During an appearance on The Kevin Gill Show, WWE Hall of Famer Jerry “The King” Lawler talked about Vince McMahon being jealous of him back in the day, Andy Kaufman’s influence, Pro-Wrestling and more. Jerry Lawler noted that he’s been doing art more than wrestling as of late.
Below are the highlights:
On Vince McMahon being jealous of him:
“Years later I was on the plane with Vince, sitting in his private jet. He leaned over and he said “I’ve never told you or anybody this, but I was so freaking jealous when you were on the David Letterman show with Andy Kaufman in New York, knowing that we could have had Andy do all that stuff in our company.” He did give me credit. He said, “not that we have done it anywhere near as good as you guys did, because it was fantastic.. But just knowing Andy came to my dad first and we turned him down.”
On becoming a wrestler:
“It’s funny because, when I was going to the matches as fan, never once did I think about actually trying to do it. I just thought that’s out of the question. But once I was around Jackie Fargo, and that sort of thing I thought, if I just could try this one time. So I started hounding him. Come one, let me just try it once. He said No Kid, you are too good of an artist. He said stick with art you will make a fortune doing that. I said, If i could just have one match, and try it one time I promise I will go back to being an artist, and I will ever ask you again. Of course, that was like 43 years ago and I am still doing the wrestling.”
On Andy Kaufman’s influence:
“If you remember, right after that, they did this thing with Cyndi Lauper and Captain Lou Albano, Mr T… So Andy Kaufman was really the forerunner of all the Hollywood involvement in the WWE, that’s lead to… I mean look at what they are doing today!”
