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Honky was asked about The Ultimate Warrior and Roddy Piper. He said Warrior was a good businessman. He said it was weird in that it sounded like he gave his own eulogy. He said Piper's passing was sad and he looked ill in recent photos. It's always sad when someone from the industry dies. When he was young and starting in the business, he was worried about being stabbed in West Virginia or in a car accident. He said wrestlers have to learn they can't live the way they were in their 20s and 30s. He said he's 62 now.
Honky was asked about Hulk Hogan. Honky said it was brought up in a recent interview with a newspaper in Canada as he's going there in a few weeks. He said it's a tragic situation in that it could happen to anyone from any walk of life anywhere in the world of any religion. Tiger Woods did things he was not proud of but you can't wipe him out of history and say he can't exist anymore. He said you can't take away from what people achieved in their lives and history and that's what WWE is doing. They are publicly traded and he understands what they are doing and why but that's not going to work for fans. He said Hulk Hogan changed wrestling. And that's the truth.
Honky asked why Bubba the Love Sponge is always in this situations and said he warned Hogan through Jimmy Hart to distance himself a long time ago. He said he really has no axes to grind but everyone has their differences and joked he just had a fight with his wife because he was back on the road.
Honky was asked about the build to his Wrestlemania 3 bout with Jake Roberts. He said the build was great but he did not hit Jake Roberts and send him to rehab. What sent him to rehab was not the guitar. Jake wrestled a year more before he went to rehab. He nailed Jake with the guitar and turned Jake babyface. It was Jake's idea to bring in Alice Cooper since he was from Detroit and they had the snake connection. After he won the IC belt, Jake was gone and he lost to substitutes in non-title matches and allowed him to go on TV and say he was the greatest of all time.
Honky was asked of memories of the Blonde Bombers. He said that is a part of history that seems to have been lost and God bless YouTube for bringing them back and making them available. He doesn't know if there is a lot from Larry Latham online. They were put together in Tampa for a tournament and put them together since they both had blonde hair. They worked 5 or 6 matches going to the finals losing to The Briscoes. They were asked if they could stay in Tampa, then they went to Memphis where they had the Tupelo Concession Stand brawl. Jerry Jarrett needed something and came up with that brawl. None of it was planned out. They were told to win the belts and then tear the building down so they did. The cameras would come on Friday and filmed it. He said they created hardcore and ECW although they weren't the only ones who did it. They captured people's Imagination and it worked.
When he went to Puerto Rico, the worst thing was telling Larry he was moving on and Larry never forgave him for it. Wrestling isn't a team sport and they had to do their own things. Larry died in the ring and it was a sad situation. He said God bless him.
He was asked his favorite and least favorite independent wrestling promotions. He said he doesn't remember names because there are so many. There are really good ones and bad ones. Sometimes it's promoters going out the back door and sometimes it's a bad venue or bad equipment. He said WWE isn't perfect and have work bad days too. The good independent promotions are the ones who will work on promoting but sometimes you have promotions you just send posters to the venue and they never get pushed. He doesn't want to go home and not get paid.
He told the story of a "monster truck guy" who was hanging out with fans two hours after a show instead of paying the boys. HonkyTonk told them they have to get paid and the promoter was angry he was embarrassed. Later on at the hotel, the guy told The Iron Sheik he wanted to go beat up Honky and Sheik warned him not to do that.
Honky said that he doesn't care about anything else but getting paid. He doesn't want to hear about plans or TV or anything. "Do you have my money!" His daughter is about to go not veterinary school and the school wants their money.
He said every Indy show is trying to be Wrestlemania with 40 matches and hours upon hours. He told a story about having to wrestle at the end of a show and at 12:45 AM he was waits be paid and he's got a 6 AM flight. He said if promoters don't want to pay him, don't call him.
Honky was asked about refusing to drop the IC title to Randy Savage and whether it was true he refused because the company planned to repackage him. He said yes. When he came to WWF he was in a handshake deal and promised he would be protected on TV. He had worked hard to create his character so he could fulfill his dreams of working in a high level position in Madison Square Garden and the NYC territory. He got the belt and was drawing as a heel against Savage as fans wanted to see Randy Savage get his belt back. He was called to a meeting with Savage and Elizabeth and they ignored him and told Randy he was getting the belt. Honky was told he was losing and Jimmy Hart would pull him out of the ring and he would never be seen again. Honky took that to mean he was fired, so he called Jim Barnett in Atlanta and they had a private meeting. Honky made sure he had a place to go in the NWA and then told Vince McMahon he wasn't losing. Vince lost his mind and he wishes he had that on tape. Vince is a forgiving man but he's also vindictive man and he made Honky suffer for sure. He said he told Vince if he wanted the belt he can come get it off his mantle in Memphis if he wanted to put on the tights.
