Full Career Retrospective and Greatest Moments for the Honky Tonk Man

He's got long sideburns and his hair is slicked back, he's coming to your town in a pink Cadillac...

For years, fans of World Wrestling Entertainment heard the Honky Tonk Man's theme play over the PA system in arenas, and they reacted with intense jeers and venomous insults. Those same fans paid their hard-earned money to jam-pack arenas in hopes of seeing the wannabe Elvis get his butt kicked.

The Honky Tonk Man elicited a passionate response from fans, and even now, some 27 years after the height of his year-long WWE Intercontinental Championship reign, he ranks as one of the greatest villains to ever grace a professional wrestling ring.

A performer with the uncanny ability to strike a nerve with fans via his cockiness and arrogance, the Honky Tonk Man talked a big game but also had no problem utilizing absolutely every underhanded tactic known to man in order to emerge from a match with his coveted title still in his possession.

He was a despicable villain, a cowardly type with a big mouth who rarely backed up anything he said. And therein lies the genius of the performer himself: He was so over-the-top in his proclamations and so confident in his abilities that by the time he wormed his way out of another match with his title, surviving via countout or disqualification rather than pinfall, fans were ready to beat him up themselves.

Instead, they would throw down another 30 dollars to watch one of Vince McMahon's heroic babyfaces attempt to take the title off of the most hated man in World Wrestling Entertainment.

For a period of one year, there was no villain hotter than the Honky Tonk Man.

Now, in celebration of the criminally underrated performer, here are some of his finest matches and moments.

Memphis

Wayne Farris began his career in Tennessee, working both in Nashville under Nick Gulas and Memphis for Jerry Jarrett. He partnered there with Larry Latham in a tag team known as the Blond Bombers. A talented-yet-hated team, they reigned over the territory while holding the NWA Mid-America Tag Team Championships, feuding with the team of Farris' real-life cousin Jerry "The King" Lawler and Bill Dundee.

So intense was the hatred between the four wrestlers that they even waged war at a concession stand in Tupelo in what is still considered one of the most memorable brawls in the history of the Memphis territory.

The "Tupelo Concession Stand Brawl," as it would become known as, was such an effective angle that it would be repeated when the Bombers fought The Rock 'n' Roll Express into the stands.

After years of success across numerous territories, Vince McMahon and WWE came calling, and in 1986, Farris jumped ship and adopted the Honky Tonk Man persona that would garner him national recognition and acclaim.

The Early Days in WWE

Believe it or not, Honky Tonk Man entered WWE as a babyface. He was still very much the Elvis Presley rip-off, but he was energetic and openly criticized heels such as manager Bobby "the Brain" Heenan, as seen in the clip from Prime Time Wrestling in 1986 below.

Unfortunately, the character never clicked in that role. Fans hated ol' Honky Tonk Man, and Vince McMahon switched the character to the loudmouthed villain he would eventually become.

His first high-profile rivalry in the promotion came against Jake "The Snake" Roberts, whom he was booked to face at the historic WrestleMania III.

Honky Tonk Man appeared on Robert's Snake Pit interview show and blasted him with a stiff guitar shot to add considerable heat to their program. With Roberts seething and fans desperate to see him get his hands on the crooner from Memphis, the Superstars took to the squared circle for the biggest match of either of their careers.

Over 93,000 fans watched as Honky Tonk Man got the best of his opponent, grabbing a handful of ropes for the pinfall victory and hightailing it out of the ring before Roberts could retrieve his python, Damien. He watched from afar as Roberts and rock star Alice Cooper tormented Honky's manager, Jimmy Hart, with the reptile.

It was very much the beginning of Honky Tonk's unprecedented run as a villain in WWE.

The Greatest Intercontinental Champion of All Time

On June 13, 1987, Honky Tonk Man etched his name in the history books when he defeated Ricky "The Dragon" Steamboat to become WWE intercontinental champion.

The match was everything fans would come to appreciate about the villain. He took a beating, flipping and flopping around the squared circle and making every little bit of offense dished out by Steamboat look like a million bucks. In the end, though, it was his cunning and his resourcefulness that allowed him to counter a small package and grab onto the ropes to prematurely end Steamboat's title reign.

A mastermind of ring psychology and storytelling, Honky Tonk Man infuriated audiences with his ability to ensure the continuation of his championship run by getting himself intentionally counted out or disqualified.

With every passing title defense and finish that saw him just barely evade defeat, his legend grew.

The fall of '87 saw him face his greatest challenge to date, however, as he squared off with Macho Man Randy Savage over the coveted championship. The most famous of their bouts took place on a memorable episode of Saturday Night's Main Event. Savage nearly regained the title he had lost back at WrestleMania III. Unfortunately, the freshly turned babyface fell victim to an assault by the interfering Hart Foundation and a brutal guitar shot to the head by Honky Tonk Man.

