Eric Bischoff On Talking To Jerry Lawler About Joining WCW In 2001

The Monday Night Wars era of wrestling was a great time for wrestling fans as it was full of surprises. You never knew who might leave WWE and jump ship to join WCW, and vice versa.

Jim Ross and Jerry “The King” Lawler were the voices of The Attitude Era on WWE programming, but in 2001 Jerry Lawler left WWE after his wife was fired.

At that point in time Eric Bischoff was working with a group of investors in an attempt to try and purchase WCW, and he was also putting together plans in regards to the future direction of the company.

Bischoff discussed his vision for the future of the company on his 83 Weeks podcast, and he noted that one of his ideas would have been to have different announce teams throughout the course of one show.

While talking about who may have ended up on the announce teams Eric Bischoff said that he received a phone call from Jerry Lawler and he made it clear that he was interested in working with Lawler under the right circumstances.

“Jerry called me. I had never even said hello to him, we never crossed paths, never talked to him on the phone, nothing. It was like 5:30 at night, I’m driving and I get a phone call from Jerry Lawler. We chatted for a few minutes, let me know he was free, heard I had something going and wanted to know if I was interested and I said absolutely Jerry, let’s follow this up. Nothing ever came of it, but yeah definitely. I don’t know what I would’ve done with him but we would’ve done something with him for sure.”

Ultimately WWE ended up purchasing WCW, Jerry “The King” Lawler returned, and he still has a presence on WWE programming to this very day.

H/T Wrestling Inc.