13 Questions With The Honky Tonk Man
5. Heels Come With Smiles
And The Honky Tonk Man had the most smarmy grin.
“Yes. Because across the South when I grew up, the Southern heels were that kind of a bad guy. They weren’t cool. I think this all happened when [Kevin] Nash and [Scott] Hall and those guys were in The Wolfpac: everybody wanted to be cool cat bad guys. Well, a bad guy has to be a dirty, no-good scoundrel. I mean, he has to cheat, he has to lie, he has to steal: he has to be a hooligan. If you don’t have people wanting to climb the fence to destroy you, then they’re not going to buy a ticket to see anyone else beat you up.
“I’ve got to give WWE credit for this: they gave me TV time, they gave me the opportunity to do these little interviews and segments to put those words out. Anyone on that wrestling card, whether it be Lanny Poffo, S.D. Jones or Pedro Morales, journeymen who were working: anyone booked against me, the people were in a frenzy, wanting to see him beat me. It didn’t have to be Hulk Hogan or Jake Roberts. They didn’t care if it was the guy sweeping the floor at the arena: the fans just wanted to see my ass kicked.
“Other than Andre The Giant, I was the most hated man in the world at one point.”