TV
Guide listed Jerry "The King" Lawler slapping
Andy Kaufman on Late Show with David Letterman in
1982 as "1 of 60 Most Riveting Moments in TV
History."
From
Hollywood to Memphis, Tennessee, to Sydney, Australia
and beyond, you have probably heard of the classic
Lawler - Kaufman feud. It was Hollywood VS Pro wrestling.
This psydo angle have nothing to do with Vince McMahon's
then named World Wrestling Federation, but came out
of the USWA territory. One ponders if Mr McMahon might
try to recreate something extremly similar to this
for today's sports entertainment audience. McMahon
did the Mickey Rourke angle with Roddy Piper, Ricky
Steamboat and Ric Flair, with WWE Superstar Chris
Jericho in the mix, but that was far from a carbon
copy of the classic Lawler VS Kaufman angle. You can
watch the classic Letterman show segment here.
Jerry Lawler...
It’s
good to be the king. Just ask Jerry Lawler.
Reigning
over sports-entertainment since the 1970s, Jerry “The
King” Lawler has thrilled in the ring as the
fighting pride of Memphis, Tenn. and entertained from
the announce table as Raw’s most irrepressible
broadcaster. Effective as both a hero and villain,
The King enraged WWE fans when he offended Bret Hart’s
mother during a personal rivalry with The Hit Man
and then inspired them when he stepped in the ring
to challenge The Miz for the WWE Title at 61 years
of age. This aptitude for every aspect of sports-entertainment
has earned Lawler countless titles, legions of fans
and entry into the WWE Hall of Fame.
Before
all that, though, The King made his name in the Tennessee
area prior to gaining national attention for his rivalry
with comedian Andy Kaufman. Claiming to be the "Inter-Gender
Wrestling Champion of the World,” Kaufman made
the mistake of insulting The King in front of his
hometown crowd in the Mid-South Coliseum in 1982.
Lawler responded by blasting the “Taxi”
actor with two piledrivers, which led to an incendiary
showdown on “Late Night with David Letterman.”
During a tense interview on the program, Kaufman once
again offended The King, leading Lawler to slap the
comic right out of his chair in front of a shocked
studio audience. Fifteen years later, the WWE Hall
of Famer recreated this legendary TV moment with Jim
Carrey on the set of the Andy Kaufman biopic, “Man
on the Moon.”
After
dispatching of Kaufman, The King ruled over promotions
like Minnesota’s AWA and Tennessee’s USWA
before finally arriving in WWE in 1992. Caustic from
the get go, Lawler used his sharp wit to rile up rivals
like Bret “Hit Man” Hart and Doink the Clown
before taking a seat at the announce booth to commentate
alongside Jim Ross. Together, the duo formed one of
sports-entertainment’s most entertaining broadcast
teams as they deftly called the action of WWE’s
booming “Attitude Era.”
Lawler’s
voice has remained a staple of WWE programming ever
since, but that hasn’t stopped him from getting
in the ring. Often noted as one of the greatest Superstars
to never hold the WWE Championship, The King nearly
beat The Miz for the coveted title at Elimination
Chamber in 2011 and took on his sniveling broadcast
partner, Michael Cole, at WrestleMania XXVII. Competing
in his fifth decade as a wrestler, Lawler proved that
his piledriver — just like his wit — was
still as devastating as ever.
Andy Kaufman...
Andrew
Geoffrey "Andy" Kaufman (January 17, 1949
– May 16, 1984) was an American entertainer,
actor and performance artist. While often referred
to as a comedian, Kaufman did not consider himself
to be one. He disdained telling jokes and engaging
in comedy as it was traditionally understood, referring
to himself instead as a "song-and-dance man."
Elaborate ruses and pranks were major elements of
his career. His body of work maintains a cult following
and he continues to be respected for his original
material, performance style, and unflinching commitment
to character.
Professional
wrestling
Kaufman grew up admiring the world of professional
wrestling. Inspired by the theatricality of kayfabe,
the staged nature of the sport, and his own tendency
to form elaborate hoaxes, Kaufman began wrestling
women during his act and was the self-proclaimed "Inter-Gender
Wrestling Champion of the World", taking on an
aggressive and ridiculous personality based upon the
characters invented by professional wrestlers. He
offered a $1,000 prize to any woman who could pin
him. He employed performance artist Laurie Anderson,
a friend of his, as a stooge in this act for a while.
Kaufman initially approached the head of the World
Wrestling Federation, Vince McMahon Sr. about bringing
his act to the New York wrestling territory. McMahon
dismissed Kaufman's idea as the elder McMahon was
not about to bring "show business" into
his Pro Wrestling society.
