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The G.O.A.T. 100 #75 | Jerry Lawler
- Peter Edge
- 13 hours ago
- 22 min read
Welcome to the G.O.A.T. 100 where we will count down with PWM wrestling historian Peter Edge the 100 greatest wrestlers of all time, based on many different stats and criteria. A new wrestler will be added on Mondays and Thursdays every week. Here is a link to an introduction essay with Peter explaining his GOAT100 concept. At the bottom of the article you can find the GOAT 100 Portal with links to all profiles so far published, as well as a visual key... Enjoy learning more about the history of our great hobby!
Jerry Lawler is a wrestling star like no other. He is synonymous with a city like no other. Memphis is Jerry Lawler and Jerry Lawler is Memphis. But yet, a generation of fans know The King as the voice of their wrestling education. Every Monday Night (or Friday if you were me living in the UK) you heard Jerry’s voice along with Jim Ross as the soundtrack of the Attitude Era, but as the decades progress, Lawler’s commentaries age like milk left in a broken fridge. Yet his Memphis work is really undervalued by people in the wrestling fandom. Jerry’s work alone makes him a part of the 100.
Jerry didn’t get into wrestling the conventional way. He had an artistic ability that got the attention of Lance Russell, who was the programme director of a station that aired wrestling on a Saturday morning, as well as lead broadcaster of that show (and in my opinion the greatest broadcaster in wrestling history).
[Check out the latest PWM Roundtable on the all-time Great Broadcasters of wrestling history for Peter's more detailed thoughts on the career of Lance Russell.]
He came across Lawler’s drawings and decided to feature them on the wrestling show – the highest rated show on the station. This led Jerry to the attention of Jackie Fargo, the biggest star in Memphis and its wrestling circuit, and Lawler started to train under his tutelage. He would become a star in Memphis quickly, winning titles and becoming a hot act with Sam Bass as his partner as tag team champs. But it was in 1974 when Jerry got the push of pushes in Memphis. Feuding with Fargo, who lessened his schedule by the 70’s, Fargo did the honours for Jerry and passed the torch to his protege and also the moniker of “The King of Wrestling”.
Jerry turned babyface late in ‘74 which would be the rocket onto Jerry’s ass when it came to him and the Memphis territory. He would spend more time as a babyface than heel for the next two decades.
During 1977, Jerry Jarrett, who promoted spot shows for Nick Gulas, the owner of the territory of Memphis, broke from Gulas after a dispute with help from his mother (co-promoter at the time and a promoter in her own right) in setting up the new circuit. Jarrett needed Lawler to succeed in Memphis, and by offering him a share of the business, he got Lawler.
The formula was simple: Lawler was the champ, a heel would come in, beat him for the title and then Lawler would win the title back in a rematch. It was a formula that worked with the Mid-South Coliseum –Memphis’s mecca of wrestling – doing good business more Mondays than not. Most of the time, these characters that faced Lawler would come in and get out before any chance of getting cold might happen, but there were recurring characters along the way.
Lawler's biggest rival would end up being Bill Dundee, and he and Jerry were first booked against each other in late 1975, embarking on a series of matches in the Mid-South in December of that year, plus one in Louisville Garden. 1976 saw the pair on opposite sides 10 times in the Coliseum but only in tag matches with Lawler embarking on feuds with Rocky Johnson, Jack Brisco, Tommy Rich and Plowboy Frazier (better known as Uncle Elmer)
The next portion of their feud would be 1977 when Lawler and Dundee faced off in the summer, this time with Lawler the bad guy. The first “bets” match in their rivalry would be a $4,000 of Dundee’s money vs Lawler’s car match that would take place in a cage with Dundee winning and getting the keys to Lawler’s automobile. Then Dundee put his hair on the line against Jerry’s manager, Mickey Poole’s hair and also winning that. The next three weeks at Mid-South on the next three Mondays would see the following.
