In an interview with Sports Illustrated, former WWE superstar The Honky Tonk Man commented on dropping the Intercontinental Title to The Ultimate Warrior, his thoughts on Kevin Owens’ run, Jimmy Hart and more.
Highlights of the interview are below:
His thoughts on Kevin Owens: “I always thought the Intercontinental title was never the same since I wore it, but Kevin Owens is the one. I met Kevin on one of the independent shows. I knew he had been around for a while, and he has that desire and dedication. He wants to succeed, and he’s going to do very well.”
On Jimmy Hart: “Jimmy Hart and I were like macaroni and cheese. We were inseparable, and we worked so naturally together. Jimmy motivated me and he pushed me. He acted like my real life manager. He had been around the music and he toured all over the country with American Bandstand, and he knew the importance of dressing and acting like a show, and doing publicity. He’d get me up at 4am in Seattle to do a 7am drive time radio show in Boston. If we had to do a 6:30am Good Morning, Buffalo TV spot, Jimmy would have us do it. Jimmy pushed me and prodded me, and I owe him a lot for that. I wouldn’t have reached the extra mile of success without him.”
On the plan to drop his Intercontinental Championship to Ultimate Warrior: “When it came to the Warrior, that was a four-month deal that I knew ahead of time. We had to keep it under wraps, so most of the locker room didn’t even know. The buildup was done so, so well that it threw everyone off track and no one had an inkling that it was going to be the Warrior. Madison Square Garden exploded when the Warrior ran out. That was actually the one time when I worked for a company that I had creative control, and Vince said, ‘I don’t care how you do it, just get him over.’ I knew it needed to be short, and Vince said, ‘Do whatever you want.’ So that was all mine, and it did three things. It didn’t hurt me–I was already hated. I wanted every person out there to think they could beat me, and I had eight-year-old kids saying they could beat me. It made the Warrior an overnight sensation, and it created the superstar they wanted. Hogan had just given Vince his year’s notice that he was going to Hollywood to make movies, so they needed somebody, and the Warrior was the guy.”
The interview is available in full at this link.
