It's...Baylariat!
Team Finnley Baylor
I could easily copy and paste some facts about Jerry Lawler in here. He has an extensive list of accolades, moments, and famous angles that could be listed, but I'm going to take a different angle. I want to inform some of the younger generation about a guy who may not have looked like the stereotypical wrestler. He wasn't blown up like Hulk Hogan. Wasn't tanned and blonde like Ric Flair and Tommy Rich. But he was one of the top draws in wrestling during his hey day. He OWNED the Memphis territory. Anyone that was the NWA Heavyweight Champ during that time came to Memphis and NEVER got a clean finish against Lawler. Not Flair, not Race, not Bockwinkel, not even Stan Hansen pulled off a clean win against Lawler in Memphis.
The bottom line is Jerry "The King" Lawler was awesome. He was mostly a face in Memphis. Believe that or not. His feuds with Austin Idol, Tommy Rich, and Superstar Bill Dundee were major angles in his territory and garnered national attention thanks to PWI and other wrestling magazines. His matches were usually bloody slug fests that typically ended with a piledriver.
Matter of fact, Lawler even gained national media attention by wrestling Andy Kauffman, who during that time was on one of the most popular sitcoms on TV, Taxi. Lawler piledriving Kauffman and smacking the living hell out of him on Late Night with David Letterman made national headlines. Lawler was portrayed as a tough guy pro wrestler who wanted to prove that wrestling may be scripted, but there was nothing fake about the in-ring contact.
It's a damn shame that the WWF turned him into a cartoon character of a king and ended up nearly killing his aura around old school wrestling circles. Do yourselves a favor and research some of his matches on YouTube. Because to me, Jerry Lawler isn't the bad commentator who yelled 'PUPPIES' every time he seen a pair of tits. He's the legit badass who delivered a stiff piledriver to his ex wife in the middle of a ring during a storyline. He's the dude that threw fire in Andy Kauffman's face. He's the guy that was nearly killed by a car driven by Eddie Gilbert, on TV.
He's the KING! He's Jerry Lawler. And he was...at one time... a bad ass.
The bottom line is Jerry "The King" Lawler was awesome. He was mostly a face in Memphis. Believe that or not. His feuds with Austin Idol, Tommy Rich, and Superstar Bill Dundee were major angles in his territory and garnered national attention thanks to PWI and other wrestling magazines. His matches were usually bloody slug fests that typically ended with a piledriver.
Matter of fact, Lawler even gained national media attention by wrestling Andy Kauffman, who during that time was on one of the most popular sitcoms on TV, Taxi. Lawler piledriving Kauffman and smacking the living hell out of him on Late Night with David Letterman made national headlines. Lawler was portrayed as a tough guy pro wrestler who wanted to prove that wrestling may be scripted, but there was nothing fake about the in-ring contact.
It's a damn shame that the WWF turned him into a cartoon character of a king and ended up nearly killing his aura around old school wrestling circles. Do yourselves a favor and research some of his matches on YouTube. Because to me, Jerry Lawler isn't the bad commentator who yelled 'PUPPIES' every time he seen a pair of tits. He's the legit badass who delivered a stiff piledriver to his ex wife in the middle of a ring during a storyline. He's the dude that threw fire in Andy Kauffman's face. He's the guy that was nearly killed by a car driven by Eddie Gilbert, on TV.
He's the KING! He's Jerry Lawler. And he was...at one time... a bad ass.