Explicit
Honky Tonk Man Shoot Interview 2004
Dec 31, 2023 ·
1h 52m 36s
This is one of the most controversial shoot interviews in shoot interview history. Wayne Ferris, best known as The Honky Tonk Man unleashed his honest opinions about everything hes been...
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This is one of the most controversial shoot interviews in shoot interview history. Wayne Ferris, best known as The Honky Tonk Man unleashed his honest opinions about everything hes been through in the wrestling business. He never knew what he wanted to be growing though thought he’d either get into sports or entertainment, with wrestling he found it was the perfect mix of both. His memories of early Jerry “The King” Lawler (his first cousin) and Karl Fergie (also a cousin) and how he looked at them starting too make money with no athletic ability and seeing as he was the family athlete; he went to school and learned the craft. Was trained by Herb Welch and had Koko B. Ware and “Dr D” David Shultz as training partners.
He talks about the pay-off for that week, $999, and Jerry Lawler saying what does it feel like to have his first thousand dollar week and Honky saying “it’s not a $1000” and after that Lawler would start screwing him on bookings and pay-offs. To say Honky doesn’t care for Lawler would be an understatement.
Relates stories of how Lawler would play a dirty tricks campaign on the WWF when it was expanding, including that he maybe set a fire in the kitchen of the Mid-South Coliseum and leaking it to the local news station to scare fans from coming. He talks some more about the Concession Stand bawl and how it was a fore runner to ECW. He talks about how he and Dr D. helped out Hulk Hogan in his early days in Florida and how they used to house and train perennial Hogan flunky Brutus Beefcake. Funny bit as Honky calls Hogan a bald headed bastard. Says Hogan was a good person until Vince got hold of him, and just like Shawn Michaels, Kevin Nash, Bret Hart after him, turned him into an egotistical piece of work. He gets into the correlation between music and wrestling and using it to help get a character over and how it relates to sports entertainment. This was a cool bit as he explains how to make the connection, not just pass it off as opinion. Talks about doing a Loser-Gets-A-Dye-Job match and him having to dye his blonde hair black. That ties into how the HTM gimmick came about and his initial reluctance to do the Elvis gimmick because Bill Dundee was doing it first. Moving on to how he started working Canada when Dr D convinced him to go there with him and the bond that exists between guys that have put in time up north. Admired Stu Hart for keeping the territory going despite the geography and the seasonal weather. Said he got stiffed on his first pay-off but after having it out with Stu everything was fine. States that Stu liked him because he supplied the entertainment while other supplied the work during a match. Offers his opinions on Stampedes big stars and says Bret Hart found his “match” that he always works and how he adapts very little to circumstance of a match outside of it because he has reached the stage he doesn’t have to. Liked Bad News Allen/Brown and says Vince missed a huge opportunity not making him Heavyweight Champ and thinks Allen had every right to get into Vince when he heard the HUGE differences in pay-offs between Bad News and Roddy Piper even though they worked the same match. Says Dynamite Kid was the innovator of the high risk outside the ring stuff and thinks he was stupid for doing all that stuff for little money. He also talks about various run-ins with Dynamite in the WWF.
He also slips in a bit about working with the then rookie Chris Benoit and says that the only thing holding him back is size and promos. States you will never really get a shot at the WWF main event slot unless you can talk and are over 6 foot tall. Maybe true, but sometime talent does overcome. Also states that it was a no brainer that the Hart Foundation and the British Bulldogs had great matches because they had worked hundreds of matches together and should have been able to have good matches at anytime. Moving onto Vince McMahon and his talent raids on Stampede and the other territories and how he missed his window on the first go round because he though he wasn’t good enough to compete there, but got picked up when Vince came round next time on a handshake deal the guaranteed no jobs on TV.
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He talks about the pay-off for that week, $999, and Jerry Lawler saying what does it feel like to have his first thousand dollar week and Honky saying “it’s not a $1000” and after that Lawler would start screwing him on bookings and pay-offs. To say Honky doesn’t care for Lawler would be an understatement.
Relates stories of how Lawler would play a dirty tricks campaign on the WWF when it was expanding, including that he maybe set a fire in the kitchen of the Mid-South Coliseum and leaking it to the local news station to scare fans from coming. He talks some more about the Concession Stand bawl and how it was a fore runner to ECW. He talks about how he and Dr D. helped out Hulk Hogan in his early days in Florida and how they used to house and train perennial Hogan flunky Brutus Beefcake. Funny bit as Honky calls Hogan a bald headed bastard. Says Hogan was a good person until Vince got hold of him, and just like Shawn Michaels, Kevin Nash, Bret Hart after him, turned him into an egotistical piece of work. He gets into the correlation between music and wrestling and using it to help get a character over and how it relates to sports entertainment. This was a cool bit as he explains how to make the connection, not just pass it off as opinion. Talks about doing a Loser-Gets-A-Dye-Job match and him having to dye his blonde hair black. That ties into how the HTM gimmick came about and his initial reluctance to do the Elvis gimmick because Bill Dundee was doing it first. Moving on to how he started working Canada when Dr D convinced him to go there with him and the bond that exists between guys that have put in time up north. Admired Stu Hart for keeping the territory going despite the geography and the seasonal weather. Said he got stiffed on his first pay-off but after having it out with Stu everything was fine. States that Stu liked him because he supplied the entertainment while other supplied the work during a match. Offers his opinions on Stampedes big stars and says Bret Hart found his “match” that he always works and how he adapts very little to circumstance of a match outside of it because he has reached the stage he doesn’t have to. Liked Bad News Allen/Brown and says Vince missed a huge opportunity not making him Heavyweight Champ and thinks Allen had every right to get into Vince when he heard the HUGE differences in pay-offs between Bad News and Roddy Piper even though they worked the same match. Says Dynamite Kid was the innovator of the high risk outside the ring stuff and thinks he was stupid for doing all that stuff for little money. He also talks about various run-ins with Dynamite in the WWF.
He also slips in a bit about working with the then rookie Chris Benoit and says that the only thing holding him back is size and promos. States you will never really get a shot at the WWF main event slot unless you can talk and are over 6 foot tall. Maybe true, but sometime talent does overcome. Also states that it was a no brainer that the Hart Foundation and the British Bulldogs had great matches because they had worked hundreds of matches together and should have been able to have good matches at anytime. Moving onto Vince McMahon and his talent raids on Stampede and the other territories and how he missed his window on the first go round because he though he wasn’t good enough to compete there, but got picked up when Vince came round next time on a handshake deal the guaranteed no jobs on TV.
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