On the second episode of Dinner With The King, Jerry Lawler goes into some details surrounding his future as an in-ring performer with WWE. The title of the episode is “Chipping Michael Cole’s Teeth” so that’s certainly part of the subject matter as well, which is always fun.
Jerry Lawler said he was cleared to wrestler three months after his cardiac arrest and has been working the independent circuit since then. His first actual bump was on the King’s Court segment with Dolph Ziggler on Smackdown Live, and that wasn’t much of a bump at that.
The King says, “There’s a big story behind that, that’s why I was so excited about the situation on Smackdown Live a few weeks ago getting to have the interaction with Dolph Ziggler because since the heart attack I’ve been on what the WWE calls the ‘no contact list’ […] Which means basically what it says because of physical condition of one kind or the other, you have no contact whatsoever, no kind of physicality. And I’ve questioned over the years why I’m still on that ‘no contact list.'”
Lawler says that despite the fact he’s been working rather steadily on the indie circuit, WWE medical personnel have not cleared him since his tag match with Randy Orton against Dolph Ziggler and CM Punk the night he had his cardiac arrest. Lawler said he was actually dead for twenty-two minutes after his cardiac arrest.
Jerry Lawler said his personal doctors cleared him to wrestle and he’s had over 130 matches in the 4 1/2 years since his cardiac arrest but the WWE has never given him the okay to wrestle again. He said a WWE doctor told him they look at him as a liability, Jerry assumes this means they look at him as a public relations liability. Therefore, he has never been looked at by WWE doctors except for his standard examination which is required of all employees.
The focus turned to his WrestleMania match against Michael Cole and Jerry Lawler said he never let anything get under his skin except for when Cole made a crack about Jerry’s recently deceased mother. He also revealed that he chipped Michael Cole’s tooth while preparing for their match at WrestleMania.
“The only thing I can remember is, I figured I was going to give him a drop kick or something and I practiced it one time to show him what a drop kick was gonna be like, and I kicked him in the mouth and chipped his tooth. And so, it was one of those situations where I wished it would have been better off had I not done it. And then from that point on I thought he’s gonna be more nervous and worse if we try to prepare him rather than just let him go out there and let it risk happening naturally. Just let the people see what was really happening. A guy in a WrestleMania ring for the first time in his life, and a guy in a wrestling ring for the first time in his life, and so you know, that’s what happened.”
It is a good episode and King goes into a few more subjects and his Mania match against Michael Cole in much more detail. You can check out the entire thing here.
It’s official folks, Roman Reigns is going to face The Undertaker at WrestleMania 33. According to Roman Reigns he’s going to be the man that retires The Undertaker and we’re talking about whether or not it should happen on this week’s episode of Still Real Radio. You can check out the latest episode below and if you like what you hear, please subscribe to the show on iTunes.
