|
The following biography
is from
Wikipedia.org
“The
Free Encyclopedia.”
Jerry O'Neil (The King) Lawler (born November 29,
1949 in Memphis, Tennessee, United States) is a professional wrestler and
wrestling commentator. He currently works for World Wrestling Entertainment as a
color commentator for its RAW brand (with Jim Ross and Jonathan Coachman), and
still infrequently wrestles for the promotion.
He is perhaps best known not for his considerable
wrestling skills, but for a much-publicized feud with Andy Kaufman that was
later revealed to be completely contrived ("a total work" in wrestling
parlance). This feud included a widely-seen confrontation between the two on The
Late Show with David Letterman.
Lawler unified the American Wrestling Association
World Heavyweight Title (defeating Curt Hennig on May 9, 1988) with the WCCW
World Heavyweight Title (defeating Kerry Von Erich on December 13, 1988),
creating the United States Wrestling Association Unified World Heavyweight
Championship. He was a co-owner, along with Jerry Jarrett, of the now-defunct
promotion. From its start in 1989 to its end in 1997, Jerry Lawler held the USWA
heavyweight title a total of 27 times. Of course, this statistic must be
interpreted in the light of how professional wrestling operates. He left the
Memphis-based USWA for the WWF (now WWE) in 1993.
Jerry Lawler has made history as being the wrestler
with the most championship reigns of all time. He has had more than 200 titles
in his career. This includes the USWA title.
In 1999, perhaps inspired by fellow wrestler Jesse
Ventura's successful run for the governorship of Minnesota, Lawler ran for mayor
of Memphis, finishing third in a field of 12 candidates.
Earlier in his career, like many wrestlers, Lawler
took his turns as both face ("good guy") and heel ("bad guy"). Perhaps the best
gimmick of this period was his on-and-off feud with an erstwhile tag-team
partner, Aussie wrestler "Superstar" Bill Dundee. A celebrated "grudge match"
between the two at Memphis' Mid-South Coliseum represented a rare example of
theatrical make-up blood actually being found in use at a pro wrestling event,
since the match was being taped for an NBC television program documenting the
rise in popularity of pro wrestling. Most blood in professional wrestling has
traditionally been real, the result of "blading."
Jerry Lawler is responsible for Jimmy "Mouth of the
South" Hart entering professional wrestling. Lawler wanted to record a wrestling
album with him singing and, since they had gone to school together, he called
Hart and asked him to be a part of it. So close are the two men that on April 2,
2005, when Hart was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame, Lawler performed Hart's
induction.
Throughout most of his stay in World Wrestling
Entertainment, he has served as a color commentator, first with the promotion's
syndicated programs and later on WWE RAW. Like many professional wrestling color
commentators, Lawler often roots for the heel wrestlers. However, there are
several heels Lawler despises and often shows a code of morality in his
commentary--that is, unless one of the WWE's valets are involved, in which case
he often uses innuendo to hype the valet (e.g., "Puppies!") and has been
nicknamed "Puppy Patrol." Lawler's commentary began as far back as 1988, while
with the CWA, and during the time, Lawler was responsible for some of the most
hilarious one-liners in recent wrestling memory.
His son Brian, who has previously wrestled in WWE,
is now performing in independent promotions. His ex-wife Stacy "The Kat" Carter
also made a few in-ring appearances.
****
Signature moves
Diving Fist-Drop
The Spike Piledriver
Brainbuster DDT
Championships/Accomplishments
American Wrestling Association
1-Time AWA World Heavyweight Champion
2-Time AWA World Tag Team Champion (with Bill
Dundee)
4-Time AWA Southern Heavyweight Champion
Mid-Southern Wrestling
36-Time Mid-Southern Heavyweight Champion
11-Time Mid-Southern Tag Team Champion (with Jim
White twice, Plowboy Frazier/Uncle Elmer twice, Bill Dundee 4 times, Jos LeDuc
once, Austin Idol once and Big Bubba once)
3-Time Mid-Southern International Champion
2-Time Mid-American Heavyweight Champion
United States Wrestling Association
1-Time USWA Unified World Heavyweight Champion
27-Time USWA Heavyweight Champion
1-Time USWA Texas Heavyweight Champion
5-Time USWA Tag-Team Champion (with Jeff Jarrett 3
times and Bill Dundee twice)
2-Time USWA Southern Heavyweight Champion
World Class Championship Wrestling
2-Time WCCW Heavyweight Champion
1-Time WCCW Texas Heavyweight Champion
Continental Wrestling Association
1-Time CWA Heavyweight Champion
Winner of 1988 CWA Lord of the Ring
Maryland Championship Wrestling
1-Time MCW Tag-Team Champion (with Bruiser)
1-Time MCW Heavyweight Champion
Memphis Championship Wrestling
2-Time MCW Southern Heavyweight Champion
Smoky Mountain Wrestling
2-Time SMW Heavyweight Champion
Other Titles
1-Time Pacific Polynesian Wrestling Heavyweight
Champion
1-Time Power Pro Wrestling Tag-Team Champion (with
Bill Dundee)
1-Time Southeast United States Junior Heavyweight
Champion
1-Time JAPW Heavyweight Champion
Pro
Wrestling Illustrated
Pro Wrestling Illustrated (PWI) ranked him # 23 of
the 500 best singles wrestlers of the "PWI Years" in 2003. He was also ranked
twice in the best tag-teams of the "PWI Years." He was ranked # 56 with Bill
Dundee and # 78 with Jeff Jarrett.
Lawler has won
several PWI Awards over the years. He won Most Hated Wrestler of the Year in
1993 and 1995 and Most Inspirational Wrestler of the Year in 1988. He was
involved in the Feud of the Year in 1992 (Lawler & Jeff Jarrett vs. The Moondogs)
and 1993 (vs. Bret Hart).
* *
* *
The
above biography has been copied in part or in whole
from an article on
Wikipedia.org
"The Free Encyclopedia." It has been modified under
the NGU Free Document License Section 5 in the
following manner: (1) All links within the article
have been removed, including text links such as
"[#]"; (2) The "[Edit]" text and link have been
removed [if you would like to update the article,
you may do so from the original page]; (3) the table
of Contents links and text have been removed; and
(4) all of the sections of the original article have
not been copied. All of the above text is available
under the terms of the
GNU Free Document License.
URL of Original Article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerry_Lawler
Date Article Copied:
September 7, 2005
We
will try to replace this article with an original
biography in the near future, but we hope this will
be of help to our visitors in the mean time. |