Kaufman had by then developed a friendship with Wrestling
magazine reporter/photographer Bill Apter. After many
discussions about Andy wanting to be in the Pro Wrestling
business, Apter called Memphis' iconic Jerry "The
King" Lawler and introduced him to Kaufman by
telephone from Apter's apartment in Queens, New York.
The battles between Kaufman and Lawler became legend
and was really the first "sports entertainment"
angle that became known worldwide and is being seen
even today on TV stations such as Comedy Central.
Later, after a challenge from professional wrestler
Jerry "The King" Lawler, Kaufman would step
into the ring (in the Memphis wrestling circuit) with
a man—Lawler himself. Kaufman taunted the whole
city of Memphis, sending "videos showing residents
how to use soap" and proclaiming it to be "the
nation's redneck capital." Their ongoing feud,
often featuring Jimmy Hart and other heels in Kaufman's
corner, included a broken neck for Kaufman as a result
of Lawler's piledriver and a famous on-air fight on
a 1982 episode of Late Night with David Letterman.
For some time after that, Kaufman appeared wearing
a neck brace, insisting that his injuries were worse
than they were. Kaufman would continue to defend the
Inter-Gender Championship in the Mid-South Coliseum
and offered an extra prize, other than the $1,000:
that if he were pinned, the woman who pinned him would
get to marry him and that Kaufman would also shave
his head.
Kaufman and Lawler's famous feud and wrestling matches
were later revealed to have been staged, or a "work",
as the two were actually friends. The truth about
it being a "work" was not disclosed until
more than 10 years after Kaufman's death, when the
Emmy-nominated documentary, A Comedy Salute to Andy
Kaufman, aired on NBC in 1995. Coincidentally, Jim
Carrey, the one who revealed the secret, later went
on to play Kaufman in the 1999 film Man on the Moon.
In a 1997 interview with the Memphis Flyer, Lawler
claimed he had improvised during their first match
and the Letterman incident. Although officials at
St. Francis Hospital stated that Kaufman's neck injuries
were real, in his 2002 biography It's Good to Be the
King...Sometimes, Lawler detailed how they came up
with the angle and kept it quiet. Even though Kaufman's
injury was legitimate, the pair pretended that the
injury was more severe than it was. He also said that
Kaufman's explosion on Letterman was Kaufman's own
idea, including when Lawler slapped Kaufman out of
his chair. Promoter Jerry Jarrett would later recall
that for two years, he would mail pay checks to Kaufman,
with payments comparable to what other main event
wrestlers were getting at the time, but Kaufman never
cashed any of them.
Kaufman also appeared in the 1983 film My Breakfast
with Blassie with professional wrestling personality
"Classy" Freddie Blassie, a parody of the
art film My Dinner With Andre. The film was directed
by Johnny Legend, who employed his sister Lynne Margulies
as one of the women who appears in the film. Margulies
met Kaufman for the first time on camera, and they
later became a couple, living together until Kaufman's
death.
In 2002 Kaufman became an unlockable character in
the video game Legends of Wrestling II and a standard
character in 2004's Showdown: Legends of Wrestling.
(Wikipedia) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andy_Kaufman
Jerry
Lawler Discusses His Feud With Andy Kaufman On Its
30th Anniversary - 28th July 2012 (Credit:
WWE)
To
recognize the 30th anniversary of the famous incident
on The David Letterman Show, Jerry Lawler discussed
his legendary feud with Taxi star Andy Kaufman in
an interview with the official WWE website. Lawler
went in-depth on his relationship with Kaufman, how
Kaufman got involved in the wrestling business, how
unscripted the Letterman incident was, and more.
In the following excerpt, Lawler explains what has
made the rivalry so legendary, as well as Kaufman’s
impact on the industry, which leads to him saying
that Kaufman should be in the WWE Hall of Fame:
WWE CLASSICS: Out of all the great rivalries in wrestling
and all the great pop culture moments, what is it
about this one incident that 30 years later people
are still so fascinated by?
LAWLER: It was the first time something like that
had happened. I don’t know if I should tell this
or not, but one night I was flying back on the plane
with Vince McMahon. And he said, “You know, King,
I’ve never told you this before, but I was so
jealous when you got Andy Kaufman and did all that
stuff with him down there in Memphis. Because he was
from New York, and I thought we could have done all
that stuff up here.” But he also said, “But
I’ll be honest with you. There’s no way
on Earth we could have done it as well as you guys
did it.”
WWE CLASSICS: Wow. It would have been a totally different
dynamic.
LAWLER: Yes, but it would have been a first. Vince
loves firsts. To this day, you hear on Monday Night
Raw that you’re going to see something for the
first time ever. That’s big. And this was the
first time any big deal Hollywood star was involved
to that extent in wrestling. Vince realized, everybody
realized, because it got so much national exposure.