29th August- Dundee’s car – (the one he won off Lawler) vs Lawler’s newest car (Lawler won)
5th September – Hair vs Hair (Lawler)
13th September – Jerry’s hair vs Dundee’s wife’s hair (Lawler – yes, they really shaved Bill Dundee’s missus' hair)
In storyline, Lawler retired but that only lasted a month before Jimmy Valiant came calling and a match between the pair happened. Then shortly after, Lawler and Dundee mended fences and teamed up regularly as faces, until 1979 when Dundee turned heel again.
During Lawler and Dundee’s years of civility, they won tag team titles and most famously took part in the Tupelo Concession Brawl where the pair's brawl with Wayne Ferris (the future Honky Tonk Man) and Larry Latham really changed the way fans viewed out-of-control melees. All of the pull-apart brawls going all over the arena since then have the DNA of the Tulepo brawl in them.
After their feud that went from August 1979 to January 1980 that saw seven matches in Memphis and six in Louisville, the pair wouldn’t have another singles match until 1983 with a Dundee face turn meaning the “Dream Team” of Memphis teaming together again regularly with Lawler having three of his most famous feuds of his career in this period.
The Terry Funk feud that is my FOTY of 1981 sees Funk at his deranged best but also Lawler in his hometown-hero best mode himself. While the Empty Arena match is the Terry Funk show, the match at the Coliseum in front of fans the fortnight before is one of Lawler’s finest hours. It has the history sidenote of being the match that broke the star ratings system. Not Dave Meltzer’s but Norm Dooley, a Southern Razzlin’ newsletter writer who broke his original 4 star ratings system by giving it 5.
Nick Bockwinkel and Jerry Lawler had a long-term rivalry over the AWA World Heavyweight Championship thanks to the working relationship with the CWA and the AWA – one of the long term storylines of Memphis was Lawler's quest to win a World Title. Lawler did contend for the NWA World Title against Terry Funk in 1976 and Ric Flair did show up in Memphis in 1981, but Memphis with their tight budget (basically they were cheap) made paying fees for NWA Title shots something that wasn’t going to happen.
Also, Memphis had a habit of pissing off the other promoters that made up the NWA board with incidents such as Lawler managing to get a picture of him on the front page of Pro Wrestling Illustrated thanks to his friendship with Bill Apter, the famed editor of that magazine with the headline was “Midget beats Andre the Giant” making it seem like the “midget” in question, Lawler had pinned Andre, something that was rarer than a England Men’s Football team justifying the hype given to them.
But, the win was actually by count-out. The NWA board of directors weren’t happy, especially Vincent J. McMahon, the WWWF owner who owned the right to license out Andre appearances.
Lawler had a better relationship with Verne Gagne and got Nick Bockwinkel to Memphis often, with the story being of Lawler going for the AWA World Title, which he did win … until he didn’t. Confused? I'll explain…
On December 27, 1982, Lawler beat Bockwinkel, with the ref counting to three even though Bockwinkel had his foot on the ropes. Lawler was announced as the new champion, and they had the celebration, but this was only acknowledged in Memphis and the territory. I believe the AWA's official story ended up being that the title was held up pending the rematch two weeks later.
During that interim, on January 3, Lawler destroyed Jimmy Hart so badly in a match that Hart was said to be so injured that he was going to be hospitalized all week. In a booking masterpiece, Hart still vowed to be in Bockwinkel’s corner the next Monday for revenge to make sure Lawler didn’t get the title.
On that night, Hart appeared to be in Bockwinkel’s corner (even though this was before Nick's usual manager Bobby Heenan left for the WWF, Jerry Jarrett wasn’t bringing Heenan in with Bockwinkel because he allegedly couldn't afford him) wrapped up with bandages from head-to-toe. Just as Lawler appeared to be on the verge of winning, the real Jimmy Hart ran to the ring and Bockwinkel snuck up on a distracted Lawler and got the pin via roll up, and the man wrapped up in the bandages revealed himself to be Andy Kaufman.
