[1990-02-17-USWA-Memphis TV] Interview: Jerry Lawler

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

Lawler tears into a fan who writes him a letter to ask why he calls himself a world champion when his championship is only recognized in Memphis and Dallas. He brought along Sports Review Wrestling to make his point that shows color photos of him beating guys in other places. He also shows PWI, where he is consistently a Top 10 wrestler in the world. He also shows a magazine from Japan that looks to have photos of his match against Fujinami from '89. Pretty effective way to avoid the question. He also gets in some shots against Flair and Hogan, calling them "company champions", not guys who will wrestle outside of their home promotion.

[PeteF3]

Lawler with a William F. Buckley-esque torpedo job, or an attempt of one, on the idea of the Unified title being a strictly Tennessee/Texas championship, with press from both the U.S. and Japan. He repeats the line about the NWA and WWF belts only being for "company champions." Lawler continues to be the master of being able to believably kayfabe anything and everything.

[Kevin Ridge]

Jerry is a delight to listen to. He busts out the wrestling magazines to prove his world wide stance in wrestling. Showing off him being in the top 10 of the PWI rankings. Guess that's were Gilbert came up with that one two years later. Lawler claims to be the only World Champion recognized in two federations.

[soup23]

Lawler crusading against things in the wrestling business is 2 for 2 on the enjoyment scale. Lawler mounts a good argument about his validity.

[Cox]

You watch this and you can easily figure out how Lawler won the Mark Selker/Larry Burton lawsuit a few years later. He's a master manipulator and that's on display here. Great job. Notice how he glosses over the AWA when talking about World champions. Was he still claiming to be AWA champion at this point?

[Laney]

Nice promo from Lawler here where he puts over his world championship and argues that it is more prestigious than the WWF and WCW's championships because it isn't defended in just one organization. While we all know that isn't true, he makes a good argument in his promo here.

[JerryvonKramer]

Take back my last comment about Lawler, this was pretty great. I still absolutely love Dave Brown's default scepticism about everything Lawler says.

 

This does toe the line of being a bit "the lady doth protest too much".

 

His line about "company champions" is just about the best argument he could have pursued here.

[garretta]

I love how Dave seemed infinitely more enthused about showing Jeff Jarrett highlights then listening to Lawler defend the validity of the Unified title.

 

Actually, the "company champion" stuff works both ways; I'm sure that there were fans wondering, "If you're so great, and the Unified title is the best, why not show up on TBS or Superstars and challenge Flair or Hogan on their turf?"

 

Of course, these fans had no way of knowing that Lawler wouldn't have been allowed near the buildings unless he gave up the Unified belt and sold his stake in the USWA in exchange for an exclusive WCW or WWF contract, but I still would have liked to have heard him field the question. The most likely answer would have been that he was the Unified champion and it was Flair and Hogan's responsibility to come to Memphis or Dallas, knowing all the while that it wouldn't happen (at least for three more years).

[drew wardlaw]

Lawler is comparable to Fred Willard in the Christopher Guest movies. The guy just goes non-stop for hours and it's all hilarious and perfect. He's a punisher in the best way possible.

[GSR]

Jerry Lawler is reading an Apter mag instead of paying attention to the Jeff Jarrett interview that has just aired. Dave Brown says that they are going to show some highlights of Jarrett, but The King says they don’t have any highlights of Jeff Jarrett, he can assure him! Everyone likes to think that Jeff Jarrett is like the boy next door, well he’s the boy next door if you happen to live next to a penal farm! He knows his background too. When he was in school he was paddled so often he thought he was a canoe! A straight ‘F’ student who was thrown out of school, who then went and bleached his hair, got himself a shiny jacket and now thinks he’s a professional wrestler.

 

The King says that he gets thousands of letters each week and reads all of his fan mail, but occasionally a letter will come in that’s fairly uncomplimentary. He received one the other day that disturbed him a little bit as someone wrote in asking where his ‘World’ title is recognised other than Memphis and Dallas? The King then goes on a tirade about how the mentality of some of these people is that as they only see him in Memphis and on their TV every week, they don’t think he appears anywhere else. He has an issue of an Apter mag with him which shows him on the cover and has photos of him against Mil Mascaras and Al Perez in (‘world class wrestlers that he goes all over the country and beats that these people aren’t familiar with’), and an issue of PWI where he shows the ‘Top 10’ rankings and how he’s consistently ranked among the ‘Top 10’ wrestlers in the world. To prove it’s not nationwide but worldwide, he brings out a Japanese magazine which has some photos of him in wrestling over there in, and finally reads out his schedule for the next month ‘to straighten those idiots out who think he only wrestles in Memphis’. He goes on to say that the USWA Championship is the only Championship that is recognised by more than one organisation, and the WWF and NWA champions are just ‘company champions’. He says that Hulk Hogan and Ric Flair can only wrestle other WWF and NWA wrestlers and they can’t go and defend their belts outside their company like he can.

 

Really good Lawler interview and very similar to his rant on steroids earlier in the Yearbook. You get the impression that, again, Lawler is annoyed for real, so takes a bit of time to vent, rant and get a few things off his chest.

[dawho5]

One thing that strikes me about Lawler so far is his versatility. He's good at just about any type of promo you can cut. Not only that, but he's great at being that guy you know is bullshitting you, but still sounds really convincing. I woder if the too much protesting wasn't a little bit on purpose. Lawler had to be smart enough to know that the "company belt" line was enough and that might be more of a babyface promo.

[Badlittlekitten]

It's fascinating watching how USWA were so willing to acknowledge the wider world of wrestling. It's the opposite of what you'd see growing up as a WWF fan. Lawler skims through Apter mags, making sure everyone see's how well travelled he is as a champion. He simultaneously adds prestige to the belt while getting over what a massive dick he is. Lawler is incredible at spinning any old bullshit in his favour. I could watch this stuff all day.