His actions toward Elizabeth, however, earned him more disdain than ever when he shoved her to the mat.

The rivalry between the IC champion and Macho Man would continue throughout the remainder of the year, resulting in matches at house shows across the country. Savage never did manage to take the title off of his rival, and soon, Honky Tonk Man was segueing into a rivalry with Brutus Beefcake.

The two clashed at WrestleMania IV in a match Beefcake won via disqualification, and they appeared to be gearing up for a huge title bout at SummerSlam in August 1988. Beefcake, however, was attacked and bloodied by Outlaw Ron Bass, effectively taking him out of action.

Honky Tonk Man was left without an opponent for the inaugural summertime spectacular and, rather than leaving well enough alone, issued an open challenge.

Big mistake.

The Ultimate Warrior answered said challenge and, after a year as champion, Honky Tonk Man saw his title reign end in the blink of an eye courtesy of an unstoppable force.

The historic run was over, but Honky Tonk Man remained a valuable piece of the WWE puzzle, competing against Warrior in a string of rematches. Upon the end of that feud, however, he found himself taking on a considerably lesser role in the company, something that had to sting the ego a bit after the run he had just enjoyed.

Rhythm and Blues

From 1989 until his departure from the company in 1991, Honky Tonk Man partnered with the great Greg "The Hammer" Valentine in a duo known as Rhythm and Blues. Somehow, Valentine was convinced by management to die his hair black and adopt the Elvis attire, essentially becoming Honky Tonk Man's mirror image.

Together, they made for a solid addition to the tag team ranks but never really enjoyed much success.

They mixed it up with the likes of The Hart Foundation (including a loss to Bret Hart and Jim Neidhart at WrestleMania V) and The Bushwhackers but found themselves on the losing end of things more often than not.

Honky Tonk Man and Valentine were part of the Ted DiBiase-captained team that also featured the debuting Undertaker at Survivor Series 1990, making that one of their most memorable moments.

A high-profile singles loss to Dusty Rhodes at the 1990 SummerSlam event effectively ended any chance Honky Tonk Man ever had of enjoying another creatively fulfilling run in WWE. In 1991, he left the land of giants for good.

WCW

In 1994, Honky Tonk Man popped up in World Championship Wrestling and set his sights on the WCW World Television Championship. He feuded with Johnny B. Badd during his time with the company, even wrestling him to a draw at the Halloween Havoc pay-per-view in 1994. 

Differences between he and management led to the dismissal of the veteran in-ring performer shortly after arriving.

Return to WWE

Honky Tonk Man returned to WWE in 1996 on a quest to find the next big star in the company. He eyed Rocky Maivia at first, but the young star's unwillingness to join forces with the hated heel led to a short rivalry between the two.

Honky Tonk eventually revealed his newest protege to the world in the form of Rockabilly. Who was Rockabilly, you may ask? He was the alter ego of Billy Gunn and one of the worst concepts of the early Attitude Era.

Rockabilly and Jesse James' assault of Honky Tonk Man would lead to the formation of the New Age Outlaws.

In 2001, Honky Tonk Man again returned to WWE, this time as a surprise entrant in the Royal Rumble match. He would lead the crowd in singing his theme music only to be blasted in the head with his own guitar and eliminated by Kane.

To this day, the star of 1980s WWE continues to make occasional appearances on company programming.

Legacy

Honky Tonk Man has become incredibly maligned over the years by those eager to lump him in with the rest of the failed gimmicks or cartoonish characters of the 1980s and '90s. Those doing so do not fully understand the effect he had on WWE and its success during the Federation Years.

As intercontinental champion, he headlined house shows because Vince McMahon knew that people would buy tickets in hopes of seeing anyone from Koko B. Ware to Randy Savage take the title away from him. That type of power, the power to attract an audience to see your maiming, is something so incredibly rare, especially at that time and in that company.

He is not nearly given the credit he deserves for being as good as he was.

Never afraid to bump around the ring and make his babyface opponent look like a world-beater, Honky Tonk Man was a tremendous performer who knew how to give fans a taste of what they wanted before taking it away in hopes that they would come back and pay more to see it again.

It was brilliant, both on his part and McMahon's. Together, they created a powerful story that kept fans interested, entertained and invested, leading to one of the greatest moments in wrestling history when Warrior steamrolled him to take the title at Summerslam 1988.

The fact that Honky Tonk Man is not yet in the WWE Hall of Fame is a travesty. One of the more iconic performers of the boom period of the 1980s, he absolutely deserves a place among so many of the other stars he worked with in achieving the success that he did.