Andy Kaufman is the man that casual fans think of as Lawler’s chief rival. The Lawler / Kaufman saga was a big part of the movie Man on the Moon, part of Operation Jim Carrey tries to win an Oscar and Jim’s antics and “method acting” was the subject of a Netflix documentary. To put context on Andy Kaufman’s time in Memphis, it’s like Pete Davison appearing on WWE television and feuding with Cody Rhodes. (Actually, let's not give Ari Emanuel any ideas.) Kaufman was a big deal in early 80s America thanks to the sitcom Taxi that he was a star on. Kaufman had a passion for wrestling and wanted to be part of the circus, kind of like Paul Walter Hauser these days.
Kaufman wanted to be a heel though. His first choice to work was the WWWF but Vincent J. said no, but thanks to a mutual friend, Bill Apter, Kaufman found a place to do his wrestling fantasy, Memphis.
Andy played the part very well, calling the Memphis people dumb hicks at CWA events and wrestling women in “open challenges” winning and calling himself the “Inter-gender Champion of the World” leading to Jerry Lawler declaring he had enough, and to a match being made for the Coliseum.
The plan for the match that Kaufman wanted was for Lawler to hit his piledriver on him. Lawler being able to protect his opponent on his finisher, was ok to do it. Hell, for storyline purposes, let’s do two. After two piledrivers, which in storyline meant a DQ as it was illegal in Memphis to piledrive someone, Kaufman didn’t get up after 5 minutes, someone went to check on him and he was fine but didn’t want to get up. He wanted an ambulance to take him away.
It’s America, you have to pay for one of those ambulances. It’s also Jerry Jarrett in charge. If you’ve been reading you should know that they are as cheap as a trip to Lidl but Andy wanted an ambulance to the point that he offered to pay for it himself, which he did.
For weeks he went around and talked about Lawler being a savage for piledriving him wearing a neck brace that he persuaded a doctor at the hospital he was sent to to let him take home with him and keep wearing, even though he was actually ok. Months later on an episode of Letterman, Kaufman and Lawler had a back and forth and Lawler slapped him so hard you thought it was a Stardom match on the television.
Kaufman would be back in Memphis until he jumped the shark and overstayed his welcome, but Kaufman was on television fulfilling his wrestling dream while sick with a terminal illness. Kaufman died on May 16, 1984, at the age of 35, less than two years after that appearance on Letterman.
Lawler and Dundee resurrected their feud and proceeded to have three Loser Leaves Town matches in a three year span in Memphis with Dundee winning the 30/12/85 match. Lawler’s absence from Memphis meant the line went down steeper than a downhill skiing course at the Winter Olympics.
Jerry would be back on the March 1st episode of Memphis Wrestling in which is one of the greatest hours of “territorial wrestling” television ever which includes: Jeff Jarrett’s first appearance on wrestling television, his dad crying, Dutch Mantell with one hell of a promo , a “format breaking” moment like no other and Lance Russell struggling to use a telephone.
Seriously, watch it, it’s tremendous television. The tag match that resulted afterwards with Lawler and Mantell against Buddy Landell and Bill Dundee sold out the Mid South Coliseum and it would be the last sellout the building had for CWA wrestling.
This period of time is a perfect illustration of a quote attributed to Dave Meltzer in the early years of the Wrestling Observer: “Memphis Wrestling is like indoor soccer. It isn’t soccer but it might be better than soccer.” While Memphis has the “southern wrasslin’” stink from fans younger than 50, some of the best storytelling in wrestling history in my opinion comes from Memphis.
1987 was the year that Lawler won Observer Feud of the Year, the first of multiple that The King would take from the subscribers vote. The feud with Tommy Rich and Austin Idol would see its peak with another defeat in a “stakes” match, this time losing his hair. It was also the first time many would have seen Paul Heyman in his gimmick name of Paul Dangerously, as the manager of the duo trying to take down Lawler.
This period of time would also see Lawler take time off because of a desire to get neutered (or in human terms, a vasectomy.) This time off was achieved by an angle where Rich and Idol drove Lawler groin-first into the ring post, which might have actually been the operation to make sure Jerry could start shooting blanks, such was the force of the impact in the angle.
