It didn't take long for WWE to mock Lawler.

[Artemis Paradox]

Everyone knew this was going to be the result of Lawler's return. "Offensive" things happen as a result of such "tragedies." It's the wrestling business. It's what's gone on for the longest time.
Hell, this was probably Jerry's idea anyway- he wants to help build heat for heels, so he goes for it. Does it not make sense? He's well and alive, so there's really no need not to do so. The wrestling business is just that- business, and if such things produce business, then do it. End of story.

[ilapierre]

Mr. Raisin: This is pretty much where I stand on Monday's RAW and the heart attack mockery.

Mark Madden:

"Monday’s Raw was PUTRID, shocking in its abject lack of quality and interesting moments. Raw was EXCREMENT." And. "I was co-host of Nitro during the show’s worst period. I look back at those Nitros and know they were better than Monday’s Raw. Than most episodes of Raw. Nothing done on Raw truly engages the viewer. It’s all fast-food wrestling. Sadly disposable."

Steve Austin:

"I believe in pushing the envelope in an aggressive fashion. But when a guy damn near dies at ringside, let it go. You look at all the contributions Jerry Lawler has made in this business: from a work standpoint, a promo standpoint and then as a broadcaster. I think that's pushing the envelope in the wrong direction. There's better ways to go get real heat than that."

Chris Jericho:

"I think it was pretty obvious, don’t you? I kind of expected it. Punk’s promo was awesome. It’s wrestling so you knew it would end up as an angle sooner or later. I got the same complaints when I did the alcoholic angle (earlier this year with CM Punk). It would be like being mad at "Breaking Bad" because the dad was a drug addict or something. It’s just a TV show, after all."

Lance Storm:

"Thought it was poor. Both he and Punk are capable to get real heat, no need to sink so low. Also thought it was out of character for Punk so it hurt. Punk is about Best in World and himself. Why bother joking about heart attack it goes nowhere. Interruption was okay and in character. Fake heart attack was cheap and pointless."

El Terrible: I like your example of Owen bragging about breaking Austin's neck after it was clear Austin would recover. That is very similar to this. Where I think it's a bit different though is that Owen used jabs to get over as a heel like Punk did initially so well with Lawler. Owen didn't fall to the canvas and fake a broken neck. Had he done so and successfully conveyed it in a way to engage the audience then that would be a great heel move. But I argue that faking such a severe injury wouldn't translate well with the audience unless Austin or someone came out immediately for retribution.

Composition4: This thread is 12 pages because I've wrote about 6 essays. Without me, this thread is no longer than 6 pages. So it doesn't prove that 'everyone did their job well Monday night.' It doesn't prove that SO many people hate Punk and Heyman now. It just proves there are longwinded assholes like myself out there who'll argue till their blue in the face with a bunch of you who'd make way better asshole heels. lol..If you read my 6 pages of longwindedness or what Habshateforever or HaikuHogan or many other posters were saying, you'd understand most of us thought that the entire segment was lame and they simply gave their two cents worth. Labeling those of us who were against the heart attack mocking as 'riled up marks' is pure ignorance. To think Punk and Heyman generated any real heat than with children and El Terrible's fiance is like saying a guy like Heath Slater follows his really shitty script well week in and week out. Like Slater, Punk and Heyman did what they could with what they were given and told to do by the writers. Oh and I heavily doubt 'more' will be tuning in next week either. Possibly a slight bump from a 2.85 to a 2.855 rounded up to a 2.9 if they're lucky. Strong, logical storylines, not cheap, intelligence-offensive segments, are what will lead to more of us tuning in regularly. But that won't happen until Stephanie, Triple H and (especially) Vince stop interfering in writing duties.

Composition, you are partly right on one thing though. It's time for (some) kiddies (but more importantly adults with kid-like brains) to put up or shut up.

[I hate Cena]

The King would piledrive all you Nancies who think this angle is in "poor taste" and "classless".

GET A FUCKING LIFE. Do you think Lawler was classless and mocking neck injury victims during the Andy Kaufman angle?

He would probably laugh at all you wussies who are crying about this. He's in on the angle, he approves of it, and is probably in Vince's ear to make more must-see TV on the Road to Wrestlemania.

Again, get a life. If I were a WWE superstar, and died, I would want them to exploit it for ratings so that my buddies can earn a good livelihood. It's all entertainment, nothing more.

[DarkLordFett]

While the footage of King being worked on by medical responders was not easy to watch, I'm sure he ok'd the use of it. As to the cheap heat by Punk and Heyman, well, that's par for the course lately. Not just those two. From Vince on down, creative seems to be taking the cheap easy ways out. I thought them coming out was a bigger issue than the MI footage.

