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| “ | I'm not a racist like Bret Hart, I hate everyone equally! | „ |
| ~ Jerry Lawler |
Jerry O'Neil Lawler often referred to as "The King", is a professional wrestler and commentator for the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) and subsequently the WWE. While with the company he was a heel for most of his onscreen early career. As a villain, he and any co-commentator were often at odds as Lawler would root for dirty tactics and support other villainous wrestlers. His greatest foe turned friend would be Jim Ross who would become more involved with the evil Vince McMahon.
Biography[]
The two made an agreement in which Lawler would give Griffith free publicity in exchange for free wrestling training. Lawler debuted as a wrestler in 1970 and won his first championship in September 1971 by winning a battle royal. At the time, Kaufman wrestled women as part of his skits and had declared himself the Intergender Heavyweight Champion. On April 5, Lawler, who had taken exception to the skits, wrestled Kaufman in Memphis. During the course of the match, Lawler delivered two piledrivers to his opponent, sending him to the hospital. On July 29, Lawler slapped Kaufman in the face on an episode of Late Night with David Letterman. Kaufman responded by throwing his coffee on Lawler.
History[]
Hart faced Lawler's "court jester", Doink the Clown instead, and beat him by submission. Lawler then attacked Hart, revealing that he was not injured at all. Hart defeated Lawler by submission but refused to release the Sharpshooter, his finishing move. As a result, the referee reversed the decision and awarded the title of "Undisputed King of the World Wrestling Federation" to Lawler. Lawler did not face Bret Hart at another pay-per-view until the first In Your House when he beat Hart after Hakushi and his manager Shinja interfered. This set up a "Kiss My Foot" match at King of the Ring 1995, which Bret won. As a result, Lawler was forced to kiss Bret's feet. The feud took one final turn when Lawler introduced his "dentist" Isaac Yankem, D.D.S. Hart would go on to defeat Yankem by disqualification, however, the feud quickly disappeared.
During the main event of Wrestlemania X, "Rowdy" Roddy Piper served as a special guest referee for the second WWF World Heavyweight Championship match. During this, Lawler began making disparaging and vituperative remarks about him. Lawler would continue to berate Piper on later episodes of Monday Night Raw, including bringing a skinny kid into the ring dressed as Piper and forcing him to kiss his feet. This ultimately led to a match between the two at King of the Ring 1994 which Lawler also lost.
Lawler initiated a feud with Doink the Clown, his former ally. Lawler popped the balloons carried by Doink's midget sidekick, Dink the Clown. Lawler introduced a midget sidekick of his own, who he named Queasy. IDoink added two more sidekicks while Lawler introduced Sleazy and Cheesy. After the match, however, Lawler's team turned on him, joining with Doink's team to attack Lawler.
In interviews and commentary, he referred to the promotion as "Extremely Crappy Wrestling." His frequent insults toward ECW eventually led to the promotion "invading" Monday Night Raw in February 1997 and ultimately to a match with ECW wrestler Tommy Dreamer at ECW's Hardcore Heaven pay-per-view in August, which Dreamer won.
By the fall, the WWF introduced a new "light-heavyweight division" to compete with World Championship Wrestling's cruiserweight division. Lawler's son, Brian Christopher, was one of the major superstars in the division, although the WWF played up an angle where both Lawler and Christopher would deny their family relationship, even though the two would aide each other in matches.
This created tension between the Raw and SmackDown! announce teams, as Tazz, an ECW alumnus insulted and criticized Jim Ross until Lawler came to Ross' defense, reigniting their feud from 2000. The feud concluded when Tazz and Lawler faced each other in a match at the One Night Stand pay-per-view, which Tazz won in only 30 seconds by making Lawler pass out to the Tazzmission after a distraction from Joey Styles, who Lawler had slapped just prior to the match.
In August, King Booker claimed to be the only one entitled to be known as "King". After being beaten by Booker in the ring, Lawler was supposed to be forced to crown his opponent at a show of August 13 in Madison Square Garden. During the ceremony, however, Lawler announced another king as a new opponent for Booker, "The King of Kings" Triple H. This led to a worked brawl between Lawler and Booker.
Evil Acts[]
- Regularly insults opponents and even those who have no affiliation with them while on commentary
- You know J.R., obviously the only exercise you get is stretching the truth or jumping to conclusions
- Andy Kaufman's mom wanted a girl, his father wanted a boy, and they were both satisfied!
- If the Japanese are so smart, why do they eat with sticks?
- Mabel is so huge, when he was a baby, be got baptized at Sea World
- Cheating is only cheating when you get caught
- Pat Patterson is so old, he still has a ticket stub from the original David and Goliath match
- Women! Can't live with 'em, no resale value.
Gallery[]
Images[]
Videos[]
Trivia[]
- Lawler is a playable character in WWF Attitude, WWF WrestleMania 2000, WWF No Mercy and WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2007. After being non-playable in several games after 2007, he returns as Downloadable Content (DLC) in WWE '12 and WWE All-Stars. After not being playable in several more games afterwards, he returns as a playable character in WWE 2K20, WWE 2K22 and WWE 2K23.
- In WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2006 to WWE 2K17, he appears as a non-playable commentator, and can be playable in his announcing attire by modding the games.
- Lawler often loses his WWF/WWE matches but is still considered to be the King of Memphis wrestling.
- Lawler's feud with Doink was considered to be one of the worst angles in wrestling at the time.
- Lawler usually sets up his finishing move by lowering his one strap from his wrestling singlet.