Once the feud with Idol and Rich was done, the focus diverted to one of the ongoing stories in Lawler’s career, his quest to become a champion of the world. The Tommy Rich animosity started over the chance to face Nick Bockwinkel for his AWA World Championship. In all Lawler and Bockwinkel would wrestle 30 times in singles matches, all but three were in the CWA Promotion. Nineteen were in the Mid-South Coliseum. Of the thirty matches, Lawler might have won 10 of them but three of them were pinfall wins and two of them were the last two matches the pair had, taking place, in July 1987 with the match Nick had with Lawler in Evansville, Indiana happening 4 days before the last night Nick would work in the States as a full-time wrestler.
In the attempted alliance to take out the Death Star, the companies most disadvantaged by WWE’s national expansion tried on many occasions to work together but you can imagine how a committee of Jim Crockett Jr., Verne Gagne and others would look. Something would always put gasoline on a fiery relationship and we would be back to square one.
The latest attempt saw the AWA as the AEW in this new alliance striking up alliances with World Class Championship Wrestling in Dallas and CWA and with Curt Henning, the AWA World Champion having the vultures of WWF preying around him, Verne Gagne made the call for Jerry to hold the AWA Title.
May 9th, 1988, was Jerry Lawler Day in Memphis, on a day that Lawler was challenging Hennig for the AWA belt. While Memphis did like doing heavy heel heat often, it would have been one hell of a heat moment to have Lawler lose in a title match with the extra stipulation of Lawler saying he’ll retire if he loses.
With Jackie Fargo as guest referee, the father figure in his life after his biological father passed away when he was a child, the guy to count 3 and his other father figure, the man who was linked with him all throughout his career, Lance Russell on the call, Lawler “finished his story” after a catapult into the corner.
Title defences in the Coliseum saw the King defend against the usual Memphis contingent including Bill Dundee and Dutch Mantell but also Ronnie Garvin, who was just out of JCP and Tatsumi Fujinami in a 35 minute match that I can’t find anywhere and is now one of those things I need to watch. As part of the rebel alliance with World Class to try and hold off the death star and its world domination plans, Kerry Von Erich came to the Coliseum and wrestled to a double count-out. At Kerry’s home turf of the Sportatorium, they went to a no-contest so the dispute between Tennessee's best and Texas’ best went to the third Superclash and a unification match between the AWA and WCWA World Champs.
Best known as the night Kerry accidentally bladed himself in the arm while going through the match with Jerry backstage because he was so out of it, the blood from the arm, something Lawler had to incorporate into the match was matched with Kerry’s crimson mask after running the blade (intentionally this time) with the finish of the match seeing Kerry have his Iron Claw on Lawler but the referee stop the match due to Kerry’s excessive blood loss whilst the Claw was applied giving The King the win and both titles.
Yeah, I know.
Lawler’s time as the joint AWA/WCWA Champion would only last 38 days after a falling out with Verne Gagne over the fact that Jerry wasn't paid for Superclash III. On Memphis’ Saturday morning show, Lawler was presented with a Unified World Title (with a really good explanation of what's happening with Jerry saying he'd return the AWA and WCWA belts to their promotions so they could have their champions) against the wishes of Verne.
Up til the calendar turning to 1989, Lawler had won a “major” singles title on 61 occasions in a scene where multiple belts had come into the territory but the belt most famously associated with Jerry was the Southern Heavyweight Title which was held times 52 times by Jerry for a combined amount of time of 2,060 days for an average of 39 days.
Any hopes that a newly formed prestigious Unified Title would see a change of philosophy from what I mentioned earlier in this bio were gone when Lawler’s title win on January 8th, 1990, was the start of the fourth reign after one calendar year.
Lawler was now a heel and would enter the summer of ‘90 in a racially charged feud with The Snowman, an African-American wrestler that had fame in the mid-80s in Mid South which because Tennessee, turned Lawler face.
1992 saw the second of three Observer Feud of the Year awards for Lawler where Jerry teamed with Jeff Jarrett against The Moondogs in a feud that broke Memphis out of a big slump that it had suffered for almost two years. Memphis was the final territory standing. Don Owen and Portland had closed up in July 1992 leaving Memphis as the last city standing in the territorial system but with the landscape looking bleak for Memphis Wrestling, Lawler made the decision to go to WWF, a promotion he had taken shots at in promos on the Saturday morning show, the company he tried to sue when they started promoting the King of the Ring house show event in 1986, the company that was trying to take food from his table. Lawler was able to keep the opportunity to wrestle in the company he had been the face of since the mid-70s, now known as USWA, as part of the deal.
