PHOTOS
PHOTOS
Randy Shemanski
There was a time when professional wrestling was less glitz, glamour and Hollywood and much more, well, wrestling. Competitors used headlocks, arm bars, suplexes and their own signature moves to create an identity rather than the current method of publicity and over-exposure.
In those days during the ’80s and a good portion of the ’90s, wrestlers wore costumes based on their personas and looked less like guys you might find working out in a gym 10 hours a day and more like someone we could all relate to. Everyone had a feud with someone else, most bad guys had an annoying manager and a few had gorgeous women in their corners.
If you long for those days, you’ll want to make your way to The Ice Box in Scranton on Saturday, June 27 at 7 p.m. when Championship Pro Wrestling presents a card featuring a main event between the Honky Tonk Man and Mr. Saturday Night. Others scheduled to appear include Big Slam Vader, High Voltage and ECW’s Zombie.
Wrestling fans over 30 likely remember the Honky Tonk Man for his Elvis impersonations, his long run as Intercontinental Champ (one year, two months and 27 days) and feuds with Jake “The Snake” Roberts, Randy “Macho Man” Savage and Dusty Rhodes.
Born Roy Wayne Farris in Tennessee, he got into professional wrestling through his cousin, Jerry “The King” Lawler. After working numerous local and regional wrestling circuits, his big break came when he took on the persona of an Elvis impersonator and joined the World Wrestling Federation in the mid-’80s.
His run with mainstream wrestling lasted through the 20th century, and now the 56-year-old lives in Phoenix and appears at smaller shows across the globe each year. The Honky Tonk Man spoke with ec via phone to talk about wrestling at an older age and what it’s like watching the current generation of stars.
How active are you now?
I do anywhere between 100 and 120 shows a year.
So you’re still out there doing a lot of work.
I’m as busy as the big fed (federation), yeah.
Is that the way you like it? Are you actively searching for the work?
I’ve been doing this since, gosh, about five years ago, so I’ve been doing this quite actively. And yeah, I enjoy it because it’s up close, personal and it’s family entertainment.
Have you been involved in any of the big stuff, made any return appearances?
I went over and inducted Birdman Koko B. Ware in the Hall of Fame and did Wrestlemania and some PR for that. They call periodically for things.
How tough is it to stay in shape to be able to get into the ring?
Well, I do it on the weekends, so it’s not physically demanding. The travel part is the hardest nowadays for me. Plane rides are three or four or five hours; if I go overseas, 12 hours. I’ve already been to Germany and England this year and Canada twice. I book the stuff all on my own and the shows that I want to do, like when I’m coming over for this event I’ll have already been in Pennsylvania since the Thursday before for Wizard World Comic Con in Philadelphia (June 18-21). And I’ll do some seminars leading into the event in Scranton.
Has the showmanship part become even more important now that you’re not in your prime athletic years?
You know, that part of the business hasn’t changed for me like most of the guys that came from my era. We learned and we trained on the way that we do things back then is the same way we do them now, so we haven’t changed. The business of course evolved with the different way they produce and do a television show. These guys now, some of the young fellas, they’re not trained the way I was. Consequently, their careers don’t last quite as long as ours have. I’ve been around 34 years this year and there’s not too many guys that’s been around 34 years, especially this new bunch of kids. They do too many high-risk maneuvers that cost them a lot of injuries and shortens their careers.
Is it tough for you to watch that knowing the way it was back when you first got into it?
To me, the way I look at it is that I’m glad I’m not having to start all over again because I don’t know that I could be trained in that aspect. We’re wrestlers. We’re not stuntmen. That’s the difference. Anything above the second rope I tend to get a nose bleed. They’re not going to see me out there in Scranton where I’ll be up in the rafters flipping and diving off and doing nonsense. You’re going to see some old-school wrestling mixed in with some show business entertainment and we’re going to have fun.