40 Years Ago Today - Kaufman vs Lawler

[chazraps]

Right here at the buzzer, a match that wasn't even the main event but will live on forever and ever took place at the Mid-South Coliseum in Memphis, Tennessee.

Found a YouTube playlist with as much of the feud that has been uploaded. Breezy watch - www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLW6bZpgR6tor9eXrLNKicbuYWrNVP4rdf

How cool was it that Comedy Central in the 90s would randomly air a wrestling documentary 20% of the time?

[jason1980s]

That Comedy Central doc was on like every weekend during the wrestling boom in like 97 or 98!

Did fans know it was a work before "Man on the Moon?" I saw the movie in theaters and absolutely shocked when I saw Jerry and Jim, playing Andy together planning the feud.

[chazraps]

Apr 5, 2022 23:25:47 GMT -5 jason1980s said:

That Comedy Central doc was on like every weekend during the wrestling boom in like 97 or 98!

Did fans know it was a work before "Man on the Moon?" I saw the movie in theaters and absolutely shocked when I saw Jerry and Jim, playing Andy together planning the feud.

Earlier in 1999 when Bob Zmuda revealed he was going to reveal that it was a work in a book, they agreed to put it being a work into the movie.

Prior to 1999 nobody outside the core players knew. You can find television specials from as late as 1998 talking about it being one of television's greatest "unscripted real" moments of "Celebrities losing their cool."

[unc40]

Most people believed it was a work solely on the fact Andy Kaufman was involved.

[petef3]

We watched the Comedy Central doc as a family, well before "Man on the Moon" came out. It took about 10 seconds into the match highlights for my mom to point out that Kaufman "clearly knows how to fall" (as somewhere Jim Ross gnashed his teeth).

And she was right--he spread out his arm on the back suplex to distribute the impact, and my dad had already pointed out years before how still a guy had to be to be picked up and held in a piledriver.

[fortknox]

And here's young Jim Cornette taking pics of it.

[fg]

I remember channel surfing in 1996 and seeing this on Comedy Central. At the time, I didn’t know about this so I was stoked. It was strange seeing Jerry talk as a face. I knew he was a face in Memphis for a long time but it was strange. I recorded this a couple of years later. Too bad the feud never really ended due to Andy’s death. The feud did have great moments where Jerry got on the mic and said: “Did you come hear to wrestle or act like an a#}.” Lance Russel: “OOOOH!” Not to mention Andy singing “Oh, I am the King/I’m the King/I’m the new King of Memphis, Tennessee/I knocked that Lawler out last week/I’ll knock him out again/Yeah!” He proceeds to make random sounds. CM Punk would sing this song during his match with Jerry in 2012.

[fg]

I used to have an old wrestling book that was made in 1985. I think it was called Pictorial History of Wrestling. It had Hulk, Flair and Snuka on the cover and it featured small Kayfabe bios of the then current stars and legends. When they got to Lawler, they made NO mention of his feud with Andy.

[salz4life]

I love watching stuff about this. What a great angle.