He also has previously worked for World Championship Wrestling. He is best known for his first run with WWE, where he held the Intercontinental Championship for a record 64 weeks. He is the cousin of professional wrestler and color commentator Jerry "The King" Lawler and second uncle to Brian Lawler.
Originally pushed as a face wrestler with an Elvis impersonator gimmick, Honky soon cut a series of promos that aired on the WWE's syndicated programming asking fans for a "vote of confidence." The results came back negative, and it wasn't long before Honky became a cocky heel and took on Jimmy "Mouth of the South" Hart as his manager. Hart was billed as "The Colonel" for Honky's matches, a reference to Col. Tom Parker.
Honky's first major feud came against Jake "the Snake" Roberts, who was in the midst of a face turn. The feud intensified when Honky attacked Roberts on his talk show set, The Snake Pit. According to Roberts, Farris was supposed to hit him with a gimmicked balsa wood guitar. Roberts believes Farris accidentally grabbed a real, non-gimmicked guitar and smashed it across Roberts' back, injuring him, and starting him on his dependence of prescription pain medication. However in a recent interview for World Wrestling Insanity, the Honky Tonk Man disputed Roberts' assertion saying "That's not true and, in fact I attribute most of that to Mick Foley, who wrote about it in his book, and Jake, who lied about it." One of the feud's better-known moments came at WrestleMania III, where Honky grabbed the ring ropes to score a tainted win; afterward, Roberts cleared the ring of Honky before he and Alice Cooper attacked Hart with Roberts' python, Damien.
During a television taping on June 2, 1987 in Buffalo, New York, Honky replaced an absent Butch Reed in upsetting Ricky "the Dragon" Steamboat and winning the WWE Intercontinental Championship; Honky reversed Steamboat's inside cradle and grabbed onto the bottom ropes for extra leverage to get the pin. One of the first wrestlers to congratulate Honky on the win was a man who at the time was finishing a fierce feud with Steamboat, but would go on to be one of Honky's most bitter rivals: Randy "Macho Man" Savage.
Honky quickly adopted a cowardly heel persona, often getting himself counted out or disqualified on purpose against challengers such as Steamboat, Billy Jack Haynes, Bruno Sammartino, and George "The Animal" Steele, as titles cannot be lost by these methods. Also during this time, Honky began using the entrance theme, "Cool, Cocky, Bad," a 50s-styled, narcissistic-themed song performed by Farris and included on Piledriver - The Wrestling Album 2, the WWF's second album of wrestling themes.
By September 1987, Savage was in the midst of a face turn and began challenging Honky for the Intercontinental title (after Honky had made comments about himself being "the greatest Intercontinental champion of all time" and disparaging comments about former champions, particularly Savage). Although they had several matches beforehand they had also met in 1986, when the then-heel Savage was champion and challenged by the face Honky the first Savage-Honky match to air on national television was on the October 3, 1987 edition of Saturday Night's Main Event, which was taped on September 23 in Hershey, Pennsylvania. During that match, Savage nearly defeated Honky until Honky's allies, the Hart Foundation (who had interfered throughout the match), ran into the ring and brutally attacked Savage, getting Honky disqualified. Savage's valet, Miss Elizabeth, attempted to stop the carnage but Honky shoved her down and she fled to the locker room; meanwhile, Honky completed his attempt to break his guitar over Savage's head. Shortly thereafter, Elizabeth returned with Savage's former rival, Hulk Hogan, who aided Savage in running off the heels (leading to the formation of The Mega Powers).
Honky continued his bitter feud against Savage. Frequently, Honky would make advances toward Elizabeth including one such incident at the 1987 Slammy Awards to agitate his challenger. Honky retained the title in matches with Savage and Brutus "the Barber" Beefcake, Honky's next major rival.
During the Beefcake-Honky feud - which began at WrestleMania IV and continued during the spring and summer of 1988 - Honky vowed not to let Beefcake cut his ducktail hair, something Beefcake often said he would do in promos. In their matches, Honky was often seconded by a mysterious woman named Peggy Sue; while Sherri Martel sometimes played the role, more often than not, "Peggy Sue" was Hart dressed in drag. Beefcake countered with a "woman" of his own: "Georgina" (Steele in drag).
At the inaugural SummerSlam, The Ultimate Warrior needed just 29 seconds to pin Honky to claim the Intercontinental Championship. Honky had been scheduled to face Beefcake for the title at SummerSlam, but Beefcake fell victim to "Outlaw" Ron Bass' sneak attack at a WWE Superstars of Wrestling taping (aired the weekend before the event). Honky, now thinking he was without an opponent, brazenly issued an open challenge to any wrestler for the title. His confidence disappeared when the Ultimate Warrior's entrance music began to play.
Honky had been the champion for one year, two months and 27 days, a record that still stands as of 2008. Honky was unsuccessful in his bid to reclaim the title.
In 1989, Honky began a feud against "The American Dream" Dusty Rhodes, but came up short. His last major push came in late 1989 and 1990, when he and Greg Valentine wrestled as the tag team Rhythm and Blues, competing against such teams as the Hart Foundation and The Legion of Doom. Honky wrapped up his WWE career with a stint as a pro-heel color commentator alongside Vince McMahon and Roddy Piper on Superstars of Wrestling.
In 1994, Honky was working for World Championship Wrestling and was challenging Johnny B. Badd for the WCW World Television Championship when he left due to a dispute with management. In his book "Controversy Creates Cash", Eric Bischoff stated that his favorite firing was that of the Honky Tonk Man. Honky has responded by saying that it was an honor as Bischoff had fired a number of people while in WCW.
After a brief stint in the American Wrestling Federation, Honky resurfaced in the WWE in 1997 as a color commentator on RAW is WAR and then as the manager of Billy Gunn, who had started a singles run. Under Honky's tutelage, Gunn became known as "Rockabilly," which was a short-lived and unsuccessful gimmick. Honky then made an appearance in the 1998 Royal Rumble event.
Since then, the Honky Tonk Man has made appearances on and off, becoming a random number in the 2001 Royal Rumble, as well as the most recent storyline with Santino Marella trying to unseat Honky Tonk Man from his longest Intercontinental reign in company history. His list of accomplishments and Championships (according to Wiki) are as follows:
All Pro Wrestling
APW Universal Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
Mid-Eastern Wrestling Federation
MEWF 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
Northern States Wrestling Alliance
NSWA Tag Team Championship (1 time) - with Greg Valentine
Southeastern Championship Wrestling
NWA Alabama Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
NWA Southeastern Heavyweight Championship (Northern Division) (1 time)
NWA Southeast Tag Team Championship (1 time) - with Ron Starr
NWA Southeastern United States Junior Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
Stampede Wrestling
International Tag Team Championship (3 times) - with Ron Starr (2) and The Cuban Assassin (1)
Stampede North American Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
World Wrestling Council
WWC Caribbean Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
World Wrestling Federation
WWF Intercontinental Championship (1 time) (Longest Reign)
XJAM Pro Wrestling
XJAM Championship (1 time, current)
it would obviously go down to Jerry Lawler.