Breaking Jerry Lawler suffers legit heart attack on Raw

[Christian Faith]

I've not seen any other threads on this.

Jerry Lawler suffered a heart attack whilst calling Raw last night. This is not part of any storyline.

Get well soon Jerry.

 

[Harthan]

Wow. Yikes. That is just so crazy. I can't believe that happened on live television.

Obviously, the first order of business is hope for Lawler's health and well being. The most important thing is that he comes out okay and can enjoy a long life and a family from here on out. From there, we obviously all hope he can make his return to the WWE in some capacity. It's so soon that I don't even know if it's possible, but what a moment it would be for Lawler and JR to reunite on the October 1st "honoring" of JR. At any rate, if and when Lawler beats this thing, I know that his return to Raw is going to be an all time great moment and I can't wait for it and wish him the best.

If we want to talk details now, I guess things get a little reshuffled and maybe Striker does color for Raw now. There's obviously the big rumor going around about VKM dropping Booker and AJ as GMs and Booker get either return to the booth or we can continue the experiment and let AJ call some matches. Or, of course...why not JR? JR was practically doing color already the last time he was doing regular commentary, and after tonight's events, I don't think anyone will ever, in good conscience, be able to boo Cole again, so a Cole/JR pairing could really work out.

Still, that's not what matters right now, of course, but it's obviously the conversation that needs to be had at some point.

 

[Mr. HD]

I heard and read about this a couple hours ago. Been praying for The King ever since. From what I heard, he was "clinically dead" for 20 minutes, but he was brought back to life with the defibrillator. He's breathing on his own and he's responsive, so thank god he's ok.

I rewatched RAW on Youtube and during the Kane/Bryan vs PTP match, you could hear him breathing heavy, almost like snoring and then he was quiet. A camera showed him hunched over in his chair.

Growing up in the Attitude Era, I loved King and JR on commentary. I grew up with those guys. It'd be absolutely devastating if the King were to go.

Get better soon King. We'll watch over the "puppies" until you get back.

 

[Harthan]

So, I'm not a doctor, but I'm pretty sure "20 minutes" of clinical death with full recovery is impossible. I'm not saying that a person can't live in that scenario, but I feel as though they would be in a coma and severely brain damaged afterwards. I'm going to hope that this is a mistake - this is second hand information from gentlemen who I do not believe have extensive medical experience, and neither of whom are closely connected to the situation. Lawler's girlfriend, meanwhile, has made no mention of this and while she has not specifically discussed brain damage, she made no mention of it and seemed rather optimistic, focusing only on his heart and breathing.

 

[ITALIAN NYC]

Either way, it is a safe bet to say the King will never been at that table full time again.

I went on youtube and watch the videos of it again, and seeing him fall, with his breathing messed up and basically hearing him make snoring sounds on the air was disturbing. Same as watching a fan video of them taking him out. He was surrounded by about 15 people. The EMT took care of him and SAVED HIS LIFE tonight.

When I heard nothing but silence, I was expecting the worst. It reminded me of Owen Hart. Just waiting for something to be said, and expecting bad news.

When Cole said they were doing CPR in the back, that really reminded me of over the limit. I was thinking in my head " Why would they still be in the arena, they need to get him to the hospital ASAP ". I knew his heart stopped at that moment. Thank God that this happened at Raw and not somewhere else, or he would have died tonight. I hope he is out the woods.

It was the most errie ending of raw I have seen. The silience was crazy.

He was just in a match and that happens. Crazy night for sure.

I also commend Cole so much tonight. I cant imagine how he must of felt or what he was going through. He was completely professional and hats off to that man.

 

[harrythem]

It's a really sad situation that happened with Jerry but, let's be a bit realistic, no matter how healthy a life a 62/63 year old man lives, going out there and wrestling to the standard he does (on Raw and the indies fairly regularly) is not going to have good results. The only good thing to come out of this is that he's going to make a recovery. If that means we don't see him behind the booth on Raw again (and def not in the ring) then I can live with that. He's getting on in years, he should be at home wearing himself out with his young lady friend (lucky old bugger in that respect).

