Posted on by bdamage1
Brian Damage
During the World Wrestling Federation’s national expansion in the early to mid 1980’s, there have been many recognizable characters that graced a WWF ring. Guys like Hulk Hogan, Big John Studd, The Junkyard Dog, Jimmy ‘Superfly’ Snuka and of course, Andre the Giant. Another very familiar face during this era was a wrestler that was hailed from Mudlick, Kentucky. He stood 6ft 7in and weighed over 300 pounds. That wrestler was known as ‘Hillbilly Jim.’
Hillbilly Jim was one of that era’s most popular stars and was given every opportunity to be a true superstar for the company. Jim Morris was a wrestler in the territories, when he was discovered by Pat Patterson who invited him to have a try out with the ever growing WWF. Vince McMahon loved him and immediately wanted Jim to be a part of the WWF’s three ring circus atmosphere. Before his days as a hillbilly, Jim Morris had a biker gimmick and was known as ‘Harley Davidson.’
It was WWF road agent ‘Chief’ Jay Strongbow, who gave Jim the gimmick of a hillbilly. Strongbow was good friends with another wrestler with a hillbilly gimmick named Haystacks Calhoun and wanted to bring back that type of character. McMahon liked the idea and was the one who christened him ‘Hillbilly Jim.’ It was Jim who came up with the look of the character by buying a pair of overalls and a bandanna and used a hat given to him by a friend in Texas.
Jim started his WWF career as a planted fan at television tapings known simply as ‘Big Jim.’ He would eventually jump the barrier and come to the rescue of his hero Hulk Hogan who was about to get his hair cut by the dreaded heels of Bobby Heenan, Ken Patera and John Studd. The trio had previously done the same thing and cut the hair of Hulk’s friend Andre the Giant. When Jim saved Hogan from getting his hair cut…that is when Hillbilly Jim’s wrestling career took off.
Basically, Vince strapped a rocket on the back of the Hillbilly Jim character. He was shown in vignettes training to become a wrestler with Hogan. The two also started teaming with each other in various cities across the country. There were those who resented Jim’s mega push from behind the scenes and that caused Jim to question if it was the right thing to go past all these other wrestlers. According to Jim, Hulk Hogan gave his blessing and told Jim that he wanted him to get over as much as possible. You see, in those days, the WWF usually did three shows a day and Hogan was being stretched to his limit with appearances. Hogan wanted Jim to get over to headline some of the shows that Hulk couldn’t get to.
In February of 1985, Hillbilly Jim’s career was stalled, when he dislocated his kneecap. The injury forced Jim to miss the inaugural Wrestlemania and took Jim off the road for a considerable amount of time. Vince McMahon decided that he couldn’t do without Hillbilly Jim on the road. After all, he had quickly become one of the company’s biggest draws aside from Hogan himself. Vince came up with the idea to create more hillbilly characters to keep Jim hot while he was recovering from injury.
McMahon approached Jim and asked him if he knew of anybody who could be used in the hillbilly gimmick. Jim instantly thought of his friend Lanny Kean whom Jim had his very first wrestling match against. Kean was then brought in and was named ‘Cousin Junior.’ When Cousin Junior was getting over, Vince wanted to expand the gimmick even more. It was manager Jimmy Hart who suggested the WWF bring in a wrestler named Stan Frazier. Hart knew and worked with Frazier in the Memphis territory. He was brought in and renamed ‘Uncle Elmer.’
The lovable hillbilly family became a popular trio in the WWF. So much so, McMahon wanted to put the WWF world tag team titles on them. They were given the belts from one show to the next, but apparently Greg ‘The Hammer’ Valentine (who teamed with Brutus Beefcake as the tag champions) complained and allegedly politcked to keep he belts on themselves. The Hillbillies tag team championship run was not recognized by the WWF and they never got a championship run out of it.
Things began to slowly unravel for the Hillbilly family when Cousin Junior started missing shows and had some apparent drug issues he was dealing with. He was eventually fired and replaced by a wrestler that booker George Scott knew named Gene Lewis. He was named ‘Cousin Luke,’ but according to Jim…wasn’t as over as the other hillbillies. The second shoe to drop happened in 1986 before a taping of Saturday Night’s Main Event in Providence, Rhode Island.
Uncle Elmer decided to do a power play on WWF management and apparently refused to wrestle his match against King Kong Bundy unless he was paid more money. It became so dire, that McMahon charterd a plane for Hillbilly Jim to fly from the west coast (where he was working a show) straight to the arena in Rhode Island across the country. When Hillbilly Jim arrived at the arena, Uncle Elmer had already agreed to work the match against Bundy.
Uncle Elmer did a quick 4 minute match with Bundy and was pinned. After the match had ended, Hillbilly Jim said that McMahon fired Elmer on the spot. Soon, with no more Junior or Elmer…WWF decided to just focus on Hillbilly Jim again and Cousin Luke was let go as well. Hillbilly Jim had a WWE Hall of Fame career and after his retirement worked for the company in their home video division and also briefly managed another hillbilly-esque team ‘The Godwinns.’
