Jerry Lawler: Encyclopedia II - Jerry Lawler - Career

Jerry Lawler - Career

Lawler is perhaps best known not for his considerable wrestling skills, but for a much-publicized feud with the late Andy Kaufman that was later revealed to be completely contrived (a total "work" in wrestling parlance). This feud included a widely-seen confrontation between the two on Late Night with David Letterman. The bad blood between the two men seemed so convincing that it came as a surprise when in 1999 (15 years after Kaufman's death) it was revealed it was all a work.

Jerry Lawler has made history as being the wrestler with the most championship reigns of all time. He has had more than 200 titles in his career.

Lawler unified the American Wrestling Association World Heavyweight Title (defeating the late Curt Hennig on May 9, 1988) with the WCCW World Heavyweight Title (defeating the late Kerry Von Erich on December 13, 1988), creating the United States Wrestling Association Unified World Heavyweight Championship. He was a co-owner, along with Jerry Jarrett, of the now-defunct promotion. From its start in 1989 to its end in 1997, Jerry Lawler held the USWA heavyweight title a total of 28 times. Of course, this statistic must be interpreted in the light of how professional wrestling operates. He left the Memphis-based USWA for the WWF (now WWE) in 1993.

Entering the federation as a heel, Lawler soon began a lengthy feud with Bret Hart over the latter's winning of the inaugural King of the Ring tournament. The feud finally ended when Hart defeated Lawler in a "Kiss My Foot" match at King of the Ring 1995. Despite some brief feuds with other faces, such as the Ultimate Warrior and Jake "The Snake" Roberts, in 1996, Lawler gradually began to settle more and more into a role as the primary color commentator for WWF TV telecasts.

In 1997, as part of a WWF cross-promotional deal with Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW), Lawler insulted the credibility of ECW as a commentator on RAW. Later in the evening, ECW owner Paul Heyman personally called him over the air and gave a rebuttal. This led to several ECW wrestlers making appearances (and even wrestling matches) on WWF television, with Lawler all the while insulting ECW and its wrestlers. He was finally booked to wrestle Tommy Dreamer (a man considered by many to be the face of the ECW promotion) at ECW's Hardcore Heaven pay-per-view in August of 1997, a match which he lost.

In 1999, perhaps inspired by fellow wrestler Jesse Ventura's successful run for the governorship of Minnesota, Lawler ran for mayor of Memphis, finishing third in a field of 12 candidates.

Earlier in his career, like many wrestlers, Lawler took his turns as both face ("good guy") and heel ("bad guy"). Perhaps the best gimmick of this period was his on-and-off feud with an erstwhile tag-team partner, Australian wrestler "Superstar" Bill Dundee. A celebrated "grudge match" between the two at Memphis' Mid-South Coliseum represented a rare example of theatrical make-up blood actually being found in use at a pro wrestling event, since the match was being taped for an NBC television program documenting the rise in popularity of pro wrestling. Most blood in professional wrestling has traditionally been real, as a result of "blading."

Jerry Lawler is responsible for "The Mouth of the South" Jimmy Hart entering professional wrestling. Lawler wanted to record a wrestling album with him singing and, since they had gone to school together, he called Hart and asked him to be a part of it. So close are the two men that on April 2, 2005, when Hart was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame, Lawler performed Hart's induction.

Jerry Lawler - Lawler as commentator

Throughout most of his stay in World Wrestling Entertainment, he has served as a color commentator, first with the promotion's syndicated programs and later on WWE RAW. Originally, like many professional wrestling color commentators, Lawler would often root for the heel wrestlers.

Over the past few years, however, Lawler has headed into a direction of mostly praising face wrestlers. This can be attributed to Lawler having had feuds with various heels (most notably Daivari, an Arab-American heel who insults Americans); and the rise of Jonathan Coachman as the heel color commentator on "WWE RAW." This change has been very gradual, but noticeable. Looking back on Lawler's broadcasts from a decade ago, one can notice that today he has become much less acidic and mean spirited, and slightly more level headed and fun-loving.

Lawler was most recently involved with a feud with Gregory Helms, whom he defeated at New Year's Revolution 2006 with diving fist drop from the top rope.

Lawler often shows a code of morality in his commentary; for example, even when he was decidedly pro-heel at the announcer's table, he would show respect for a face wrestler who was legitimately injured. His tune has always changed, however, when one of the WWE's valets are involved, in which case he often uses innuendo to hype the valet ("Puppies!") and has been nicknamed "Puppy Patrol." Lawler's commentary began as far back as 1988, while with the CWA, and since that time Lawler`s core routine hasn`t changed. latly he has wrestled when he defeated hurricane and lost to coach in a royal rumble qualifier.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Career", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki