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New Year’s Eve with legendary WWE wrestler Jerry Lawler

Posted: Jan 7th 2020 By: Bill Wagner

I really had no desire to go out on New Year’s Eve. H aving just spent seven hours at Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium and laid low by an insidious illness, all I really wanted to do was sleep.

However, my significant other had come into town so we could ring in the new year together and doing so in a cramped room of the Holiday Inn on Union Street seemed downright sad.

So I laid down for about a half hour to regroup, took a long hot shower, popped a bunch of ibuprofen then ventured out into the chilly night of the Bluff City.

Caryl and I had figured Beale Street in Memphis would be a rocking spot on New Year’s Eve and it certainly was. City officials had fenced off the famous block, forcing all revelers to enter from various checkpoints for the purpose of verifying identifications and passin g through security. After waiting almost an hour in a line that stretched for two city blocks, we finally landed on Beale Street around 11
and started scouting a spot to spend New Year’s Eve.

We wound up settling on the one bar that did not have a long line or exorbitant cover charge and appeared from the outside to feature a good band.

Once inside, we were transported into the Twilight Zone. This entire establishment was a tribute to professional wrestling. Upon further review, it was in fact a shrine devoted to a specific pro wrestler.

Unwittingly, we had walked into King Jerry Lawler’s Hall of Fame Bar & Grille. To call the décor “different” would be an understatement. Covering every inch of every wall of this rather large, spacious bar were photos and other memorabilia from the pro wrestling career of one Jerry Lawler.

While ordering a couple drinks, I spotted televisions behind the bar playing vintage wrestling videos on a perpetual loop.

I’ve been to Memphis four times now to cover Navy football and had never stepped foot in King Jerry Lawler’s Hall of Fame Bar & Grille.

My favorite spot on Beale Street is Blues City Café, a tremendous restaurant with authentic southern-style ribs, barbecue, seafood and soul food with an attached bar that always boasts a strong band on stage.

Of course, I’ve also been to B.B. King’s Blues Club, Rum Boogie Café, Silky O’Sullivan’s, Mr. Hand’s Blues Hall and several other traditional Beale Street nightspots.

Needless to say, King Jerry Lawler’s was a far different experience and quite unique in its own right.

Let me preface by stating I am not a professional wrestling enthusiast. I have not actually watched pro wrestling since I was a kid in the 1970s and the old World-Wide Wrestling Federation had a Saturday television show featuring the likes of “Chief” Jay Strongbow, Jimmy “Super Fly” Snuka and Tony Garea among others.

While I have never watched WrestleMania or a single episode of Monday Night Raw, I am aware enough to know the names of the sport’s superstars over the years – Hulk Hogan, “Stone Cold” Steve Austin, the “Nature Boy” Ric Flair, Randy “Macho Man” Savage, “Rowdy” Roddy Piper and so on.

Jerry Lawler did not strike me as a particularly famous name within professional wrestling circles, although the photographs and memorabilia material displayed inside his namesake nightclub made it clear he was quite accomplished. However, from the moment I contemplated the name Jerry Lawler something about it nagged at the back of my brain.

As midnight approached, King Jerry Lawler’s Hall of Fame Bar & Grille started filling up fast. People were stacked two rows deep at the bar and every single table was taken. A horde of Kansas State fans had taken over Memphis and there was a large contingent of them in this place.

In the back of the room along the wall was a huge, decorative chair. It was wood carved with very ornate upholstery and wide enough to seat both me and Caryl. From our comfortable position, we had a complete view of the entire establishment and the perfect vantage point to watch a typically boozy New Year’s Eve unfold.

I went to the bar to order another drink and standing right next to me was none other than Jerry Lawler himself. He did not look exactly like some of the vintage photos on the walls that I had checked out, but the resemblance was unmistakable.

Naturally, I put out my hand and asked: Are you Mr. Lawler? I figured someone who had dedicated an entire bar-restaurant in honor of himself might be a bit cocky, but Jerry Lawler could not have been more friendly and gracious. We chatted briefly and I asked how he came to be known as “the King.”

Lawler explained that in 1974 he beat Jackie Fargo, his former trainer and mentor, for the National Wrestling Alliance Southern Heavyweight championship and was bestowed the title “King of Wrestling.”

I brought Caryl her drink and told her I had just met the one and only Jerry Lawler. Moments later, Lawler came to the back of the room and I asked the “King” if we were sitting on his throne. Lawler laughed and mentioned that he’d bought the massive ornate chair from a local mall, which had used
it for a Santa Claus display.

I told Lawler I was a sportswriter for The Baltimore Sun Media Group in town to cover Navy-Kansas State in the Liberty Bowl.

As a Memphis businessman, Lawler was a big supporter of the Liberty Bowl that provides a huge economic boost to the city. As a patriotic American, Lawler was happy to hear about Navy’s victory despite noting it was Kansas State fans who had filled up his club for most of the last three days.

