Posted on by bdamage1
Brian Damage
Vince McMahon’s old adage in the WWF was always…”You never say never in the World Wrestling Federation.” That statement was never more true than on December 7th, 1992. It was on one of the final editions of WWF’s Primetime Wrestling program where Lawler made his WWF debut. This, after years of bad blood and negative comments towards McMahon’s company. It was on that day, that Lawler and McMahon officially buried the proverbial hatchet and partnered together.
It was something that many wrestling experts thought would never happen. Jerry Lawler, the self proclaimed ‘King of Wrestling’ had once publicly stated that he would never join the WWF. ‘Hell would freeze over’ before that would ever happen. The bad blood started years ago when McMahon’s father Vince Sr was in charge of the company. Back then, Vince Sr would “lend out” his top attraction Andre the Giant to various territories. Andre was sent to Tennessee to wrestle Lawler….one of the wrestling magazines printed pictures of Lawler wrestling Andre with the caption reading…’The Night A Midget (Lawler) beat Andre the Giant.’
The story infuriated Vince Sr because he felt it damaged the aura of his giant. Vince Sr would address his displeasure during a wrestling convention in which Lawler was present at. It was the last time Lawler and Vince Sr spoke or saw each other. When Vince Jr took over his father’s territory…he decided to expand it nationally. By doing so, he took all of the other territories top wrestlers with him…thus killing many regional promotions. That always stuck in the craw of Lawler who was a traditionalist and felt that McMahon was ruining pro wrestling.
In 1987, the WWF had created its own king of wrestling in ‘King’ Harley Race. Lawler would file a lawsuit against the company stating the gimmick was his and had used it since 1973. Lawler wound up winning the lawsuit and the WWF could no longer use the gimmick when performing in Tennessee. A year later, Lawler’s Memphis promotion joined forces with Verne Gagne’s American Wrestling Association (AWA) to try and go head to head with the WWF nationally. It ultimately failed when the promoters of each promotion wanted their own wrestlers to get over the others.
By the time 1992 came along, the once untouchable WWF were seeing chinks in their armor. Vince McMahon was involved in a steroid scandal and sexual allegations were hurting his bottom line. At the time, the WWF and WCW were the only two major wrestling companies standing. Lawler was still a part of the Memphis based USWA promotion which was operating on a shoe string budget and barely had their heads above water.
With business down all around, Lawler began to realize he needed to do something to help the USWA survive. At the sametime, Mr. Perfect Curt Hennig who was used primarily as a color commentator for WWF programming was leaving the announcers booth to return to wrestling full time. The other announcer, Bobby Heenan, was also looking to take more time off. According to Lawler, McMahon saw the value of keeping a smaller, regional promotion like the USWA alive.
McMahon wanted to start a developmental territory for new stars to learn the ropes and become ready for the bright lights of the WWF. Vince was able to get his friend promoter Jerry Jarrett to broker a deal to get Jerry Lawler to join the WWF. Lawler was hesitant at first to join the company because of his popularity down in Memphis. He feared fans would think of him as a sell out. In a very unique deal, Vince agreed to allow Lawler to remain with the USWA and wrestle while employed by the WWF. McMahon also agreed to sending WWF stars down to Memphis to help bolster Lawler’s promotion.
As stated earlier, Jerry Lawler made his WWF debut on December 7th, 1992 on an edition of Primetime Wrestling. He would also appear on WWF’s syndicated program Superstars on December 12th of that year. While Lawler was working in the WWF as a color commentator…they made him a heel. As to not confuse his longtime fans down in Memphis where h was a babyface, Lawler told them that he joined the WWF to seek out their company’s top stars to beat them.
While the WWF finally had their color commentator and part time wrestler, Lawler wasn’t exactly greeted by all with open arms. As a matter of fact, most of the roster were not happy to see Lawler in the WWF. Many held bitter grudges against Lawler, who they felt used them to get himself over in Memphis when they wrestled for his promotion. He was ostracized by many in the locker room which culminated in a group of wrestlers stealing his prized crown and defecating in it.
Of course, as the years have gone by…Lawler gained respect over his peers in the WWF..now WWE. Even getting a WWE Hall of Fame induction in 2007. Not bad considering he said Hell would have to freeze over for him to be there.