Can't imagine how the guys in the ring felt when it happened, especially Kane. He was there when Owen dropped and, although in completely different circumstances, it must've been a really horrible reminder that real life can creep into this male soap opera from time to time.

Also makes Ric Flair's promise to "die in the ring" seem more like a vow then a line from a promo.

Either way, here's hoping the King can at least come back for a promo segment to say thanks/goodbye to the WWE fans. He's a trooper and deserves at least one more massive pop.

 

[Mr. HD]

So, I'm not a doctor, but I'm pretty sure "20 minutes" of clinical death with full recovery is impossible. I'm not saying that a person can't live in that scenario, but I feel as though they would be in a coma and severely brain damaged afterwards. I'm going to hope that this is a mistake - this is second hand information from gentlemen who I do not believe have extensive medical experience, and neither of whom are closely connected to the situation. Lawler's girlfriend, meanwhile, has made no mention of this and while she has not specifically discussed brain damage, she made no mention of it and seemed rather optimistic, focusing only on his heart and breathing.

Yeah that's true. I don't know how all the medical stuff works, but that did sound a bit weird. I guess I was so happy to hear some good news of him breathing and his heart beating on his own, that I got too optimistic.

I guess we'll hear more in the morning. Him going through a Cat-scan is a good thing, right?

 

[rge2010]

Sad news, I hoipe he pulls through. From what I gather it is looking better for King.


Also, I am shocked there was no thread on this earlier. And as I type this 'hours after' there is still only 5 replies. This place is dieing a death, Mods need to relax their 'banning fingers'.

 

[ITALIAN NYC]

Yeah that's true. I don't know how all the medical stuff works, but that did sound a bit weird. I guess I was so happy to hear some good news of him breathing and his heart beating on his own, that I got too optimistic.

I guess we'll hear more in the morning. Him going through a Cat-scan is a good thing, right?

CT scans can be used to diagnose heart disease. Probably were going to check for that. My first thought when I heard CT scan was that he was going to get a brain scan to see if he had a stroke.

 

[ITALIAN NYC]

Personally I also dont understand what really happened.

If they were giving him CPR and had to shock him, then his heart stopped completely. Your heart does not stop during a heart attack.

So he basically had a heart attack that brought him into cardiac arrest.

The survival rate of people who receive initial emergency care by ambulance is only 2%, with 15% experiencing return of spontaneous circulation.[43] However, with defibrulation within 3-5 minutes, the survival rate increases to 30. I also know your brain cells start to die after 2 minutes without oxygen. I really hope everything turns out right for him.

God was on his side tonight

 

[Peaky1969]

Wishing only good things for Jerry, wrestling is nothing compared to somebody having that happen to them.

You know what really annoys the piss out of me, people? Go and check some of the comments that were posted, as the news of what happened to Jerry. It goes to show what real low life scumbags we have on this site. "Lawler sucks anyways, they need new commentary" etc etc....unfortunately, the view of the general public, of wrestling fans, is probably framed by pieces of shit like this...I know a lot of people who know nothing of "wrestling", and don't care too, the main thing that a lot of people think is that were are loud, rude, obnoxious slobs etc....for all the good that I've read tonight, regarding well wishes for The King, there are enough shitty comments, that it truly makes me sad to say that I am a "wrestling fan".....

Major props to Michael Cole tonight...a true professional in every sense of the word....man will never be booed again (as an earlier posted said)

 

[PRMETFAN]

Hopefully he will make a full recovery however i must say that i also hope that this serves as a wake up call to both the Wwe and Jerry Lawler himself that it is unsafe for a 62 yr old to wrestle.

He has been doing it for years and not only is is bad wrestling seeing a old man wrestle is it also irresponsible.

I was cringing earlier when Lawler was put on as an option for people to vote to have a match against Cm Punk since these votes are mostly rigged i was hoping for not another Lawler match. Never the less he still got involved and was in the match with Orton vs Punk and Ziggler a short while latter he had the incident.

The Wwe needs to use more basic common sense, even if it was him asking for ringtime they should had said no. The "E" thinks they need to put him on in order to take up time esp now since it has 3 hours to fill instead of giving younger wrestlers more air time that's the defective way wwe thinks but that's another story.

