Posted on by bdamage1
Brian Damage
Every year, the night before Wrestlemania, the WWE puts on a Hall of Fame induction ceremony. Every year, at least one if not more celebrities are inducted into a fictional “Celebrity wing” of the Hall. Some celebrity Hall of Fame inductees have included…Pete Rose, Bob Eucker and Mike Tyson. Whether you personally agree with certain or all celebrities being inducted, if there ever was one celeb deserving of such a recognition…it would be Andy Kaufman.
Not only should Andy Kaufman be inducted, they should name the entire wing in his honor! You see Andy Kaufman not only was involved in one of the hottest feuds in Memphis wrestling history…he was involved in perhaps the single most important feud in all of pro wrestling. Let me explain….
In 1982, the actor/comedian was red hot from his co starring role on the hit sitcom ‘Taxi’ as Latka Gravas. Andy not only was involved with hit TV show, but made frequent appearances on Saturday Night Live. He was a legitimate star. What many of his fans never realized, Kaufman was a huge pro wrestling fan. As a child, he would watch these men and women on his TV and just be mesmerized by the reactions they would get from fans. He even somewhat credits wrestling as his reason for getting involved with the performing arts. He loved getting reactions from audiences…much like the wrestlers he grew up watching as a kid.
So much so, Kaufman began incorporating wrestling in his stand up routines. In the middle of his comedy act, he would begin wrestling various women and even claimed to be the Inter-Gender champion of the world. Audiences hated the routine as it wasn’t so much funny…but annoying. That seemed to be exactly what Andy Kaufman was striving for…his fans to get angry with him. Andy wanted to bring this skit to a national level…so he met with Vince McMahon Sr.
According to Jerry Lawler, Kaufman pitched his idea of wrestling women on a WWF show and the elder McMahon didn’t like the idea. Apparently, it might compromise fans into thinking wrestling was a joke and it was all staged. That night he did meet up with famed wrestling journalist Bill Apter and it was Apter who set up a meeting between Kaufman and Memphis wrestling legend Jerry ‘The King’ Lawler.
Jerry Lawler not only loved Andy Kaufman’s idea…he loved Andy Kaufman himself. It was only supposed to be a one or two shot deal. Kaufman came into the Mid South Coliseum and began bragging about being a Hollywood star and challenge local women to climb in the ring with him and then wrestle them. It drew huge heat and headlines…so much so, Kaufman began showing up regularly to put on his routine.
When the Memphis Icon Lawler finally got involved, it nearly tore the roof off the Coliseum. It made national headlines and both Kaufman and Lawler found themselves sitting side by side next to talk show host David Letterman.
The slap heard ’round the world and the ensuing “colorful” promo Andy Kaufman made on Lawler that night, made more headlines as the esteemed New York Times ran a front page story about the incident as if it were real. NBC was legitimately upset with Kaufman and threatened to ban him from all NBC programming. Kaufman countered by threatening a multi million dollar lawsuit against the network. He then said he would buy NBC and change it into a 24/7 wrestling network. Hmmmmmm?!?
The Letterman incident combined with the already white hot program just made Memphis wrestling an even hotter territory than ever before. The ratings were sky high and the Mid-South Coliseum was consistently packed to the rafters. Keep in mind, this entire program happened right before the advent of cable television. All of wrestling was still under a territorial system. For it to garner the attention it did…was quite the achievement.
Just how much of an achievement was the Andy Kaufman/Lawler feud? It was huge! Not only did it do fantastic business for the Memphis territory….it brought pro wrestling to the national spotlight. Even more so, the son of the promoter that originally turned down the Kaufman angle…Vince McMahon Jr….was so impressed by the way it all played out….according to Jerry Lawler…it inspired Vince Jr to take and expand the WWF nationally.
How exactly did Vince McMahon go about his national expansion? He brought in celebrities like Cyndi Lauper and Mr. T among others. According to Lawler, Vince approached the King on a flight years later and told him how jealous he was that Memphis got to be the first to do such an angle.
Why did that angle work so well? Was it because Andy was a big name celebrity? That is a huge part of it, but the other part was the commitment by Kaufman to pull off such a stunt. Remember, Kaufman was a wrestling fan that was inspired to be famous by watching wrestlers work. It was that psychology that Kaufman brought to this angle. Coincidentally, it ended up inspiring another promoter to mimic his success. Would the WWF be where it is today without the Andy Kaufman influence? Probably…but it might have been done a bit differently.
Andy Kaufman was so proud of what he accomplished in Memphis, that he saved every last check made to him by the promoter Jerry Jarrett during that time. All of them uncashed…as a trophy of sorts. A well deserved trophy I might add. Andy Kaufamn was justly inducted into WWE’s Hall of Fame in 2023.
David Fullam
It was the angle that even fooled the boys in the business. The idiot mainstream media still believed it was all real for years. It was that good.