[1992-12-12-USWA-TV] Interview: Jerry Lawler / Interview: Koko B. Ware

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

Lawler is upset about dropping the belt to Koko, and we get clips of Koko winning the Unified title at MSC after interference from Bert Prentice and Mike Samples and a piledriver! Lawler then says to prove to Koko that he could go to the WWF anytime he wanted, he was able to go on WWF TV after just placing a simple phone call. We also get a locker room interview from Koko at MSC with Cory Maclin, where Koko says Lawler will not get a rematch, saying if he wants it, he has to call Vince McMahon and face him in a big arena in the WWF.

[Tim Evans]

I can just picture Jack Tunney begging Lawler to do commentary on his tv. Heel Koko continues to rule.

[BackToBionic]

Memphis is bizarro world where Lawler is a babyface and Koko is a heel. But Lawler sums it up with the whole "I hate those fans in the north, I love my hometown" line and it makes total sense. Good promo from both guys.

[PeteF3]

Lawler makes sure to mention that Koko has a big house in Germantown, a ritzy suburb of Memphis that's to Tennessee what Edina is to Minnesota, or Shaker Heights to Ohio. In a pleasant bit of wrestling news during a time when there was very little of it in the U.S., that great Koko/Lawler TV confrontation led to one of the bigger attendance figures the MSC had seen in awhile. Lawler shrugs off interference from Samples & Prentice (Prentice ducking a Lawler punch and catching him in a full nelson is just comical). Lawler gets back at Koko by getting a job co-hosting the WWF! Ha! What a fantastic way to kayfabe all this to the USWA viewers.

 

Koko declares that Lawler won't be getting any Unified title shots without the permission of Koko's good friend, Vince Mack-Man, and that it will have to take place in MSG, the Meadowlands, or the Boston Garden. Lawler promises bad things for Prentice and Samples, and teases a fire appearance.

[WingedEagle]

Lawler promo, with clips of Koko winning USWA title with help from Bert Prentice and Mike Samples. Then a Koko interview saying he won't give Lawler a title shot and he'll have to come to NY/NJ/Boston arenas to come get it because he's bringing the title to the WWF. Fun to see them in these roles, though I still wonder how they can try to paint Koko as champion in 1992.

[garretta]

This would have meant a whole lot more to me if the WWF had actually recognized the Unified title as part of the angle and had Koko defending it, even against jobbers and other midcarders. But they didn't; not only that, but Samples and Prentice get more heat for interfering than Koko does for actually beating Lawler for the title. I know that the whole WWF working arrangement picks up steam in '93, and I'm looking forward to seeing it, but right now it doesn't mean a whole hell of a lot.

 

It's interesting that Lawler doesn't out Vince as the head of the WWF right off the bat. He makes sure to say that Jack Tunney was the one who begged him to appear on Prime Time. I guess Vince wasn't too keen on the Memphis part of this angle to start and didn't want to get personally involved until he was sure that Lawler would get over in the WWF.

 

I liked how Lawler justified being the jerk that he was on WWF TV to the USWA fanbase, and it's amazing that it worked for as long as it did. I wonder if they did any Raws in Memphis while Lawler was a big-time heel in the WWF, and how they explained (or failed to explain) the ovations he almost surely got if they did,

 

If I'm not mistaken, Samples and Prentice are leftovers from Eddie Gilbert's failed Global invasion a while back. I guess they're sort of Memphis's designated outsiders, willing to sell their souls to any promotion that isn't the USWA.

 

I got a kick out of Koko referring to Cory as "Cary". I also liked Dave's determination to keep the show going in the face of Lawler's benevolent sit-in. Did Koko, Samples, or Prentice show up that day? If they did, we don't have it here.