Being a newspaper reporter, my conversation with Lawler quickly turned into an interview and I asked about his glory days as a pro wrestler. Lawler mentioned that he primarily does color commentary for World Wrestling Entertainment’s Monday Night Raw, but said he still wrestles on occasion and recently did so during a show in Hartford, Connecticut.

Had I been a pro wrestling aficionado, I would have realized that Jerry Lawler was indeed a pretty big deal. The Memphis native has held more recognized championships than any professional wrestler in history, including the Heavyweight World Championship as sanctioned by the AWA, WCWA and USWA.

In 2007, Lawler was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame. It occurred to me that Lawler was probably one of the few pro wrestlers from his generation still going strong and mentioned that to him.

“Yea, I was watching video from an old show I did during the 1980s and I was the only wrestler on the card who is still alive,” Lawler said solemnly.

An associate interrupted to tell Lawler he was needed, so we shook hands and parted ways. I told Lawler it was a pleasure meeting him and he responded “likewise” before heading downstairs to a private party he was apparently hosting for friends and VIPs.

It wasn’t until I got back to the hotel and did a Google search that I realized why the name Jerry Lawler had sparked a hint of recognition in my mind. Lo and behold, it was Lawler who engaged in the infamous feud with comedian Andy Kaufman.

Comedian Andy Kaufman was always duping the audience and collaborated with wrestler friend Jerry "The King" Lawler on an ongoing feud in which Lawler broke Kaufman's neck with a piledriver and had an on-air fight on a 1982 episode of "Late Night with David Letterman." Also, despite Kaufman's
passing in 1984 from lung cancer, rumors that he faked his death still abounded, mainly fueled by his reputation for hoaxes.

Comedian Andy Kaufman was always duping the audience and collaborated with wrestler friend Jerry "The King" Lawler on an ongoing feud in which Lawler broke Kaufman's neck with a piledriver and had an on-air fight on a 1982 episode of "Late Night with David Letterman."

Also, despite Kaufman's passing in 1984 from lung cancer, rumors that he faked his death still abounded, mainly fueled by his reputation for hoaxes. On the 20-year anniversary of Kaufman's death, a blogger issued a press release claiming Kaufman had returned after faking his death, which was
necessary to become a comic legend.

People my age will never forget their joint appearance on the David Letterman Show in which Lawler slapped Kaufman, who stormed off the stage incensed. Moments later, Kaufman returned and started screaming expletives at Lawler before throwing a cup of coffee at him.

It was mesmerizing live television and simply shocking to see a pair of Late Night with Letterman guests get into such a nasty fight. To truly understand the incident, you needed to know the complete back story.

Kaufman, who was as much performance artist as comedian, loved pro wrestling and decided to borrow from its business model. As part of his comedy routine, Kaufman would wrestle women and declared himself the “Intergender World Champion.” In 1982, Kaufman took the skit to Memphis and offered any woman in the crowd $1,000 and his hand in marriage if they could beat him. Lawler, as the greatest wrestler in Memphis history, took exception to the shtick and was getting sick of seeing Kaufman humiliate women.

Lawler had trained a female wrestler named Foxy and became irate when Kaufman would not stop shoving her face into the mat and taunting her. Lawler jumped into the ring and forcefully pushed Kaufman off Foxy.

In response, Kaufman threatened to sue Lawler, but ultimately accepted the pro wrestler’s challenge to a “man- to-man” match. What ensued at the old Memphis Coliseum became legend with Lawler twice using an illegal “pile-driver” move to smash the comedian into the mat head-first. Kaufman appeared to be knocked unconscious from the second pile-driver and was taken from the ring in a stretcher. The
match made headlines around the country and led to the Letterman appearance when Kaufman showed up wearing a neck brace.

On July 28, 1982, Kaufman made a return appearance on then "Late Night With David Letterman." Deep into his second career as a wrestler, Kaufman appeared in a neck brace alongside pro wrestler Jerry Lawler, who had put him in the brace after a wrestling match they'd had together. The appearance quickly went awry when Lawler slapped Kaufman out of his chair. Kaufman left the set but returned to hurl profanities at Lawler, who got out of his chair and chased Kaufman off the stage. Though it appeared spontaneous, years later it was revealed that Kaufman had orchestrated the whole thing.

Kaufman died of cancer in May 1984, but it wasn’t until 10 years later that Lawler finally revealed their well-publicized “feud” had been staged. Lawler admitted he and Kaufman had actually been close friends and had conceived the kayfabe together.

What Kaufman and Lawler pulled off in 1982 was groundbreaking in terms of transforming pro wrestling from a competition into sports entertainment. They created exactly the type of storyline that captures the audience and is now a staple of WWE.

Lawler later played himself in the Kaufman biopic “Man on the Moon” and was surprised by the antagonistic behavior toward him from star Jim Carrey.

Navy football plays at Memphis again in 2021 and I cannot wait to go back to Jerry Lawler’s Hall of Fame Bar & Grille.

I’m hoping I get another chance to speak with the pro wrestler so I can ask him all about his relationship with Kaufman.