[1992-12-05-USWA-Memphis TV] Jerry Lawler and Koko B. Ware

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

Koko shows up in the studio to take exception to Jerry Lawler knocking the WWF. He praises Jeff Jarrett for at least buying a ticket and challenging Bret, while Lawler would rather take cheapshots from the sidelines. Hey, he's got a point. He says if Lawler is going to talk trash, he should come out now and do so to Koko. Lawler says if he wanted to be in the WWF, he could be there. Things get heated and they have a really good pull-apart brawl. What I love about this is that they didn't overly heel Koko in all of this. It gave it some depth. Probably the best thing Koko was part of after the mid 80s.

[Tim Evans]

Nice to see Koko dress for the occasion. Found it funny when Lawler said if he wanted to be in the WWF, he could be considering what happened a couple days later. Heel Koko rules.

[shoe]

This started slow but morphed into an awesome angle even with Koko dressed as a bumb.

[shoe]

This started slow but morphed into an awesome angle even with Koko dressed as a bumb.

[Kevin Ridge]

Yeah it is something to see this angle where Lawler is badmouthing WWF when he shows up there only a few days later. I guess he proved his point to Koko.

[PeteF3]

Great point about the use of Koko--he calls out Lawler, but praises Jarrett. And, hey, he's a WWF employee still--he's just being a company man. Then he gives Prentice & Samples the brush-off when they come out. A great back-and-forth follows that Memphis does better than everybody. Ware stands up for himself quite well against a guy who's capable of smothering you if you can't keep up on the stick.

[WingedEagle]

Koko calls out Lawler for talking down to WWF. Lawler says he could be in WWF if he wanted to, and I guess his preferences changed pretty soon. Lots of jawing over signing a match between the two.

[garretta]

This seems more genuinely shoot-like than the Lawler-Snowman stuff, if you want the truth. Koko really seems like a guy who was just relaxing at home when he heard his employer being verbally assaulted and came down to try and do something about it, while Lawler seems disgusted by the fact that he's been booked to wrestle WWF opponents two weeks in a row, only for them to turn sissy and not show up. This is a really organic setup for an angle.

 

Unfortunately, the presence of Sample and Prentice doesn't really help tell the story, even though I suppose they needed to have a way to keep the feud grounded in Memphis issues, since Vince wasn't flying down WWF wrestlers yet. I also didn't like the constant pull-aparts, especially with Eddie Marlin in the middle. Intentionally or not, they seem to be proving Koko's point that Lawler's not good enough to take on a WWF superstar and thus needs to be protected from them by anybody and everybody associated with the USWA.

 

Could you imagine the good time Vince would have had with this if he'd chosen to do a footage exchange? Here's Memphis's so-called King, and he's so much of a wimp that he can't even stand up to the Birdman, sho (as great of a Superstar as he is) hasn't even contended seriously for a title since he's been here. I know I would have paid to see something like that on Prime Time. Unfortunately, Lawler wouldn't have been taken seriously enough after that to have his epic feud with Bret, so it's best that they didn't go that way.

 

Does anyone know who Lawler was supposed to wrestle that never showed up (probably because the match was never booked in the first place)?

 

As a Pittsburgher and Steeler fan, I loved Koko taking potshots at the Browns, although as much as Lawler himself loves them and the Indians, it's not really an effective heat-getting tool with the Memphis fans at large. Call Memphis's college football and basketball teams losers and you might have something.