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All Hail "The King"

Posted: Aug 14th 2007 By: CMBurnham

Jerry Lawler's kingdom reaches from his homtown of Memphis to the homes of millions of World Wrestling Entertainment viewers each week.

Known as "The King" during his 37-year professional wrestling career, Lawler is also recognised by the people for his exploits outside of the ring which drew headlines.

His failed Memphis mayoral bid. A "feud" with comedian Andy Kaufman that famously spilled over onto "Late Night With David Letterman" in 1982. A role alongside Jim Carrey in the Kaufman biopic "Man on the Moon."

Despite a hectic WWE schedule that has Lawler jetting across the country for events as the color commentator for the "Raw" television program, he recently wrestled for a local league show in Chatsworth. Before his match -- and before facing a long line of fans waiting for autographs -- Lawler gave a wide-ranging interview covering his colorful career, which began in Memphis in 1970.

Lawler, who was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame this year, freely admits that wrestling is a fickle sport that experiences peaks and valleys. The recent Chris Benoit tragedy has taken wrestling into another valley. Benoit, a former WWE Champion, killed his wife and son, then hung himself in May.

Lawler said the mainstream media "was unfair" in its covering of the tragedy, its portrayal of wrestling and its claims that steroids (and "'roid rage") contributed to Benoit's actions.

Lawler believes Benoit "snapped".

I'm not trying to be defensive just because I'm in wrestling," said Lawler, who turns 57 in November. "The media is all about sensationalism. We all know that bad news sells, so the badder they can make the news seem, the more people are going to watch it, the more people are going to pay attention to it. There are so many new-oriented shows out there, if there is not news, they'll create news. I think that's what they looked to do in this situation."

The steroid controversy which had enveloped Major League Baseball and its new home run king Barry Bonds could dog pro wrestling. Several well-known wrestlers have died in recent years, with some deaths attributed to steroids and drug abuse. In 2006, WWE enacted a "Wellness Policy" requiring performers to undergo medical evaluations and random drug testing. But in light of the Benoit situation, Congress has set an Aug. 15 deadline for the WWE to turn over information about the policy. Congressional hearings on pro wrestling are a possibility.

Standing 6-feet tall, weighing 230 pounds and not known for a chiseled physique, Lawler says he has never used steroids. He bristles at assertions that wrestlers must use steroids to suceed.

"It's absolutely not the case," Lawler said. "One of the things that upset me is that you see all these news people on TV saying, 'The WWE forces these people to take steroids, a wrestler can't be successful in this business without steroids.' And I'm sitting there going, "What a bunch of hogwash." I've been in the business 37 years. I don't know if there's been anybody as successful over the time period I've been. Maybe Hulk Hogan and Ric Flair. And maybe not even Flair. Flair has been successful business-wise, but not as far as doing the things like movies and doing all the mainstream media like I have."

Lawler believes that wrestlers make decisions to use steroids and other performance enhancing drugs for a shot at stardom and the millions of dollars that accompany it.

"It's funny," Lawler said. "The drug that most wrestlers are on is the same as the drug that this Nancy Grace on the news shows, the same drug that anybody in movies or on television is on and it's called fame. That's what everybody is after. They do it as an individual. It's not (WWE Chairman) Vince McMahon telling them to do it because I'm there every week. These individuals make individual decisions to do whatever they can to be famous. To be more famous than The Rock (Dwayne Johnson), to be more famous than "Stone Cold" Steve Austin. Sometimes in doing that, these people make the wrong decisions."

Choosing pro wrestling as a career was the right decision for Lawler.

He has walked the fine line of being adored by the fans in Memphis and being loathed by fans outside his hometown for his sneaky tactics. Even today, Lawler plays the smart-alecky foil to straight man and announcing partner Jim Ross.

"I try not to let it be known too much, but I have the best gig in the company," Lawler said. "I basically work one day a week. I fly out from my home in Memphis on Monday to whatever town Raw is in and I catch the first flight back on Tuesday morning."

