• Look Back In History
• Pmessages
• Quiz
• Stump The Staff
• Top Fifty
• Close

For Lawler, It's Still Good To Be The King

Posted: Jun 17th 2010 By: CMBurnham

To longtime wrestling fans, Jerry "The King" Lawler is an icon, a guy with nearly 40 years under his belt spent either on the canvas or at the commentator's table. For comedy fans with a long memory, he's probably best remembered as the guy who wrestled the famously bizarre comic and TV actor Andy Kaufman.

Kaufman had a running bit where he wrestled women and insulted audiences as a bad guy wrestler. Lawler put him in the hospital.

It was part of the gag, of course, but since it was Kaufman, nobody knew for sure what was real and what wasn't for a long time.

Saturday, The King comes to Appalachian Power Park to meet with fans, take pictures and talk wrestling, a subject he never seems to grow tired of.

At 60, Lawler still loves wrestling and has no plans to give it up. He still appears a few times a week on WWE programs, including "Monday Night Raw."

"I haven't missed a 'Monday Night Raw' since 1993," he said.

Lawler does commentary, but he still gets in the ring and wrestles about twice a week, which is a little startling. Given the frequency of legitimate injuries in the business and the length of his career, Lawler's ability to avoid serious disability verges on the supernatural.

"A lot of it is what you get used to," Lawler said. "If I ever curtailed it then started back up, it would probably kill me."

Others, he's well aware, haven't been so lucky. Wrestler Triple H has had eight knee surgeries in his 18-year career, and current WWE champion, John Cena, suffered a broken neck.

"I've been very fortunate," Lawler said. "No major injuries, no broken bones, no knee surgeries."

And he's still crazy about wrestling. Lawler recently started a new TV show called "Memphis Wrestling."

"TV wrestling on Saturday mornings has been a tradition here since I grew up," Lawler said. "We lost it right around Christmas last year."

Lawler wasn't ready for it to end. With the blessing of WWE, he started "Memphis Wrestling," featuring local, independent wrestlers.

"It's a good looking show, but there's not a lot of money in independent wrestling," he said. "It's a labor of love."

"Memphis Wrestling" is a lot like the old-school wrestling Lawler started with. The names of the performers aren't as well known, but they're more accessible.

"WWE shows have gotten so big," he said. "Every Monday night, we're in arenas that seat 20,000 people. It's impossible to have one-on-one interactions with fans. That's why events like the one at Appalachian Power Park are so much fun."

Lawler misses hanging out with fans, having his picture taken and talking the science of the mat with fans. A lot of the old-school wrestling touches, he says, have been lost, as the empires of cable and satellite television have grown. He misses the contact, even though he's in awe of what professional wrestling has become.

It really is sports entertainment.

"We're getting ready to do our first-ever tour of China," he said. "There are a billion people there. All of these wrestlers from here have the opportunity to become worldwide celebrities."

Tags: Jerry Lawler, WWE