The Honky Tonk Man to Be Inducted Into WWE Hall of Fame Class of 2019

Former Intercontinental Champion The Honky Tonk Man will be inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame as [...]

By Connor Casey

Former Intercontinental Champion The Honky Tonk Man will be inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame as part of the Class of 2019, according to a report from CBS Sports on Tuesday.

Honky, real name Wayne Farris, first joined the World Wrestling Federation in 1986. He'd stick with the company through 1991, and after a brief stint in WCW in 94 he returned to the company from 1997-01.

Throughout his career the only championship Farris held was the Intercontinental Championship. But at 454 days (or 64 weeks as Santino Marella loved to remind people), he still holds the record for the longest reign with the prestigious title.

Farris' last WWE match came in 2008 when he was voted in by fans at Cyber Sunday to challenge Marella for the Intercontinental Championship. He won via disqualification.

"WWE is the place to be. For me, it's the only place I have ever wanted to be," Farris said in an interview with CBS Sports' State of Combat podcast. "It's the place that if I'm ready to finish up, that's where I want to be. It's home for me because I have so many fond memories of everything that has been accomplished by WWE and from what I've accomplished myself. It wasn't me alone, it was a huge team effort.

"That is what's amazing and what is so great about being part of the WWE," he continued. "The door is open to you and it's up to you if you want to walk through it. I look back on everything and for some unknown reason, everything has a meaning. The timing, everything about this year in the 2019 Hall of Fame, everything was lining up perfectly. I never dreamed it was going to happen and would tell people that it's something I don't think about every day of my life. But to be able to be part of this, it's hard to explain."

Farris joins an induction class that already includes six members from the D-Generation X faction: Triple H, Shawn Michaels, Chyna, X-Pac, Road Dogg and Billy Gunn.

"I'm not going to sugarcoat it and say that everything came easy and [being champion] was a lovely walk because it was grueling," Farris said. "It was fantastic but it was grueling. We put a lot of time and effort into it to entertain the fans the best we could as WWE wanted us to do it. It was exhilarating. To be out there every night, there was electricity in the air."

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