Remembering "heel" Jerry Lawler

[Lance Uppercut]

Just saw this on youtube and was awestruck just what an asshole Jerry Lawler used to be.

Come people who were here before 1999, let's reminisce about why Lawler got popular and then neutered in the first place.

[CMWaters]

Lawler got neutered as soon as the phrase "PUPPIES" was introduced.

[hbk4ever09]

Holy crap, nice promo

[Andrew is Good]

Holy crap. What a promo that was. Geez, talking about hitting a bit close to the bone. But that's good, because that sounded real, I mean, my god. It sucks how stuff like that would never fly today. It's weird. Usually as time goes by, things get riskier. But now, it's like everything is going backwards.

Before coming into the thread I was thinking about one reason why Lawler was turned babyface was because he was too funny at times. But that wasn't funny at all, that was, that was just horrible. What a promo that was. I'm gonna favourite that one.

[hbk4ever09]

Today: "Goldust??? He's YELLOW MAN, YELLOW!!. That guy is weird!! I'm going to beat him back to weirdville!!"

[parder]

The irony was that during the match after that promo he was cheered because they were in Evansville, which was part of the USWA territory. JR was good enough to explain it, while still presenting him as the heel to the TV viewers.

Lawler had an uncanny ability to justify to his Memphis fans why he acted as a heel in other promotions like WWF. A great example being his feud with Bret Hart back in 1993 if you look up some of the Memphis videos on popculturestu's YouTube account.

The puppies thing is weird, since I'm pretty sure that term originated from a Jeff Jarrett segment when Debra was with him, and her 'assets' were referred to that. Lawler playing womanising heel at the time picked up on it, and it was just one of those things that caught on with crowds like the 'What' chants that still go on. This was obviously helped by the way the divas back then were booked and portrayed.

Anyway, it's a shame most fans today don't get to see why Lawler was (and still probably could be) one of the all time greats when it comes to promos and psychology in wrestling with the way he's made to look on TV today. A lot of people in wrestling today could learn a thing or two from his Memphis promos.

[hbk4ever09]

He really got all out of his matches as a heel by working to the crowd.

[Deleted]

That was great. There's no way that would stand in 2009, and puppies indeed did in the old King for good.

[Deleted]

Aug 11, 2009 19:03:58 GMT -5 CMWaters said:

Lawler got neutered as soon as the phrase "PUPPIES" was introduced.

I think that might have been the pacifier they gave him to prevent him from potentially adding to the preceedings with his knowledge of wrestling psychology. That, or they did literally neuter him. Lawler isn't dead weight out there, it's a shame that he is.

[TheDieselTrain]

Here's a new one for me.

[barley96]

I miss heel Jerry Lawler. Now when I listen to him I get disgusted from what I hear. Plus, it seems like Michael Cole has further dragged Lawler to Cole's level of stupidity.

[funkycoldmadina]

SHOULDA NAMED HER TARGET!!! GOLD! I am using that on someone!

[Sephiroth]

Lawler got turned face because they tried replacing JR for the umpteenth time, and he acted sympathetic to his longtime partner. It carried over into a full fledged face turn. A pity really, because Lawler was always magnificent as a heel. Back in my childhood smarkish days, I remember always wanting to see him get his as handed to him so bad because he was so obnoxious and irritating. I also remember fondly the matches where he would pull a pair of knux out of his tights and would turn to the audience and shush them as they yelled for the ref to pay attention.
Looking at Lawler today when he marks out so bad for Cena...you just know that heel Lawler would be tearing into Cena like a rat into cheese.

[Jiren]

I loved Heel King's Jake Roberts & Stu Hart Jokes

[misterx]

Did he really say fag in that Raw promo....I miss King

[doinkmark]

Heel Lawler was great. At least I think so, but then again, I get nostalgic when I think of that persona. When I first got into wrestling, heel Lawler versus Bret Hart was one of the first angles I ever saw and it was one of the matches at the first house show I ever attended. I was very disappointed WWE didn't give Lawler more credit for his heel work when inducting him into the Hall Of Fame, and I had the pleasure of telling "The King" that to his face when he signed a program for me once. He just kind of laughed it off.

By the way, fun fact about heel Lawler: He actually lifted Andy Kaufman's "I'm never coming back here again/I shall return!" bit.

[corndog]

Aug 11, 2009 19:18:49 GMT -5 parder said:

The irony was that during the match after that promo he was cheered because they were in Evansville, which was part of the USWA territory. JR was good enough to explain it, while still presenting him as the heel to the TV viewers.

Lawler had an uncanny ability to justify to his Memphis fans why he acted as a heel in other promotions like WWF. A great example being his feud with Bret Hart back in 1993 if you look up some of the Memphis videos on popculturestu's YouTube account.

The puppies thing is weird, since I'm pretty sure that term originated from a Jeff Jarrett segment when Debra was with him, and her 'assets' were referred to that. Lawler playing womanising heel at the time picked up on it, and it was just one of those things that caught on with crowds like the 'What' chants that still go on. This was obviously helped by the way the divas back then were booked and portrayed.

Anyway, it's a shame most fans today don't get to see why Lawler was (and still probably could be) one of the all time greats when it comes to promos and psychology in wrestling with the way he's made to look on TV today. A lot of people in wrestling today could learn a thing or two from his Memphis promos.

Actually Lawler had a mixed reaction when he wrestled during the late 90s during his heel time in the attitude era just because faces and heels weren't too far apart and since he was an old school heel he was pretty close to what the faces were at that point. Jesse Ventura got the same sort of reaction in the late 80s, just watch Summerslam 88, he is actually getting cheered by alot of people. I do miss Lawlers heel character, there is no reason for both announcers to be complete faces. Atleast Styker will justify and defend heels at times, same with Jim Ross, but Lawler is just as bad as Cole at this point.

[Bubble Lead]

I am just getting this hilarious image in my head of current Lawler suddenly going into heel mode during commentary and calling Legacy a bunch of flaming fags.

[chunkylover53]

Lawler also played a great face.

officialfan.proboards.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=wrestling&thread=217972&page=1

This thread is mainly about the Memphis-exclusive pre 1998 heel Vince McMahon, but alot of those vids included Jerry Lawler leading a face USWA, while still continuing his feud with Bret Hart(the face/heel roles were reversed in Memphis as oppose to their WWF feud going on at the time.

But you're right WWE has really went to town with tarnishing what made the Hall of Famer great. A big reason why I can't watch WWE anymore.

[VeggieOverlord]

As a kid, I remember Lawler being THE heel on Raw. He was vile. I hated the fact that around 97/98 they really toned it down during the advent of the attitude era. It seemed like a weird time to do it.