The shock of Lawler joining the WWF to the fans was equalled by the annoyance of those who had felt slighted by things that happened in Memphis. When Lawler made an appearance in the Royal Rumble match it was sans crown (or robe in matter of fact). The reason due to legend is that somebody (the 4/6 favourite on this is Curt Hennig) decided to relieve themselves of the food they had eaten earlier in the day, into the crown.
Vince McMahon had to tell the boys to not do anything like that again so he could get a locker room that was harmonious. Lawler would be part of WWF television in a commentary role on Superstars. But in the ring, nothing of note would happen until King of the Ring ‘93
Bret Hart had won the one-night 8-man single elimination tournament by beating Razor Ramon, Mr. Perfect and finally Bam Bam Bigelow in the final. As the ceremony took place. Jerry Lawler interrupted the festivities, claiming that there's only one king in the WWF and that was him. Bret used the “Burger King” line (never got a sponsorship out of it) and the PPV ended with Jerry attacking Bret with his own sceptre and turning the throne onto Bret.
It led to a feud that happened not only on WWF TV but USWA as well with the face/heel roles being reversed in USWA. Playing a heel in Memphis was something Bret and Owen (who joined him in Tennessee) enjoyed immensely.
The gate would be opened for a WWE/USWA crossover to happen with Giant Gonzales, Tatanka (with a racism happening with the Lawler/Tatanka clash being named End of the Trail) and Randy Savage coming back to Memphis to resurrect a feud the pair had in the 80s as well as the Hart Brothers but the most notable WWF name to arrive to the Mid-South was Vince McMahon.
McMemphis (as the tape traders call it) is on YouTube in its glory in a playlist. It starts with a really good King's Court segment with McMahon where it's recorded in Boston and starts out being acted out for the Bostonians but then switches to being a USWA segment ever so subtly with the live crowd catching on.
Of course, you get the wackiness of Memphis at times in this playlist but its various Vince promos being sent in from Stamford with Vince as the heel owner of the big time company turning to screw around with Lawler and have his WWF wrestlers take the Unified Title make this captivating TV, even though the man from Stamford is one of the most repulsive people on earth.
Segments like the “Surprise, Surprise” promo and the one where Vince wears the Unified Title are hints of what was to come from 1998 onwards, when McMahon would bring this rich heel character to the big time. The summer of Vince which saw an appearance in the Mid-South Coliseum as a guest at a Lawler title defense was the only time Vince got to appear in the Memphis Mecca of wrestling as a potential match talked about between Lawler and McMahon fell through.
It was more likely that this was Vince getting to play the heel wrestler he had always dreamed of playing as a teenager but was barred from doing by his father than any intentional test run of what was to come but McMemphis is a fascinating look at something that happened before it ended up being mainstream (again, that is if you can tolerate watching a couple of sexual abusers on your screen for an hour.)
In the WWF, the Hart/Lawler feud saw the pair supposed to wrestle at SummerSlam but Lawler (in kayfabe) said he had a car crash and while on crutches claimed that he was unable to compete. His replacement Doink (the Matt Borne version) would wrestle Bret in what was maybe the best match of the show in which Jerry Lawler caused a DQ by hitting Bret with his crutch.
The plan to hobble Bret backfired as Jerry was forced to wrestle Bret right there and then and Bret quickly won but in a red mist moment just wouldn't let go. The resulting reversal of result saw Jerry now won via DQ and was a way to make the fans wait to see Lawler get his comeuppance
That comeuppance would have to wait though as Jerry would be in legal trouble as a pair of teenagers accused Lawler of rape and sodomy. The teenagers were in the first year of their teen years when Lawler was alleged to do what he did.