His schedule earlier this month took him to an independent show in San Fransisco, a match in Autozone park after a minor league baseball Memphis Redbirds' game and a last-minute WWE show in Huntington, W.V. on a Friday. He drove some 500 miles to Chatsworth the next day.

Every other week, he is involved in the taping of Memphis Championship Wrestling. He wrestles at the Tunica, Miss. casino once a month.

Recently, Lawler has had to work more than one day a week for the WWE. A recent string of injuries to WWE's top stars has vaulted Lawler back into the ring on a national stage, forcing him to pull double duty. He's currently working matches against another member of wrestling royalty -- King Booker.

Surprisingly, Lawler does little preperation before calling the action during a two-hour live broadcast or a three-hour pay-per-view. He gives much credit to Ross, his broadcast partner.

"When it comes to preperation, when it comes to knowing the names, the statistics, history, names of holds, there's nobody better than J. R.," Lawler said. "That makes it so easy for me. I really don't do much preparation. What I do is basically go off the top of my head. I can drive up at 5 minutes before 9 o'clock and do the commentary with no notes. That's the chemistry J. R. and I have."

When Lawler is called to wrestle matches on WWE "Raw", he goes straight from his ringside chair into the ring. No time to stretch. No time to get psyched up. No time to prepare.

"The truth of the matter is, I'd rather go out and wrestle a seven-minute match on 'Raw', be entertaining for seven minutes, than sit out there on the air and be o the air for the entire two hours and try to be entertaining," Lawler said. "That's pretty difficult."

It's the announcer's booth where most younger fans were introduced to Lawler in the 1990s when his wrestling career began to fade. Older fans recall Lawler for his wry wit during interviews, deft wrestling ability and the 126 heavyweight titles held in several organizations. Through the years, Lawler has competed against some of the top wrestlers in the business including Bruiser Brody, Ric Flair, Hulk Hogan, Harley Race and Randy Savage.

And Lawler has been one of the few wrestlers to break into the mainstream. He authored a best-selling book ("It's Good to be The King...Sometimes"), played roles in several movies and even had a brief singing career.

One of Lawler's most fascinating forays into the public eye came during his feud with Kaufman, the comedian, in the early 1980s.

Kaufman, who had a role on the television comedy "Taxi" had long been a fan of pro wrestling. He claimed to be the "Inter Gender Wrestling Champion of the World" and began wrestling women, promising $1,000 to any woman who could pin him. Kaufman would later be challenged on the Memphis circuit by Lawler, who claimed Kaufman was belittling wrestling.

The feud hit a climax on the Letterman show when the two came to blows during an on-air fight. The fracas resulted in an apparant broken neck for Kaufman. For several weeks after the incident, Kaufman wore a neck brace, claiming the injury was real.

But the neck wasn't broken. The feud wasn't a feud at all. More than 10 years after Kaufman's death, it was revealed that the feud was completely fabricated. Lawler and Kaufman were actually friends.

"When I look back on it, it was so much fun working with Andy because he was so talented in the fact that he was just so ahead of his time," Lawler said. "But then at the same time, he was so respectful of our business and such a big fan. He actually told me 'I would give up everything I'm doing in Hollywood -- 'Taxi' TV show, comedy clubs and all that kind of stuff -- if I could just stay involved in wrestling' He loved it. And he really respected it."

Lawler believes his feud with Kaufman "literally changed the face of professional wrestling" because it proved wrestlers could have crossover appeal.

"This showed and opened the people's eyes so that New York then said, 'Hey, this could be a good thing,'" Lawler said. "And suddenly you had (singer) Cyndi Lauper, Mr. T and then it just snowballed until all of the sudden wrestling was a mainstream thing that everybody was talking about and everybody was watching. I think honestly that the Andy Kaufman feud that we had got that ball rolling."

And for "The King", that ball hasn't stopped rolling since.