Col. Robert Parker Says He Gave Honky Tonk Man His Gimmick

Col. Robert Parker was recently interviewed by Wrestling Epicenter’s Interactive Wrestling Radio. You can see highlights below, and the full interview above or at this link.

First booking Hulk Hogan in Alabama:
“We gave Hulk Hogan the first dollar he ever made. He came in for us as Terry “The Hulk” Bolder. He had a very hairy body and he shaved his chest like Superman. We taught a lot of these guys how to work the business. We put Hulk with real good workers like the guys that run the school for Vince, Danny Davis and some of these people that worked for us as Nightmares, and we’d just marry them until they learned the process of the way we wanted them to work. They didn’t last. We brought in his “brother” Ed Leslie and called him Eddie Bolder. They went right off to New York.

The Honky Tonk Man:
“I gave him the gimmick. I told Honky Tonk Man to go ahead and get a Elvis suit and bring a guitar to the matches. I’m going to play rock and roll music going to the ring. He was like, “I can’t play a guitar.” I said, “You don’t have to. Just act like you are and be as goofy as you can be.” Later on, when he left the WWF, Vince sued him for using the Honky Tonk Man. He said it belonged to the WWF. He showed them, in court,a program from our show where he was the Honky Tonk Man from our show. That was the end of the deal.”