10 Things You Didn't Know About The Honky Tonk Man

5. He Lucked Into His Lengthy Title Reign

The Honky Tonk Man is known primarily for one thing: his 64-week, 454-day reign as the Intercontinental Champion. It's never been bested and automatically places him in the pantheon of IC greats like Randy Savage and Ricky Steamboat. There's a persistent rumour, however, that he was never supposed to win the title in the first place, but rather became the champion when another wrestler no-showed. The story went that Ricky Steamboat was on his way out of the company and wanted to drop the belt. The initial plan was to put the belt on Butch Reed, but on the day of the taping Reed was AWOL, and no one could get in contact with him. The longest Intercontinental title reign in the history of Wrestling began when Honky Tonk Man just happened to walk past Hogan and Vince McMahon discussing who they should choose as a replacement. In HTM's own words: "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." Butch Reed has gone on record claiming that this story isn't true, so again pinch of salt, but wrestling fans know only too well how quickly plans can change on the fly. The idea of being handed a title reign by walking down a corridor, well, in a business poised to change storylines on dime during to injuries or otherwise, it isn't too hard to believe.