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Toe to Toe with Jerry Lawler

Posted: Mar 27th 2007 By: CMBurnham

"Mr. Lawler, you don't have any brains, you're just some dumb hick from Memphis, Tennessee," cackled Andy Kaufman, the controversial comedian turned inter-gender professional wrestling champion.

With those words, and many an insult just like them, the late Kaufman instigated one of professional wrestling history's most storied and publicized feuds. In the process, Jerry "The King" Lawler grabbed mainstream notoriety and began his reign as one of the industry's top stars throughout the 1980s.

Now, 25 years after Kaufman uttered those words, it's evident just how preposterous they were. Still an iconic figure in his native Memphis, Lawler continues an illustrious career that has spanned almost 40 years. He's shown the brains, brawn, talent and staying power to reign as a champion, incite masses to riotous reaction, cause capacity crowds to stand up and cheer and captivate audiences with his comedic commentary. Quite simply, in the cavalcade of characters that is the world of professional wrestling, Lawler has played out every role. A hero and a villain, a curtain jerker and a champion, a jester and, of course, a king.


Jerry Lawler made his pro wrestling debut 37 years ago, but the 57-year-old is still going strong, whether as an in-ring performer or color commentator. And on March 31 - a day before Wrestlemania, the industry's prevailing event - "The King" will take his rightful place in the World Wrestling Entertainment Hall of Fame. "To be in there with all the great performers and all the superstars is such an honor," says Lawler, who will take his due spot alongside fellow WWE Hall of Famers such as Andre the Giant, Jesse "The Body" Ventura, "Classy" Freddie Blassie, Sgt. Slaughter and Hulk Hogan.

It's been 37 years since Lawler made his pro wrestling debut, but the 57-year-old is still going strong, whether it's as an in-ring performer or, as most of today's sports entertainment fans recognize him, as the color commentator on the USA Network's "Monday Night Raw," always quick with a raunchy joke or a witty zinger. While he's the glitz, the glamour and the standard of the current sports entertainment world that is the WWE and "Monday Night Raw," he's still also the roots of pro wrestling - the independent circuits, the high school gyms, the small towns and the fundraisers. "In that sense, I don't like to think I'm done with pro wrestling at all," says Lawler, as he's on his way to a small, fundraising wrestling show in Birmingham, Alabama. "I don't like to think my career is over."

Still the squared circle's most notable star in his own Memphis Wrestling organization, Lawler was taken aback when the WWE approached him about taking on hall-of-fame status. "I was shocked in the sense that it was something that I had never thought about," Lawler says.

While nobody can argue that he's built a legacy over the last four decades that is hall-of-fame worthy, "The King" is quite certainly continuing to build upon that legacy. In fact, it's hardly a happenstance occurrence when Lawler jumps into the ring on Raw to come to the rescue of a damsel - er, a WWE Diva - in distress. Most recently, he made the save on the show's March 19 edition, saving "Playboy" cover girl Ashley Massaro from the 7-foot-3, 420-pound monster, The Great Khali.

Active as he still is, Lawler was surprised that he'd even be considered for the hall of fame. "Maybe it's just cause I'm such a big pro sports fan," says Lawler, a diehard Cleveland Indians fan and a Cleveland Browns enthusiast who's well aware of Major League Baseball and the National Football League's standard five-year waiting period for a retired athlete to be eligible for hall-of-fame induction. And "The King" is far from retired, admitting that he still loves to get in the ring and to lend his commentary to those in it. But Lawler was very quickly assured that the induction was a celebration of his past and not a preempting of his present and future.

So Lawler will gladly accept his place as part of the WWE Hall of Fame Class of 2007. It is one that includes his longtime Raw broadcast partner Jim Ross, as the two will be inducted the night prior to April 1st's Wrestlemania 23. Lawler, who has color commentated more Wrestlemanias than anybody else, will be on hand to call an event that features the likes of Shawn Michaels, John Cena, Batista and The Undertaker.

Lawler has faced many of today's top stars in the ring, as well as yesterday's legends, "all the way back to Lou Thesz, Dick 'The Bruiser,' Bobo Brazil and his coco butt," and on and on he remembers.

