[1993-06-26-USWA-TV] Jackie Fargo feature / Interview: Jerry Lawler

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

Really cool, old photos of Jackie Fargo narrating his career.

 

Then, Lawler does an interview wearing a WWF King of the Ring t-shirt and holding his crown. Lawler is out to explain why he's on WWF TV acting like the baddest guy around. This is one of the greatest promos in wrestling history.

 

"When he called me the Burger King, I gave him the Whopper, didn't I?"

 

Lawler says when their paths cross, he'll take care of him. But now, Owen Hart is in Memphis and Lawler says he's going to take him out.

 

This is AMAZING.

[KB8]

Lawler's promo here was just...holy shit it was great. The Whopper line, especially. Might be the best Lawler promo ever. The way he manages to come across as such a scumbag weasel in the WWF yet still come across as a guy that's totally in the right in Memphis is seriously amazing.

[Kevin Ridge]

We get ourselves a nice Jackie Fargo video segment.

 

I so enjoy King trying to make legit sense of him being a heel in WWF on Memphis TV. He’s bad! He means business and he loves the folks in Memphis while not caring much for those New York cityslickers. I so love this feud and it must have been so fantastic for those Memphis folks to be watching it live at the time.

[PeteF3]

An abbreviated version of one of the Fargo videos from '90 or '91--definitely an old clip as it's got Michael St. John's voice.

 

Lawler is out and is he fired up, explaining why he's gotten bad and mean. He doesn't give a hoot about anyone up North--not Vince, not Finkle, and not the Hart brothers. And then he eviscerates the WWF and Bret for instituting another "King" by virtue of "some rinky-dink tournament, beating three measly wrestlers" (!), then follows it up with a classic line about the Whopper. This is up there with the best Texas vs. Tennessee promos, in that this exact same promo could air on WWF TV and be a great heel promo. And now Lawler makes fun of Bret for having his little brother take care of his business for him! Lawler produces a photo of him laid out on the ring steps at the hands of Owen Hart--if that was an intentional nod to KOTR with Bret in the same position, then that's awesome. He closes it out with one more killer line: Owen may not just get the Whopper, he may get flame-broiled, too! Dave Brown is practically speechless.

 

One of the best Lawler promos in God knows how long. One of his best ever. Between what's happened and what's going to happen between the WWF and Memphis, this looks like the leading candidate for Feud of the Year.

[soup23]

Short clip on Fargo that they would roll out periodically. Effective, but nothing we havent seen before.

 

The promo Lawler gives here is up there with Hard Times and on the short list of best promos of the 90's. Just tremendous stuff and it is amazing how he becomes sympathetic.

[...TG]

Can't believe no one mentioned Jerry Lawler's Main Event Rocket Assortment fireworks! You can win them at the Mid-South Coliseum Monday night (no purchase necessary).

[garretta]

This was almost beyond words. Once again, I have to ask: Why in heaven's name didn't Vince take advantage of Lawler's abilities in the ring and on the mic more than he did? He's already missed on what would have been a nice little midcard feud with Savage (all while they're together in the booth on ​Superstars, no less), and now we've got Owen defending his brother's honor, which would have been another great feud that would have kept the Bret issue warm while allowing them not to meet in the ring until SummerSlam. But if this match ever happened outside of the Memphis loop, I have yet to hear about it. I don't even think the two of them crossed paths at all for quite a while, as Vince thought Owen as himself was almost strictly a tag team wrestler at this point.

 

As for the promo, all you need to know is that Dave Brown, who's seen just about every Lawler promo of consequence ever done, was left not only speechless, but more than slightly discombobulated, which I don't recall ever happening before. The lines about Whoppers and flame-broiling were great, and I wish we'd seen more of them from WWF Lawler. But the intensity was what floored me here. I've seen at least a portion of almost all of Jerry's major feuds thanks to Will's sets, and I don't recall this kind of hatred for anyone: not Dundee, not Mantel, not Austin Idol, not Andy Kaufman, not Jimmy Hart, ​no one​​. Bret's hit him right where he lives, and he won't soon forget it.

 

This feud has so many, many possibilities in both the USWA and the WWF, and it's a shame that we probably won't see more than five percent of them for various reasons. I'm still looking forward to what we'll get, though. This feud is a shot in the arm that the USWA needs desperately: Jeff's a solid hand, but he doesn't inspire anyone; Brian's a bit too young to really be a top player on his dad's level for a long period of time; Dundee's in WCW, Dutch and (for the moment) Lance are in SMW, and everyone else who can pop a crowd reliably is ancient, as we saw in the Fargo piece that started this segment. Was Jackie coming back for some reason, or did they just trot that segment out there to fill time or something?

[JKWebb]

Going through the YB, and this is the first thing I've commented in MDAs in the past few months... I can't not comment on this... Seriously, this came out of nowhere and blew me away.  INCREDIBLE.  Lawler continues to remind me he is probably the greatest on the stick of all time.  And, I agree... Lawler could have been used for so much more in the WWF at the time.   Easily the promo of the year.