[THE Great GAMMA]

This is why the Attitude Era could never come back. Because every week there would be a 13 page long thread on the internet saying what happened was offensive.

Mark Madden “I was co-host of nitro during it worst period.” So what you were part of a bad show that no longer exists. WCW folded and the WWE is still around, so what’s your point? Your show sucked so bad that it got shut down. Dont even try and compare the product you were on to the current one, because your's is gone and theirs is still there.

I bet no one cared this much when Lawler poured whiskey down Jake Roberts (a reformed alcoholic at the time) throat. No one was outraged with Jericho and the WWE when he did his angle with Punk revolving around substance abuse. No one was outraged when Undertaker crucified people or attempted to violate a virgin (Stephanie McMahon....virgin....lol) in some sort of satanic ritual.
People need to stop putting their personal feelings about this segment into their argument.

You want to say that the angle was tastless?? There are more tasteless things on TV and at the movies than this.... Jersey Shore, Twilight, Sparticus, here comes honey boo boo, toddlers and tiaras. But i bet you or girlfriends love to watch that. A bunch of inbred fake tan wanna be guidos, a series that comes down to showing how stalking someone pays off and how weak minded a woman can be. A show where there is explicit violence sex and rape, and two shows exploiting kids..one of which is the lowest form of hick trash on tv. And you want to say Pro Wrestling is tasteless

If you are one of the folks complaining about this angle get off your moral high horse because chances are you let more offensive things go by in silence.

[Jmeeks]

I dont understand why everyone is so offended by wwe/vince taking advantage of the heart attack.
A. your not the one who sufferd the heart attack.
B. Jerry "king" Lawler probably came to vince with the idea and if he didnt dont you think there would be articles on this very site about jerry lawler being disgusted with how the wwe treated it!?

You complain about the wwe not being as it was in the attitude era days but honestly how can it when you have thousands of ppl complaining about a tiny segment to make cm punk generate massive heat!

Honestly if it disgusted you that much dont watch the program ffs randy orton said Eddie Guerrero is down in hell and Vicki understood it was just to get a heel heat, and she continues to work with the company today.

Just stop your bitching people cheers

[ilapierre]

Lots of trolls on here with very little to say and whining about posters who found the angle 'in poor taste' and 'classless'. I suppose that some adults and children who have been reduced to watching PG WWE for years and have been conditioned into believing it's real entertainment have a hard time distinguishing any real difference between something being mean-spirited and entertaining and just down right mean-spirited and tasteless. You don't need to be a rocket scientist to understand this. Just a human being with real human emotion and an IQ over 100.

Definition of tasteless: Lacking flavour. Not appetizing in appearance, aroma, or taste.
Definition of classless: Crass or boorish. Being beneath one's dignity.

A lot of you can only make sense of the 'Nancies' out there who were offended by the actions of WWE's two biggest heels in a segment that was intended to be offensive and generate heel hate. I'll give you pro-siders this, those types are annoying because a) mocking Lawler's heart attack was bound to happen and b) marks get emotionally riled up and lose sight of their objectivity. But they are the minority on the con-side. From what I've read on this thread anyway, many of us against it were against the way it was executed. When we use the words tasteless or classless, we are not angry marks but intelligent enough to understand the dictionary definition of the words we're all using in the English language. Heyman physically mocking the heart attack was 'tasteless' because it lacked flavour. It's tasteless like the Katie Vick storyline. It was suppose to have a certain effect and it completely missed the mark since it was unnecessary and of very little entertainment value. It drew more eye rolls than it did cheers or jeers. That's tasteless..not classless. They are two different things. There is a line where stuff goes from being classless to just unnecessary because it 'adds nothing' or doesn't 'spice up what's happening'. There are many classless, or crass or boorish, things mistakenly labeled as tasteless like DX doing the crotch chops (boorish) or Medusa dropping the WWE title into a garbage can (crass or below one's dignity. These things are only tasteless to whiners who hate it when most things aren't close to politically correct. Those people drive me, and obviously a lot of you, insane. What entertains me in this world is everything that's the opposite of classy. And RAW doesn't entertain me anymore because it's one of the most POLITICALLY CORRECT shows on TV. I'm like a lot of you, I want to see things crossing the line, I want to see some more classless behaviour and objectionable things. But there is a line drawn for most of us when it comes to death or disease or serious injury. For a lot of you it doesn't matter, it doesn't really for me either but some things need to be approached with proper tact. You know how people tell jokes at funerals? Heyman feigning a heart attack and WWE showing actual footage of saving Lawler's life backstage is like when lets say your Uncle Eddie does your dad's eulogy and goes too far or poorly executes a crass joke or story. Your dad's loved ones and Eddie's audience might all be a bunch of politically incorrect folk who love the politically incorrect shit coming out of Uncle Eddie's mouth. But if it's too far and not done or approached right then all you'll hear is crickets chirping and an awkward audience. They'd feel like the political incorrectness crossed the line and was now tasteless. Unappetizing. Classless stuff is a matter of individual opinion. What one finds classless depends on their own morality or how serious they take themselves. Tasteless stuff is more of a collective groan about something that just isn't prepared right. I find WWE's PG programming of the past 5 years tasteless because of how lame the product has become. This is not an individual complaint from me. Many fans stopped watching wrestling because the product is tasteless. They were hooked back when the product was classless in the Attitude Era. The product is tasteless because over the years, collectively, RAW's rating has dropped and reflected the fact that WWE's old fan base developed a taste aversion to it after ingesting this kind of crap for too long.