The alleged act itself is so disgusting that I’m not go to describe it (I’d recommend David Bixenspan’s Deadspin article on the case for further reading and the Wrestle Me clip on YouTube for a verbal explanation of the case) but Lawler would end up having the charges dismissed and would plead guilty to harassment of a witness. Lawler was alleged to have rang the mother of one of the teenagers and told her if she believed that her daughter had been violated that she should talk to his lawyer and not the police because the police wanted to make a name for themselves. Lawler also wrote a letter to prosecutors with claims about the victims accusing them of being promiscuous, smokers and having been suspended from school several times.
When you read further into this story, you realise that jokes about Jerry being into younger women are more sinister than a simple punchline.
While Lawler was trying to dodge conviction, WWE took him off television with Shawn Michaels replacing Lawler in a Survivor Series match with four of the Hart Brothers facing Jerry and three masked wrestlers called his knights. Lawler would be back for WrestleMania X and be on the commentary desk, a place he would spend more time than the squared circle.
Lawler’s in-ring in 1994 was limited to occasional appearances such as the really bad Roddy Piper match at King of the Ring 1994 and the even worse Survivor Series match which saw Lawler and Doink captain teams that had little people as their teammates. A minis match in AAA in the mid 90s this wasn't.
The resumption of the Bret Hart feud would happen in 1995 with Lawler beating Bret at the first In Your House that led to a King of the Ring match, which would have a forfeit of the loser having to kiss the feet of the winner.
The KOTR of 1995 is one of the worst PPVs ever. The fact that the only two enjoyable moments of the night are Bob Holly vs The Roadie and Jerry Lawler having to kiss his own feet (after kissing Bret’s) tells you a) what a despicable waste of time this PPV was and b) makes me wonder if I have something in common with Tony Atlas.
1996 saw Jerry in a feud with Jake Roberts which comprised of Lawler reminding Jake that he was an alcoholic because apparently in a company booked by Vince McMahon wrestlers that are addicts must be reminded that are they indeed addicts (the Jeff Hardy vs Sheamus feud and Eddie Guerrero doing a segment in a bar only a few weeks after being back in WWE after a stint in rehab come to mind) Jerry was also in a feud with The Ultimate Warrior which saw a KOTR match where Lawler would make fun of someone with Down's Syndrome while “roasting” the crowd.
As the Attitude Era would come to fruition, Jerry Lawler was now firmly entrenched as one of the voices of WWE sitting next to Jim Ross. Now that we've all grown up and can look at the Attitude Era and the New Generation one before it, we can all firmly say that Jerry Lawler is a garbage commentator right?
Even compared to an uninterested and phoning it in Bobby Heenan, Jerry was still the drizzling shits as a commentator. Jerry never tried to get anyone over. While a few lines and moments broke through in my subconscious, overall there is no performance that is seen is revolutionary. (Even the Ironman match commentary of Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels which I remember liking decades ago doesn't feel that great now.) While Bobby Heenan, even in his most heelish in WWE, was trying to get faces over and Jesse Ventura – the first heel commentator on the national stage – did the same. The biggest exposure of how poor Jerry Lawler was as a commentator was the Hardyz vs. Edge and Christian Ladder Match at No Mercy in which Lawler spent the whole match talking about Terri Runnels with more or less his hands down his pants.
Lawler’s character while announcing was that of a horny old dog who sounded like he was humping something rather than concentrating on the wrestling going on so that made Jerry perfect for a feud with Right To Censor. The story was that Lawler wanted The Kat (Stacy Carter, the real life wife of Jerry Lawler) to have the "right" to be naked onscreen, while RTC (a parody of the PTC group that WWF were in conflict with) didn't.
The No Way Out 2001 match between Lawler and Steven Richards which was a forfeit match which saw Lawler lose and Kat become a member of RTC but the following angle wouldn't last long after the PPV as Stacy Carter was released and in a show of protest, Lawler left the company.
Lawler would be back 9 months later, probably regretting his decision after Stacy cheated on him and asked for a divorce. (Lawler comes off really badly in his own book when describing the day Stacy asked for the divorce.) But the upgrade from Lawler to Paul Heyman, his replacement, was obvious in the time Paul was on the desk.