I read that he also wrestles in the indies some time wtf Jerry stop wearing T-shirts made for teenagers and start acting your age. Get well soon.

 

[matman8540]

I remember watching The King from back in the 70s; when I was living in Florida. He made a few appearances on Championship Wrestling from Florida, and on Georgia Championship Wrestling. He said one of my favorite lines ever, "Who is your favorite wrestler, and why am I?" to Gordon Solie; and got in a mini-feud with Bob Roop. Then I moved to Kentucky in 1981 (courtesy of the US Army), and got to see him every Saturday afternoon from Memphis. I even got to go to the matches at the Louisville Gardens to watch him in a scaffold match against a member of Jimmy Hart's First Family, Koko Ware. Shortly thereafter came his national recognition with Andy Kauffman. But enough of my memories; here's praying that The King will have a much longer reign before he has to face The Macho Man (or Mr Perfect) in the heavenly main event.

 

[Peaky1969]

I agree with you. Unfortunately, a lot of the older guys, most of them anyways, think they can still "go". Some of them can, but, the question is, should they be allowed to? It was only a couple of years ago, remember Ricky Steamboat had the major health issue, and was hospitalized with a serious condition. It was only a day or something after he was "attacked" by Nexus, from memory. What happened to him, wasn't caused by that, but, for heaven's sake, can't we find something for these guys to do, other than be in the ring? Jerry has been very actively lately, how would this have been, had it occured in the ring? Guys of his age, I don't think we need to see, nobody needs to see Flair etc in a ring anymore, no matter what company you are a fan of, there is enough young talent to use....

 

[ttdg]

So, I'm not a doctor, but I'm pretty sure "20 minutes" of clinical death with full recovery is impossible. I'm not saying that a person can't live in that scenario, but I feel as though they would be in a coma and severely brain damaged afterwards. I'm going to hope that this is a mistake - this is second hand information from gentlemen who I do not believe have extensive medical experience, and neither of whom are closely connected to the situation. Lawler's girlfriend, meanwhile, has made no mention of this and while she has not specifically discussed brain damage, she made no mention of it and seemed rather optimistic, focusing only on his heart and breathing.

According to Wikipedia "Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) is an emergency procedure which is performed in an effort to manually preserve intact brain function until further measures are taken to restore spontaneous blood circulation and breathing in a person in cardiac arrest."

By performing CPR they actually kept his heart beating and his body getting oxygen manually. That of course doesn't mean that he will come out of this undamaged, but the medics at the arena and the EMTs probably did a hell of a job to bring him back. As for him wrestling at his age, he doesn't perform any high risk offense or take very many, if any, hard bumps so for him it would be mostly cardio exercise and not bad for his health.

 

[rge2010]

Hopefully he will make a full recovery however i must say that i also hope that this serves as a wake up call to both the Wwe and Jerry Lawler himself that it is unsafe for a 62 yr old to wrestle.

He has been doing it for years and not only is is bad wrestling seeing a old man wrestle is it also irresponsible.

I was cringing earlier when Lawler was put on as an option for people to vote to have a match against Cm Punk since these votes are mostly rigged i was hoping for not another Lawler match. Never the less he still got involved and was in the match with Orton vs Punk and Ziggler a short while latter he had the incident.

The Wwe needs to use more basic common sense, even if it was him asking for ringtime they should had said no. The "E" thinks they need to put him on in order to take up time esp now since it has 3 hours to fill instead of giving younger wrestlers more air time that's the defective way wwe thinks but that's another story.

I read that he also wrestles in the indies some time wtf Jerry stop wearing T-shirts made for teenagers and start acting your age. Get well soon.

This is ridicilous. If Jerry can manage to wrestle in the indies then why cant he wrestle in WWE? Has Jerry had any health issues in the past? I dont think so. Yes, maybe a wake up call for Jerry and WWE but there is nobody to blame here, its an unfortunate incident.

There are lots of 'old timers' who can still wrestle - Flair, Hogan, Vince to name just 3.

 

[BaraaTZK92]

It sounds really weird..... In the first segment of Raw Cm Punk looked at Jerry and asked him if he is alright.

Its a really strange coincidence.

I just hpe they don't use what happened to Jerry to drive more heat against Punk , like Punk coming out next week and saying that Jerry deserved what happen to him.