Honky said his podcast is never coming back. They did it weekly. They would set up guests and then when they would call, they wouldn't be around. They tried to get advertisers and we're going to do one after Wrestlemania but then Warrior passed (his webmaster Steve Wilton was friends with Warrior and worked with him) and they decided they didn't do one.
Honky joked his was the reincarnation of Ole in that he didn't care. People want the truth and then get mad when they hear it. He said you can't get mad if he says Ric Flair can't come back to North Carolina. He said Flair will be Flair until the day he dies. He said if he doesn't have money he's still Ric Flair. He wondered why Flair wrote Honky would have been nothing without Hulk Hogan as Honky worked all over the place in territories and Hulk Hogan was nowhere to be found.
He mentioned Eric Bischoff saying he was happiest to fire Honky. He said that of all the people that were fired, what did he do to get this honor? He said Bischoff told him that he was only hired because Jimmy Hart kept pestering him. Bischoff didn't want him because he didn't like his look. How do you want me to look? He said that all he did was draw money for two years for WWF with that look.
WWE was asked about being in the WWE Hall of Fame. He was called to go in the year they were in Phoenix but he was already contracted to do 12 Wizardworlds and that week he was in Toronto. He was called just four weeks before and then they wanted a three month no compete. He told them he had a booking and WWE said that he could just cancel because eh would understand. He wondered if WWE would have understood if he canceled on them? He said WWE hadn't called him in five or six years and then wanted him to drop everything.
He was asked about Michael Hayes. He told a story of the Freebirds coming to Memphis. Larry Latham was worried they were going to replace them as a heel team skin when they work, they acted like complete cowards and got all the heat. They remained and the Birds left after a few weeks.
Jimmy Hart was responsible for making sure Honky did a ton of promotional appearances and that helped him create the gospel of being the greatest of all time. He said Hart kept him from be just like all the other lazy wrestlers. They always dressed up and looked like Honky and Jimmy Hart. Dick Clark used to tell musicians on the Dick Clark tour that if they dressed like he audience, they would be sitting in the audience. So they were always seen in costume and Jimmy took that to heart. Honkytonk Man was asked about shoot interviews. He said he doesn't do them anymore but did a few for Rob Feinstein. Some people booed. Honky said he got heat from doing them but everyone forgets that people talking them on interviews might have led to them getting booked on shoots of their own. He said they aren't productive in any way at this point and he got tagged as being bitter and resentful. He said bad things about the business and about people who did wrong by him. Everything he spoke about was generally about him.
Honkytonk had used the name in Pensacola, Florida before WWE while wrestling Austin Idol. He wanted to change his hair as the blonde color wasn't working for him anymore. You have to recognize when it was time to make a change. He went to the Fullers and pitched a hair dye match where there was only room for one man in the territory and it did well for he territory. He ended up as a greasy character with black hair based off Schneider from the TV show "One Day At A Time." When WWE tried to sue him for the name and character, he found old programs and photos to prove he had them pre-WWE and Case Closed.
Robert Fuller was the one who suggested the guitar. He cannot play it. Hillbilly Jim tried to teach him as did Hulk Hogan. The guitar used on Jake was way too big and way too heavy. He. They precut it and had to hide it so guys didn't touch it or play it.
Honky was asked about Memphis wrestler Chris Colt. Bye was fabulous in the ring and if he was around today, he would be a cut above.
Honky talked about the artwork of wrestling. He said the guys getting in the business aren't people who aren't wrestling fans, they are fans of a TV show called Raw. He said two years ago when he went to Raw, Natalya said hi and AJ Lee introduced herself and none of the other women knew who he was and thought he was coming in.
He said Mark Henry got his job because he was a wrestling fan who took off from his training regimen to watch wrestling. Vince McMahon found out and invited Mark to talk to him and that's how he got in. He said Henry suffered more in the locker room then anyone else. He said Henry once blew out his knees and the boys his his crutches and Honky found them and returned them.
He was asked the origins of The Shake, Rattle and Roll. He needed a finish and Vince gave the guys who had been around the trust to come up with something. He needed something that would fit the character and had here weeks to come up with something. He up with the swinging neck breaker and used the name. Vince liked it but After the first time, Vince suggested adding him shaking his rear end, roll the guy back and forth before nail in the move.
Rick Rude suggested the Rhythm and Blues name because Honky was the rhythm and Greg Valentine was the blues since he mopes around. Valentine didn't put his all into it as he didn't want it just like Billy Gunn didn't want to be Rockabilly and if you don't put your everything into it, you will fail as a wrestler.
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