Heyman got people over, antagonised Jim Ross to the point that JR didn't rest on his own coattails like he would sometimes do away from the main event. (The moment when, during a Steve Austin in the Alliance title defence, where Heyman said Austin was more of an American hero than John Wayne, and Ross's reaction – which I think was a shoot – is better than anything Lawler did in his times in commentary.) There's a case to be made that Affliction-T-shirt Lawler from 2007-ish where he was phoning it in was better than King costume Lawler on commentary for the simple fact that Lawler wasn't trying to be funny.
Lawler would continue to wrestle during the 00’s on the independent circuit while commentating on RAW, mostly in Memphis, occasionally wrestling on RAW mostly to defend Jim Ross's honour, but his most prolific run in WWE would be in 2011 and interactions with another announcer.
Michael Cole would replace JR as the RAW announcer after a Draft Lottery swap on an episode of RAW in 2008 in scenes in which neither Cole or Ross were told beforehand so reactions from the pair could be authentic. JR’s pissed-offness was probably only beaten by that day two years earlier when Boise State beat Oklahoma in the Fiesta Bowl.
Lawler got stuck on RAW with Cole and while their chemistry was better than what it was on SmackDown in the first 17 months of the show, it was still a meh listening experience. In fact it was more fun listening to the pair after Michael Cole turned heel.
If you are 23 or under, those last few words might have turned your head quicker than finding out that Eddie Howe had left Newcastle United. But yes, Michael Cole played a heel commentator and it was really random.
Cole just irrationally disliked Daniel(son) Bryan on NXT: The Gameshow Era and then he started to support The Miz on commentary and then when Miz became World Champion, Cole became such a cheerleader that he cost Lawler the World Title in a TLC Match against The Miz (CM Punk through a chain of events actually did the play-by-play on that moment) This led to the Lawler-Cole feud.
Played up as the first time Lawler would get to wrestle on a WrestleMania show, the brain trust in WWE decided to change Lawler's music from the royal music he had associated with him for decades to something jollier and in the end shitter. The match itself was very bad. It always was going to be not good considering Cole isn't a wrestler but at 13 minutes, it felt like 14 minutes too long. The video of this match on WWE’s YouTube page is 28 minutes (and that's not accounting for the ads that play every 3 mins on videos on a WWE YouTube channel.)
Lawler would carry on wrestling throughout the next year in conjunction with his announcing, getting into a short feud with CM Punk with a match on the 10th of September seeing Lawler tag against Randy Orton and Punk with Dolph Ziggler. A spot in the match saw Ziggler hit his repeated elbows to a prone opponent, with Lawler on the mat on this occasion. The spot went as planned. The match with Lawler and Orton winning went as planned but as Daniel Bryan and Kane wrestled The Prime Time Players team of Darren Young and Titus O’Neill something was going very wrong.
As the match was going on, Lawler began to snore. The easy joke to make is that it was a Prime Time Players match but it was plain to see that the snoring wasn't a joke. Lawler had turned blue. He was having a heart attack. Doc Sampson (who you might recognize from Bryan Danielson’s 2024) was on the scene immediately having been staked at ringside as per the norm. Had he got to Lawler 20-30 seconds later, he would have died. He was clinically dead for 20 minutes but in a miracle, Jerry Lawler lived.
He would actually still wrestle continuing a streak of wrestling every year from his first in 1972. Only a stroke in 2018, the first of three in the next seven years would break the streak.
He makes appearances on the convention circuit but the chances of seeing him on wrestling television again are in the single digits percentagewise.
So what is the legacy of Jerry Lawler? He's one of the finest exponents of the “morality tale” style of wrestling that has ever lived in my opinion, which is ironic don’t you think considering that in his real life, he engaged in unforgivable behavior that shouldn't be forgotten.
Yes they're many many better workers than Jerry in my opinion but not many were better at getting you to believe like Jerry “The King” Lawler was.
The Mid-South Coliseum every Monday night would be there for Lawler. Most of the time to cheer him, sometimes to boo him and every Saturday morning, people tuned in to see him talk to them in the way that only Jerry could.
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