Everything back then was still regionalized. Cable
TV hadn’t hit yet. The country was divided up
into wrestling territories because of TV coverage.
Once Vince saw you could use a Hollywood star to get
that nationwide exposure, here comes Cyndi Lauper
with Captain Lou and Wendi Richter, and then Mr. T
gets brought in. The ball got rolling, and it hasn’t
stopped to this day. Just in the past year, Hugh Jackman
was in there punching Dolph Ziggler.
WWE CLASSICS: Yeah, you really could argue that Andy
Kaufman is responsible for all of that.
LAWLER: I really feel, in my heart of hearts, that
he was responsible for that. I certainly believe that
Andy Kaufman deserves a spot in the celebrity wing
of the WWE Hall of Fame. Without a doubt, we would
not be where we are today without his involvement.
I really feel that way. Even at Raw 1,000, we had
Charlie Sheen challenging Daniel Bryan to a match.
It’s Andy Kaufman revisited as recently as last
night...
WWE
CLASSICS: How soon did you know it was going to become
a huge deal in the media?
LAWLER:
As soon as it aired, my phone started blowing up.
The New York Times, all the New York papers, everybody
was calling. It just went ballistic.
WWE
CLASSICS: This has become an iconic, not just wrestling
moment, but a pop culture moment. After this gained
legendary status, did you ever hear what Dave’s
reaction was?
LAWLER:
I heard that he was furious because it was so different
than what was planned with his producers. I don’t
think he was ever happy with it, but I also heard
that his production staff referred to it for years
as “The Famous Show.” That episode got so
much attention and so much coverage, that they had
to realize that this was one of the things that made
Dave’s show famous.
WWE
CLASSICS: It really went viral before there was an
Internet.
LAWLER:
Exactly. It is consistently listed as one of the top
moments in the history of television. Thirty years
later, I’m still doing interviews about it. We
were talking to media just the other day for Raw 1,000,
and every single one of them asked me about Andy Kaufman.
WWE
CLASSICS: Out of all the great rivalries in wrestling
and all the great pop culture moments, what is it
about this one incident that 30 years later people
are still so fascinated by?
LAWLER:
It was the first time something like that had happened.
I don’t know if I should tell this or not, but
one night I was flying back on the plane with Vince
McMahon. And he said, “You know, King, I’ve
never told you this before, but I was so jealous when
you got Andy Kaufman and did all that stuff with him
down there in Memphis. Because he was from New York,
and I thought we could have done all that stuff up
here.” But he also said, “But I’ll
be honest with you. There’s no way on Earth we
could have done it as well as you guys did it.”
WWE
CLASSICS: Wow. It would have been a totally different
dynamic.
LAWLER:
Yes, but it would have been a first. Vince loves firsts.
To this day, you hear on Monday Night Raw that you’re
going to see something for the first time ever. That’s
big. And this was the first time any big deal Hollywood
star was involved to that extent in wrestling. Vince
realized, everybody realized, because it got so much
national exposure. Everything back then was still
regionalized. Cable TV hadn’t hit yet. The country
was divided up into wrestling territories because
of TV coverage. Once Vince saw you could use a Hollywood
star to get that nationwide exposure, here comes Cyndi
Lauper with Captain Lou and Wendi Richter, and then
Mr. T gets brought in. The ball got rolling, and it
hasn’t stopped to this day. Just in the past
year, Hugh Jackman was in there punching Dolph Ziggler.
WWE
CLASSICS: Yeah, you really could argue that Andy Kaufman
is responsible for all of that.
LAWLER:
I really feel, in my heart of hearts, that he was
responsible for that. I certainly believe that Andy
Kaufman deserves a spot in the celebrity wing of the
WWE Hall of Fame. Without a doubt, we would not be
where we are today without his involvement. I really
feel that way. Even at Raw 1,000, we had Charlie Sheen
challenging Daniel Bryan to a match. It’s Andy
Kaufman revisited as recently as last night.
WWE
CLASSICS: Where does Andy rank in the pantheon of
great villains in wrestling? He was right up there.
LAWLER:
He really was. To be a great villain, you’ve
gotta get personal. And that’s what Andy did.
He got personal with the people of Memphis by insulting
their hygiene, and it went beyond just being about
wrestling. He made things personal by insulting the
fans themselves rather than just me. If he had ever
gotten to do that on a national level, he just would
have gotten better and better. He was a natural at
it. He even created that sleazy lounge singer character
named Tony Clifton just so he could play the bad guy.
He wanted that reaction. Andy was a heel at heart.
(Credit: WWE) http://www.wwe.com/classics/kaufman-and-the-king-30-years-later-26040571