 

[PRMETFAN]

This is ridicilous. If Jerry can manage to wrestle in the indies then why cant he wrestle in WWE? Has Jerry had any health issues in the past? I dont think so. Yes, maybe a wake up call for Jerry and WWE but there is nobody to blame here, its an unfortunate incident.

There are lots of 'old timers' who can still wrestle - Flair, Hogan, Vince to name just 3.

Are you kidding me? Ridiculous?? really?? No man in his 60's should be wrestling in the indies or wwe or Tna. Sure they can exercise all they want and stay in shape that's great but not do anything strenuous activities that is just asking for a heart attack to happen. Do you see any 60 yr olds playing football or basketball or soccer? No because it is unsafe.People don't need to have health issues for them to realize that they need to slow down,sometimes its the first health issue that kills you as per this very example. Ric Flair is 63 now and he wasn't having matches in TNA except for the rare occasion and even that might be considered pushing it and he won't be having matches in Wwe unless they do not learn from this. Hogan is 59 yrs he can barely hold a bat and hit people with it he is done.

 

[slothmister]

I just hpe they don't use what happened to Jerry to drive more heat against Punk , like Punk coming out next week and saying that Jerry deserved what happen to him.

I think this is a seriously important statement. I was reading the other posts above and someone mentioned Cole not getting any heat due to his instant and obviously true reaction, and I think the above statement applies to Cole too.

The WWE has really pushed the limits recently in having people like Punk and Cole making fun of other wrestlers familly members who are ill, but I hope they dont do it with Jerry.

I also think we should give a massive thank you to those superstars who had to perform after (and during!) Jerry was rushed off. Afterall, the show must go on! It reminds me of the Smackdown taping just after the 911 attacks, the WWE was the first major show afterwards. The show must go on.

I hope Jerry pulls through and is able to return as commentator when he is ready.

 

[CyberPunk]

I just read about Jerry's condition. It's unfortunate and here's hoping that he comes out of it soon. My thoughts are with Lawler.

I just hope and as someone said earlier, they should not drag this in the CM Punk storyline. That would be very disrespectful.

 

[Vampira]

First, I admit, I started crying. The king is amazing. I've always liked him. I really hope he pulls through this and makes a full recovery.

 

[kenvin100]

First off, Prayers for Lawler.

As of today, I've officially become a Cole-Miner. Give massive credit to Michael Cole for maintaining his composure during and after the incident. I really don't think anyone would've handled the situation better than Cole.

I'm sure many in the back were having Owen type memories on Raw, due to the severity of the situation. I think we're all thankful of the great work of EMTs and personnal who save the King's life.

Long live the King.

I'm thankful this didn't happen while he was wrestling. Which makes me wonder, if WWE should start having emergency personnel situated more closer to the ring.

 

[Uncle Sam]

Regarding Lawler being "clinically dead for twenty minutes", as someone in the WrestleZone comments section pointed out - and that's always a wealth of knowledge - footballer Fabrice Muamba recently suffered cardiac arrest and was clinically dead for nearly eighty minutes and has since fully recovered.

This is also an interesting point:

According to Wikipedia "Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) is an emergency procedure which is performed in an effort to manually preserve intact brain function until further measures are taken to restore spontaneous blood circulation and breathing in a person in cardiac arrest."

By performing CPR they actually kept his heart beating and his body getting oxygen manually. That of course doesn't mean that he will come out of this undamaged, but the medics at the arena and the EMTs probably did a hell of a job to bring him back.

I know I often take the piss out of King for the, uh, "less savoury" rumours surrounding him, but I found this genuinely quite upsetting and I hope he makes a full and swift recovery.

 

[yur_momma]

what a horrible thing to happen. i wondered what bret was thinking about the show continuing after saying over the edge should have been stopped when owen died. take your time and get well Jerry, that chair will always be yours.

 

[THTRobtaylor]

Muamba's career was over, but other than that he is ok... He was also 23 and super fit before the attack however, Jerry is a lot older, so it will be doubly hard to come back from.

I met Jerry when I was at Uni in Memphis (I am British) He was a real gentleman to me and I am really sad this has happened. Get well soon!