[1993-08-21-USWA-TV] Jerry Lawler and Vince McMahon

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

They show a clip from a WWF TV taping of Vince McMahon as Jerry Lawler's guest on King's Court. Vince is introduced as "the voice of the WWF". Vince says Bret got the 1-2-3 on him on Monday night in Memphis! They are actually hyping a Mid South Coliseum match at a WWF taping! I am guessing this never aired on WWF TV and was aired specifically to be aired on USWA TV.

[flyonthewall2983]

I've seen this. Apparently the audience is quite dumbstruck by it all, or just doesn't care.

[Kevin Ridge]

Vince must have been calling the wrestling hotlines to find out Hart beat Lawler in USWA. If this segment was done just for USWA TV it's a different change for Lawler. Playing up his WWF heel character for their live audience but not the confident, defending his territory King we see on USWA TV.

[PeteF3]

Loud mixed reaction for Vince from the TV taping crowd. Lawler does a pretty masterful job of playing both sides of the fence here--his complaining about the crooked referee rings true for the Memphis fans, but comes off as typical heel whining to the WWF audience. Vince is bemused by the idea of Lawler wrestling Paul Neighbors, and is won over by Lawler's invite when Jerry reveals that he's going to refund everybody's money if he can't put Neighbors in the hospital. Vince wants to get a refund, so he's going to be there!

 

Burger King Lawler offers to give Vince a Whopper. Vince reassures him that if he does, it will NOT be a Happy Meal.

 

This is the angle that got me to buy my first non-commercially-available wrestling tapes. Reading in PWI Weekly about Vince McMahon acting as a heel was too surreal for any younger fan to comprehend. Both guys were great here--I'm sure the talk about the Mid-South Coliseum and refunds was lost on the audience but Vince and Jerry each walked the line beautifully in working two disparate audiences.

[soup23]

Great segment here with Memphis and WWF colliding. This was weird for it to be done in this venue but it does make Memphis look big time in this context. 93 has some lows for wrestling stateside but the comingling of promotions has been a bright spot and shown them take chances they normally don't.

[garretta]

I think the crowd was fine here, considering that this whole thing was a setup for a match that they would never get to see, even on TV. Vince is already showing that he knows how to perform in front of a crowd, and he sounds a bit more like Mr. McMahon than an announcer. Since this is a WWF taping and Lawler's doing his usual whiny heel schtick, he gets a positive reaction.

 

I liked that someone finally got the last word on Lawler when he tried to use the "Whopper" line. The first time or two, it was funny. Now it's just another clichéd piece of business.

 

I noticed that Paul Neighbors is never mentioned by name, which I don't understand. If this was for the Memphis audience, who would definitely know exactly who he is and that he's slowly been going heel for months, why does it matter if the WWF audience knows who he is or cares?

 

I'm guessing that the 8/23 ​Raw ​was taped in advance, since Vince certainly wouldn't have missed a live Raw ​just to be a ringside guest at the MSC.

 

I've also noticed that even in the USWA, Vince isn't known as the owner of the WWF. I wonder if not acknowledging just who he really was was a condition that Lawler agreed to in order to get Vince to come to Memphis.

 

Finally, I noticed that Lawler's in the WWF crown and robe rather than his Memphis crown and coat, which I'm assuming he owns by now. What's the matter, Kingfish, did it get lost in the laundry by mistake?