The Honky Tonk Man

Roy Wayne Farris (born January 25, 1953) is a retired American professional wrestler.

Farris began his career in 1977 working in Malden, Missouri and wrestled alongside his training partner Koko B. Ware for promoter Henry Rogers.

Farris then moved on to Memphis Wrestling in 1978, originally working as a jobber to the stars.

He wrestled frequently in Birmingham, Dothan, Mobile, and Pensacola as "Dynamite" Wayne Farris.

He achieved greater success when he teamed with Larry Latham to form The Blond Bombers when they were put together by Jerry Brisco in Florida Championship Wrestling.

The Bombers were later put with Sgt. Danny Davis as their manager when they came back to Memphis.

The Blond Bombers were involved in heated feuds with several fan favorite teams across the two competing Tennessee promotions, appearing in both Nick Gulas's Nashville based territory, and Jerry Jarrett's Memphis area.

Their signature moment was the now famous "Tupelo Concession Stand Brawl" against Jerry Lawler and Bill Dundee.

He then had stints in the American Wrestling Association (AWA), Jim Crockett Promotions, World Wrestling Council (WWC), Southeastern Championship Wrestling, Southwest Championship Wrestling, National Wrestling Alliance and Stampede Wrestling through the early 1980s, winning multiple singles and tag team championships in each.

Farris made his debut for Stampede Wrestling in Calgary in 1982 where the Honky Tonk Wayne gimmick was born.

A spinoff of rock star Elvis Presley, he sported slicked-back hair, sideburns, and carried a guitar.

Honky and Ron Starr won the Stampede Wrestling International Tag Team Championship in 1985 and 1986.

He later teamed with Cuban Assassin to win the International Tag Team Championship.

He is best known for his tenure with the World Wrestling Federation (WWF, now WWE) from 1986 to 1991, where he performed under the ring name The Honky Tonk Man.

On June 20, 1986, he defeated Bad News Allen for the Stampede North American Heavyweight Championship; the title was vacated when Honky left for WWF in 1986.

Farris entered the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) in July 1986 under the ring name The Honky Tonk Man.

Honky made his televised debut on the August 30, 1986 episode of The Body Shop (the last Body Shop interview segment conducted by Don Muraco), held on the final taping of All Star Wrestling.

Taped several days later, he was introduced to fans at the Mid-Hudson Civic Center by Junkyard Dog in the final episode of WWF Championship Wrestling, which also aired on August 30.

The WWF's introduction of the new character continued apace on their new clutch of syndicated programs that debuted that fall.

On Sep 6, 1986 on the first episode of WWF Superstars, a promo aired from Honky where he declared that he would tap dance on the head of Paul Orndorff.

Similar promos aired on following episodes of Superstars that month, as well as the new Wrestling Challenge syndicated program.

Honky made his televised WWF debut on the September 28, 1986, episode of Wrestling Challenge, defeating Terry Gibbs.

Originally pushed as a fan favorite wrestler with an Elvis impersonator gimmick, he was endorsed via an inset promo by none other than WWF World Heavyweight Champion Hulk Hogan himself.

He made his debut on the house show circuit on October 8, 1986, defeating WWF Intercontinental Champion Randy Savage via disqualification in a match in Warren, OH.

Wrestling as a fan-favorite, he competed against Randy Savage and Jake Roberts in subsequent matches.

Honky received a televised match against Savage on October 18, 1986 in an encounter broadcast from Philadelphia, but lost by countout.

Fan support was lukewarm to hostile, and the company pivoted as Honky soon cut a series of promos with Jesse "The Body" Ventura that aired on the WWF's syndicated programming asking fans for a "vote of confidence".

When he asked for the vote of confidence, he insulted fans in a way that resembled Andy Kaufman before him.

On November 16 he wrestled Mr X (Danny Davis) in a match taped in Toronto for Prime Time Wrestling, with those in attendance firmly against him.

On the November 22, 1986 episode of Superstars, the results predictably came back negative, and it was not long before Honky turned into a cocky villain and took on "Mouth of the South" Jimmy Hart (later billed "Colonel" as a reference to Elvis Presley's manager Colonel Tom Parker) as his manager.

Honky's first major feud came against Jake "The Snake" Roberts, who was in the midst of a fan favorite turn.

The feud intensified when Honky attacked Roberts on his talk show set, The Snake Pit.

According to Roberts, Honky was supposed to hit him with a gimmicked balsa wood guitar; he believes Farris accidentally grabbed a real, non-gimmicked guitar (made of fiberglass) and smashed it across Roberts' back, legitimately injuring him.

According to Roberts, this started his dependence on prescription pain medication (in an interview, Roberts alleges that he was picking pieces of the guitar out of his back for weeks after he was hit).

This has been disputed as Roberts had been a known drug user years before this incident.

In an interview for World Wrestling Insanity, Honky 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".

He also performed for World Championship Wrestling (WCW) in 1994, and for Stampede Wrestling between 1982 and 1986.

He was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame as part of the 2019 induction ceremony.

A heel for the majority of his active professional wrestling career, he has been described by Bleacher Report as "one of the greatest villains to ever grace a professional wrestling ring".

His 454-day reign as WWE Intercontinental Champion was the longest reign in the history of the title until it was broken by Gunther in 2023.