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Honky Tonk Man Talks Not Doing The Job For Savage And Why

Posted: Apr 10th 2012 By: CMBurnham

Former WWE Intercontinental Champion The Honky Tonk Man recently spoke with Raj Giri of WrestlingINC.com about working with WWF in the 1980s, how he won the Intercontinental title, his feuds with Randy Savage and The Ultimate Warrior, problems with the business today, scripted promos, his problems with Eric Bischoff and much more. Here are some
highlights from the interview:

How he won the Intercontinental title:

"I just happened to walk by while they were standing in the hallway and Hogan looked and said, 'What about him?' That's how it happened because Butch was going AWOL or M.I.A. -- which happens some times. Of course, it was like Jake (Roberts). Jake was missing in action about half the time he was there.

"I just happened to walk by and they said, 'What about him,' and I said, 'OK.' Vince pulled me aside and told me what he wanted to do. (Ricky) Steamboat was leaving and, you know -- after all these years, Steamboat gets a job as an agent, making all this money. I'm sitting home doing nothing and he was the one that got the belt from Savage and up and quit the company. Saying, 'I want to go home and spend time with my wife and children.'

"Of course, if you have a championship belt, you don't go home and spend time with your wife and children. You have to be on the road and [Vince] said, 'This guy wants to go and do this and I got to have the belt in a town.' I said, 'Listen, if you give me that belt, I don't want a day off.' And I ran with that belt for 64 weeks."

Refusing to drop the title to Randy Savage:

"It wasn't really about dropping the title. I was talking to my friend, "Rock N' Roll" Buck Zumhofe from the old AWA days, who I was on tour with all this past week up in Northern Minnesota and Wisconsin. It wasn't the fact of losing the belt or anything of that nature.

"I had a deal with WWE and Vince, a handshake deal. There were no contracts back then. 'I'll do anything you want if you give me an opportunity. If I do good, pay me. If I don't do good, I'll pack my bags and move down the highway.' All I said was, 'Treat me good on TV. Take care of me on television.' Back in the old days, us old guys always believed that if they destroy you on television, you're pretty much destroyed.

"So, when they mentioned the destruction of the Honky Tonk Man on television and going with 'Macho Man' -- you know, in reality, if 'Macho Man' was still around today and with us at a roundtable. It did his career better than mine because he became world champion as opposed to being the Intercontinental champion again. For that reason, Ted DiBiase -- who still has a little animosity towards me though not a lot -- Ted never got to be world champion because Ted was going to be world champion.

"This particular television show had 35 million people watching. That particular Main Event had 35 million people. You got to remember; Turner had a lot of money and Turner was trying to make a run at Vince. I said, 'No. I'm not going to do this on television. You want to do it, I'll do it anywhere else. I'm not doing it in front of 35 million people.'

"I had to protect my business, too. My business, of course, was the Honky Tonk Man because I could have taken it to Turner. I did make a call to Turner and they said, 'Absolutely not. Do not do that on television if you want to come down here with us.' We had a meeting set and down and then I ended up staying with WWE which was probably not the best move of my life because, after that, they never trusted me again.

Dropping the title to The Ultimate Warrior:

"They had him in the plans after the Savage thing. Because Hogan wanted to go to Hollywood and he wanted to make movies and he was leaving the company, they needed someone. Vince was always into these big bodybuilders. He loved that no matter where they could work or not. It didn't matter. He just cared that they had these great bodies and that's what he wanted.

"Warrior fit the mold and at that point, Vince decided he wanted to go that direction. The Intercontinental belt was such a hot item that it was a stepping stone to the big belt. For him to get the Intercontinental championship for me and keep it for six months or eight months, then move up to the next level made him bigger and better than he would have ever been... It was a catapult to the next level and I didn't have a problem with it when it was done that way. It was done and everybody was professional about it. We knew about it six months ahead of time what was going to happen. We planned for it and it was laid out the proper way. I didn't have any problem with that.

"I was kind of ambushed on the Randy thing. I was at a point in my life where things were going so good and we were doing so well, Randy and I, selling out every arena -- I just couldn't understand why you would just want to destroy this whole thing. Then, make him the Intercontinental champion (again) which probably would not have helped him very much at all. Him chasing me was what was selling tickets. If there were no return matches for me even in the mix -- it was like that old TV show, The Six Million Dollar Man 'We can rebuild him.' No.
You can't rebuild something you've destroyed.

"That was my old timer's thinking. Now, they bring these kids in and one day they got one name and the next day, they've got another. One day they've got blond hair, the next day, they've got brown hair."

Honky Tonk Man also revealed his final words to Eric Bischoff that still has his upset to this day, turning down the Hall of Fame, why WWE had to bring the Rock back and much more. You can check out the full interview by clicking here: http://tinyurl.com/6syb5rc