"I was sitting back, kind of reflecting," Lawler recalls. "There's very few guys that can say they wrestled such a diverse group of superstars." In the always unpredictable world of chaos that is professional wrestling, Lawler has seen and done it all. He has feuded with the likes of Terry Funk, "Macho Man" Randy Savage, Bret "Hitman" Hart and fellow 2007 HOF inductees Nick Bockwinkel and "Mr. Perfect" Curt Hennig, who Lawler bested in May of 1988 to take the now-defunct American Wrestling Association (AWA) world title in perhaps the biggest win of his career. The victory against the late Hennig was one of an approximately mind-spinning 200 title wins for "The King."

Fans will likely remember Lawler for more than titles, though among them were his two most memorable feuds. They showed just how gifted Lawler was in his ability to rally fans around him or fill them with malicious disdain.

In June of 1997, the lights went dark at a small bingo hall in Philadelphia, known to wrestling fans as the ECW (Extreme Championship Wrestling) Arena. When the lights came back on, Lawler was there, crown on head, microphone in hand, insults at the ready and shock value at a high. Representing the WWE - a rival organization - he lambasted the ECW, its wrestlers and its fans. "Hey, this bingo hall ought to be built out of toilet paper, cause there's nothing in it but shit!"

"That would piss off the fans so much," said Tommy Dreamer, ECW's good guy to Lawler's WWE bad guy, on "The Rise and Fall of ECW" DVD. Philadelphia's fans, known as arguably the most hardcore in the world, were incensed. "It was legitimately dangerous, they were that upset," Lawler said on the aforementioned DVD. "I don't often get scared or in fear for my safety, but that night I was."

It was not unlike Lawler's most legendary feud against the obnoxious and ultra-controversial Kaufman. Lawler was a face - wrestling jargon for the good guy - this time around, though. Years before Wrestlemania, pay-per-views, big-time cable ratings and superstars such as Hogan, "The Rock" and "Stone Cold" Steve Austin carried over into the mainstream, the Lawler-Kaufman grudge captivated an uncertain nationwide audience.

With Kaufman fighting women out of the stands and proclaiming himself the inter-gender champ, Lawler challenged the former sitcom star. Kaufman provoked fans by insulting their intelligence, how they talked, their town and Memphis' favorite son, Lawler. Eventually, the two met in the ring and Kaufman stunningly got the win - via disqualification. Two of Lawler's trademark pile drivers - a move deemed illegal at the time - gave Hollywood's Kaufman a win and a neck brace.

Sporting the neck brace, Kaufman took the dispute nationwide when he, along with Lawler, appeared on NBC's "The Late Show with David Letterman" in July of 1982. "I simply think an apology is in order," Kaufman said. "I don't think I owe him an apology," Lawler countered. The interview saw a calm-and-collected Lawler stand, turn and promptly slap the taste out of Kaufman's mouth, knocking him out of his chair with the open-handed blow. When the show returned from commercial, a bewildered Letterman found himself between a seated Lawler and an incensed Kaufman, who spewed curses at Lawler before tossing coffee and getting chased off the stage.

It put pro wrestling in the spotlight, grabbed headlines and stood the test of time as one the Late Show's most memorable moments. Confusing wrestling fans and the mainstream media, alike, it walked the line of fact and fiction. Year's later in 1999's "Man on the Moon" - a motion picture starring Jim Carrey about Kaufman's life - Lawler played himself and reenacted all the chaos that was, like sports entertainment at its best, a masterful work.

Indeed, Lawler will be remembered in a variety of different ways because he has been versatile enough to draw up a career with so many different pictures. If you ask him, he'll rattle it all off. Lawler's been a referee, he's put up rings and booked matches, he's been the first match and the main event, a comedic commentator and a comedian's foil, he's been a celebrated hero and a hardcore villain.

Recalling a meeting he had with Ross and WWE owner Vince McMahon, Lawler remembers getting complimented by McMahon for being one of the very best, an all-around standout. "I was floored," Lawler says. Floored because he never thought about it all that much, it's just what he does. He likens it to his ability to draw, one that has been showcased in a handful of WWE-released books. Being able to draw, just like being able to do whatever he's been called on to do in the wrestling business, was an effortless ability that just came to him. "It just has all come so easy to me," Lawler says. "It's never seemed like a real job, it all just came so easy."

That's why he's "The King," and whether he's a WWE Hall of Famer or not, his reign won't be coming to an end any time soon.