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Honky Tonk Man


Matt D

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So someone raised him as the worst wrestler ever.

 

Let's find out. We'll keep these quick.

 

HTM vs Bam Bam Bigelow - PTW - May 9, 1988

 

Lots of stalling, working the crowd. He does it with a lot of energy though.I really like the way he doesn't just leave the ring every time Bam Bam advances, but he dives out in a big way. I have a feeling a lot of his IC title matches are going to be heavily focused on being a vulnerable champ. Lots of heel in peril. It's a bit more tolerable for a mid card heel, but it might get old, no matter how passionately he dives out of the ring. I think his selling/bumping is actually pretty good, way better than I was expecting. There's not much chance to show offense here and the finish is pretty weak with a last second countout win set up to give Bigelow a phantom victory by hitting his outside in splash just a little too late that felt a bit fabricated. Weird announce team here. Just Heenan and Hayes.

 

HTM vs Ken Patera - Boston Garden - May 2, 1987

 

The crowd was super hot for this. Patera replaces the recently injured (On SNME by Kamala and HTM) Roberts who came out to announce it. He comes out with Damien too. Fans go nuts for him though and he seems to really appreciate it. He just chucks HTM across the ring with slams and Honky sells it like death. Different sort of stalling here. He doesn't dive through the ropes so much as he heads halfway through. There's arm work, first by Patera, with some good shine offense though it goes a bit long, relatively, and then, after a missed corner charge, by Honky on Patera. Unfortunately, neither guy sells it after it's over, even though Honky mocks a sell of Jake's arm. The best part of the match is how Patera positions HTM in an armbar in the corner of the ring repeatedly so that Jake can push the bag at him. Nice comeback with Patera tied up in the ropes but getting out while Honky is taunting Jake. Pretty decent finish for a match like this with Patera getting the bear hug, Hart going up on the apron, HTM cheating to get out but Jake catches his leg off the rope and Patera hits an elbow for the win. Post match they ALMOST get him with the snake while in a full nelson. Solid match that would have been actively good if they made the armwork mean just a little more.

 

HTM vs Mr. X - MLG - Nov 16, 1986

 

Everyone has to watch this match. It's a lot of fun. This was just after the Honky vote results and he came out like a total face and the crowd wanted nothing to do with it. He slowly started to slip into more and more heel mannerisms and moves as the match went on. Meanwhile, Mr. X continued to wrestle like a total heel, just eyeraking over and over again, but he's more and more over with the crowd as they go. He's just flabbergasted as an "x" chant starts and it's amazing. Totally amazing. Eventually it lulls him into this crazy sense of flair and he tries for a springboard splash (in 86, in WWF; not even a slingshot, a full out springboard), misses, and eats the Shake Rattle and Roll for the loss. Honky's pissed at the fans post match. Everyone has to go see it. The crowd was great.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MC_uR3AnIWk

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I started watching Belvis Wesley vs HTM from last year because there was some morbid curiosity there but then things fell and there were shouts and I gave up.

 

What I did actually see was :

 

Bruno Sammartino vs Honky Tonk Man, July 18, 1987 - IC title

 

This was a lot of fun too actually. Bruno was definitely in full living legend mode and Honky wasn't afraid to bump all the ring for him. His usual act seems to be to eat a move, duck outside, and then sell, but that's actually pretty effective, especially since the crowd hates him and he's so good at jawing with them on the outside. Bruno went to town on one body part after the next, finishing with the arm with something like 50 hammerlock grinds in total over three sets. The crowd loved counting along and they even worked one escape spot where Honky almost got out that went pretty well. Eventually, Honky did get out with an eye rake, sold huge, and took over on Bruno's back. The biggest problem with HTM, by far, is that his stuff just doesn't look all that good. He has some things, like the Savage knee to the back and his noose-style hart attack clothesline and some of the fist drops that are okay but just stomping and his axe handles never look all that great and that's a huge brunt of his offense. You can have interesting and varied offense or you can have simple but good looking offense, but it's not great when you don't have either. This all ended with a pretty lame countout but hey the fans just wanted to cheer Bruno.

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Honestly, I think the crowd noise is sweetened there. The crowd doesn't look like they're reacting anywhere near as much as Gorilla and Johnny would like us to think, and 1986 WWF was never exactly subtle. Pretty sure they already knew where Honky was headed before this was televised. Were MLG shows broadcast live? When X is"reacting" to the crowd, look at the crowd....

 

Cool find though!

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Honky Tonk Man vs. Mr. X (11/16/86)

 

Let's see this then! Honky is booed like hell out of the gate, Monsoon and Johnny V compare HTM to Brutus Beefcake. Monsoon wonders how Mr X would get through passport control with "Parts Unknown", Johnny V no sells it and admits that he takes no interest in the career of Mr X. Headscissors by Mr X. European uppercut. Crowd is very loudly booing HTM and some cheers for Mr X. Snapmare by Honky. Chinlock. Monsoon and Johnny V aren't getting on here. Little double stomp by Mr X. Commentators can't believe he's getting cheered.

 

HTM comes back with an elbow to the gut. Hits a fistdrop from the top, shades of Jerry Lawler. Chokes by Mr X now. Misses a flying crossbody. Swinging neckbreaker gets three for HTM.

 

Pretty rubbish match.

 

*

 

For some reason this crowd noise didn't sound real to me -- there's quite a disparity too between what we can hear and what we can see of the actual fans who look like they are sitting on their hands. If this is a career highlight for Honky, he is definitely a contender for worst of all time.

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Honky Tonk Man vs Tito Santana - PTW 9/17/87

 

I feel like I can actually stop this now. There's no way in hell Honky should even be in this conversation. This was an actively good match and an actively good performance from HTM. It was probably about 70% Tito, but unless the crowd noise was REALLY sweetened, the crowd was super into it. You can see them reacting and Hart reacting to them, so I think it wasn't all smoke and mirrors. Honky's stalling was incredibly effective and he put a lot of energy into it. He also RAN right into bodyslams by Tito (I thought he was going to lock up). There are big things he did well, like broad selling, great facial expressions, and putting surprising energy into things like a missed elbow drop off the ropes or multiple chops to Tito's arm before the fans chanted and Tito reversed the hold.. There are little things he did well, like focusing most of his offense on the midsection, using kicks to it to stay on top, and setting up both a grounded double axe handled for Tito to dodge the second time and, in the big transition towards the finish, trying again for the shoulder block to the gut that he took over with in the first place. Some of his offense didn't look great, sure, but I think it fit the gimmick and was even part of why the crowd was against him. Enough of it did look perfectly fine, though, and it was focused enough that it all worked for a vulnerable heel champ. He has a very measured pacing when he's on top but I think it works. The match is also a testament to just how good Tito was I think, and the special connection he had with the crowd. Total BS ending but the fans didn't even seem to care. They were just glad Tito won.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wEaLBjImVtI

 

Warning: Your announcers are Monsoon and Mike McGuirk, but they're not quite as bad as you'd expect. Also, this is no MOTY contender. It's a PTW match with a BS finish with a vulnerable heel champ vs a hot babyface tag team act who used to be a singles star. BUT if you watch this and still think that HTM could be the worst wrestler of all time, I would be very surprised.

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