[Justinian]

I actually laughed when CM Punk came out and told Lawler he would have beaten him to death, maybe I am going to hell but it was funny. I am almost sure Lawler gave the ok for this to go forward.
Man I really wonder how people here would react if The Undertaker went around crucifying people on Raw again. Sheesh.

[Da Solo]

The angle on RAW with Punk and Lawler was cheap, offensive, nasty and downright disgusting, which is why it was brilliant. It made for compelling TV, which is exactly what we should want from Vinnie and Co. Sure, I cringed a bit when Heyman faked that heart attack, but thats what heels do. Trust me, if Lawler felt offended, he wouldn't have signed off on it, but he did, and his opinion is really the only one that matters in this situation.

[The Tay]

I know, let the comments begin.

Are you really that surprised ? WWE apparently has crossed the line with the segment involving CM Punk/Paul Heyman/Jerry Lawler. Fix your moral compass and decide what direction you want to go.I know some people have more delicate taste. I know some people have had heart attacks. I know some people lost or nearly lost a loved one to a heart attack. I respect and understand all of those situations. However, you're still watching an entertainment show and you have a remote that changes channels.

Jerry “The King” Lawler is old school, I'd expect him to come right back and want to contribute to the show in every way possible.He got his ovation. He got to say thank you and speak for a few minutes. I am not shocked at all he would want to use this emotional segment as a great catalyst to generate heat on the company's top heel six days before a pay-per-view.

here's no way of knowing for sure what Lawler was told and what was done on the fly. Don't know if he knew CM Punk and Paul Heyman were going to mock him having a heart attack. If I had to bet, I would think he was clued in, but with the organic and spontaneous nature of how wrestling creative comes together―anything is possible.Bottom line, he obviously knew Punk was scripted to come out and use the heart attack to get heat in some way. If he's okay with it, that should be a meter for you to control your anger.

Jerry Lawler was involved in one of the most elaborate worked feuds ever with comedian Andy Kaufman. He poked fun at Stu and Helen Hart being near death at all times when feuding with Bret Hart.

Let's not forget Lawler mocking and spitting whiskey in the face of Jake “The Snake” Roberts in 1996 per storyline as Roberts was attempting to remain sober in one of his life long battles with drinking.

Maybe if a national audience watched Roberts drink himself to near death they would feel more connected to the incident since they almost watched Lawler's final moments on national television. Nonetheless, CM Punk and Paul Heyman were being ruthless bad guys. We need that.

A common theme and complaint is a lack of talented bad guys. Characters that aren't watered down to the “PG” crowd. Some of the best programming for the context of good guys, bad guys and drama in wrestling is art imitating life. The blend of real life to television. Especially in this day and age of reality television and everybody knowing everything.

Matt Hardy gets fired after behind the scenes drama with his ex-girlfriend and Edge―use it. WWE brought Hardy back to great attention and he feuded with Edge.

Shawn Michaels and Bret Hart really didn't like each other for a while. We watched that play out in front of us for one of the most memorable feuds ever.

CM Punk was mad at WWE. We all loved watching that play out in front of us.

There would have been a bigger issue or outcry if Lawler hadn't yet fully recovered or if he wasn't even present in the building for the segment.

If they wanted Lawler to come back, smile, say thanks and sit down―it would have happened at the top of the show. They saved it for the turn of the hour, which is one of the first key segments they map out in the writers' meetings. This should have been your indication that something more was coming.

To those of you upset, all I can say is I'm sure you have some anger or dislike toward CM Punk and Paul Heyman―that's what your supposed to have. If you say you're not mad at them and you're mad at WWE for coming up with it then you're being too smart for the situation.

Again, Jerry Lawler is an old-school wrestling guy and remembers that the buzz of people talking leads to tickets sales, pay-per-view buys and success.

Long live the king.