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Jerry Lawler Interview Recap

Posted: Mar 20th 2007 By: mikeiles

On Wednesday night, March 14, Jerry "The King" Lawler joined hosts Brian Fritz, Dickerman, and Vito DeNucci live on Between The Ropes on Central Florida's Sports Radio 740 The Team to discuss his upcoming Hall of Fame induction, his career wrestling in Memphis, a possible match with Hulk Hogan, and much more.

The interview kicked off with a lighthearted discussion of Jerry's short time sharing the announce booth with Jonathan Coachman. Jerry said that he believed that the fans didn't accept the Coach as Raw's main announcer simply because he wasn't Jim Ross. Jerry went on to say that he feels that Coach, Michael Cole, and Joey Styles all try very hard and are good, but in the end JR is the voice of Raw. "Nobody has the passion that JR has?you can be a really good announcer and still not even be in JR's league."

Regarding his Hall of Fame induction Jerry said that it makes it "it sounds like you're very old" despite the fact that he wrestles almost every weekend. He went on to say that WWE had told him that they do not look at their Hall of Fame in the same way as the NFL, NBA, or Major League Baseball do, where your career has to be over. Instead he said WWE looks at the amount of your contributions to wrestling whether you are still active or not.

Asked if his reputation as a color commentator has skewed or obscured his Hall of Fame career as an in ring performer Jerry said "I don't think about that. That may be another thing about the Hall of Fame, I look around and I see so many people in this business take everything way to seriously. I think that's one of the reasons I've been as successful as I have, I've never taken myself that serious. I've never sat around and thought about 'what is this going to mean for my career' or 'what is my character like in this sort of situation' or any of that stuff.

Is he going to wrestle Hulk Hogan in Memphis? "Hogan is under the impression that every single week our program in Memphis features highlights of me beating him in a match that happened 20 years ago. Nothing could be further from the truth. It has been shown, but not on a weekly basis. As a result Hogan had the idea of having one more match in Memphis to clear the air about this. Am I going to turn down a match with Hulk Hogan in Memphis Tennessee? No. So I said 'Hulk, you know where Memphis is, you're more than welcome anytime that you can work it into your busy schedule.'" Jerry also feels that this match could happen in order to make some interesting footage for Hogan's reality show since there has been very little portrayal of Hulk Hogan the wrestler.

Are you surprised that Hulk Hogan won't be a part of WrestleMania 23? "I'm a little bit surprised and I'm also not really surprised. Hulk Hogan is the premiere name in the history of wrestling. When Hulk is on an event I think Hulk believes he should be the center of attention and the focus of the event. By that I mean he thinks he should make the lion's share of the money on an event. When WWE looked at WrestleMania 23 they saw a lot of people who are superstars in this company right now that would be upset if a guy who comes in once a year made the lion's share of the money. I don't know this is true, this is just what I think, but the reason I think he won't be there is that they couldn't come to terms on a financial agreement.

Back to talk about the Hall of Fame Jerry was asked for his thoughts on new Hall of Famer Nick Bockwinkel. "During my career he had to be one of the top five wrestlers I've ever been in the ring with?He was fantastic. You couldn't find a smoother in ring performer than Nick Bockwinkel, you couldn't find a guy that carried himself better as a champion than Nick Bockwinkel. He was articulate and he had the ability to talk down to the fans where you thought 'this guy is so arrogant and so obnoxious, but he really does know more than me.' Since the AWA was such a regional company for a long time he didn't get the credit he deserved."

Following up on the Hall of Fame talk Jerry was asked if the fans can expect a WWE produced retrospective of his career and whether WWE has access to the Memphis tape library. "I've never negotiated a sale of our Memphis wrestling tapes to WWE, but it's something we plan to talk about in the near future. They've never come to me and said 'we want to put together a DVD on your career' or anything like that, but I can't help but think that if you're in the Hall of Fame that might be a possibility somewhere down the line. They've got thirteen or fourteen years of footage of me just from the WWE now." Jerry also mentioned that over the years a lot of the tapes have gone missing and that in the early days of his career the show would be taped one week and taped over the next. He's never negotiated a sale of the Memphis tapes, but hopes to do so in the future.

Asked how he thinks WrestleMania is coming together Jerry said he feels that the Trump versus McMahon match has brought a lot of buzz back into wrestling and will be phenomenal.

The interview wrapped up with Jerry talking about how his Hall of Fame induction will cause him to miss his favorite baseball team, the Cleveland Indians, playing a game in Memphis. Jerry said "I asked them if I could be inducted via satellite and have (Indian's designated hitter) Travis Hafner do the induction, but they didn't like that idea."

To listen to the Jerry "The King" Lawler interview, including Jerry discussing how his commentary work for WWE has effected his character in Memphis, how WWE obtained some Memphis wrestling footage through Verne Gange, and a humorous discussion of Superclash III, as well as the entire March 14 edition of Between The Ropes in streaming audio, visit the show online at BetweenTheRopes.com. Join us for Between The Ropes for two hours every Wednesday night at 10:00pm ET on Central Florida's Sports Radio 740 The Team and worldwide on BetweenTheRopes.com.