On a recent edition of his “My World” podcast, WWE Hall of Famer Jeff Jarrett discussed the origins of “The King” moniker for Jerry Lawler, and more.
You can check out some highlights from the podcast below:
On the origins of Jerry Lawler becoming The King: “Bobby Shane went off to Australia, and he was the king of wrestling. And look, there’s been — I think I’m certain people are going to say, ‘Oh, there was a king in Texas,’ or ‘There’s a king in San Francisco.’ But Bobby Shane, working in the Atlanta territory, and my dad would go down and book and had a relationship and through the years. But you know, the story goes — and Lawler done some shots down there. But when he left, they had a conversation and you know, you got to remember this is ’72, ’73, ’74. There was another king in town, and I’m talking about Memphis. And that’d be Elvis Aaron Presley, the king of rock & roll. So Memphis has had some royalty down there. So the king of wrestling became Jerry Lawler. And man, oh man, did that moniker stick and he truly, I guess you could say, fulfill it. Because I mean, it was just amazing how through the years he wrapped that into promos. People to this day, you know, he morphed into it. But yeah The King Jerry Lawler was, I guess you could say, knighted from King Bobby Shane.”
On the famous hair vs. car match against Bill Dundee: “Him and Dundee got into it. And people knew that Dundee was married, and his wife Beverly. And the circumstances presented itself that actually, as the chips fell, Dundee wanted that Southern Heavyweight Championship, and wanted revenge and everything that went with it. He put his wife’s hair up. And when would the viewer sitting at home going, ‘Now, wait a minute. I can kind of understand. Either Lawler is going to lose their hair or maybe a belt. Okay so now it’s Lawler and Dundee hair versus hair. Okay, well, wait a minute. There’s a situation where Dundee’s wife could possibly lose her hair? No way.’ Well again, 52 weeks a year, episodic storytelling, you damn right they showed up. Because Beth put her hair up, and I wish we had an image of that to show because it’s just — what a story, what a just that’s Memphis wrestling 101.”
On a recent edition of his “My World” podcast, WWE Hall of Famer Jeff Jarrett discussed the origins of “The King” moniker for Jerry Lawler, and more.
You can check out some highlights from the podcast below:
On the origins of Jerry Lawler becoming The King: “Bobby Shane went off to Australia, and he was the king of wrestling. And look, there’s been — I think I’m certain people are going to say, ‘Oh, there was a king in Texas,’ or ‘There’s a king in San Francisco.’ But Bobby Shane, working in the Atlanta territory, and my dad would go down and book and had a relationship and through the years. But you know, the story goes — and Lawler done some shots down there. But when he left, they had a conversation and you know, you got to remember this is ’72, ’73, ’74. There was another king in town, and I’m talking about Memphis. And that’d be Elvis Aaron Presley, the king of rock & roll. So Memphis has had some royalty down there. So the king of wrestling became Jerry Lawler. And man, oh man, did that moniker stick and he truly, I guess you could say, fulfill it. Because I mean, it was just amazing how through the years he wrapped that into promos. People to this day, you know, he morphed into it. But yeah The King Jerry Lawler was, I guess you could say, knighted from King Bobby Shane.”
On the famous hair vs. car match against Bill Dundee: “Him and Dundee got into it. And people knew that Dundee was married, and his wife Beverly. And the circumstances presented itself that actually, as the chips fell, Dundee wanted that Southern Heavyweight Championship, and wanted revenge and everything that went with it. He put his wife’s hair up. And when would the viewer sitting at home going, ‘Now, wait a minute. I can kind of understand. Either Lawler is going to lose their hair or maybe a belt. Okay so now it’s Lawler and Dundee hair versus hair. Okay, well, wait a minute. There’s a situation where Dundee’s wife could possibly lose her hair? No way.’ Well again, 52 weeks a year, episodic storytelling, you damn right they showed up. Because Beth put her hair up, and I wish we had an image of that to show because it’s just — what a story, what a just that’s Memphis wrestling 101.”