Steve Carrier on November 7, 2017
Lawler is joined on today’s show by his co-host Glenn Moore.
Lawler opens today’s show by mentioning that he and his old WWE broadcast partner, Jim Ross are planning on doing a series of live shows in 2018, where they’ll be travelling to various cities across the United States talking to fans. The shows will be similar to what Ross has been doing with his one-man shows and will consist of both men sharing old stories and taking questions from the live audience.
Moore mentions that Ric Flair’s ESPN 30 for 30 documentary will be airing tonight, and he’s really looking forward to watching it. Lawler agrees and says that this appears to be a fantastic film so he’s looking forward to seeing it as well. He points out that although he and Flair shared the prime of their careers during the same time period, they rarely worked together.
Lawler was co-Owner of Memphis Wrestling and that kept him local for most of the year. Flair, on the other hand, was World Champion and he traveled everywhere. Lawler says it was hard to get Flair for dates in Memphis and the only time they’d see each other was when he was lucky enough to book Flair to go through Memphis during his travels.
Lawler also says that he and Flair lived completely different lives. Flair was a party animal where as Lawler preferred to avoid that scene altogether. He informs that Flair might arrive in a certain town to work a show where he’d be paid $3,000 for his match, and then later that night he’d rack up a $3,500 bar tab. Lawler, on the other hand, has never had a sip of alcohol in his life.
He goes on to say that being the World Champion had its perks, and Flair wouldn’t have had to buy one drink in his life if he didn’t want to. That didn’t matter to Flair because he always wanted to be the life of the party. He’s a very generous person so he’d always insist on buying everyone’s alcohol.
Lawler informs that he and Flair eventually began working in WWE together and they became closer as friends. Over the last few years they’ve actually worked at a lot of wrestling conventions together which has been very cool.
Moore points out that Impact Wrestling are paying people to attend there next set of television tapings in Ottawa, Canada. They’re apparently paying $12.50/hour for three 4-hour shoots, and Lawler says he’s never seen anything like this in the wrestling industry before. Hollywood productions use extras all the time, but he’s never seen it in the wrestling business.
Moore thinks the business as a whole is in trouble right now, and he believes there needs to be competition for WWE in order for the business to thrive in general. Lawler agrees that competition is good as that keeps everyone on their toes. More competition also means more work for wrestlers which he’s certainly in favour of. Unfortunately, Impact simply can’t seem to get going in the right direction at all so that competition is probably going to have to come from elsewhere.
Lawler says he spoke to Al Snow recently. Snow was still employed by Impact at that time but has been since released. From their conversation, Lawler got the sense that Impact was in a state of disarray. Since that day, Impact has cycled through multiple name changes and several well known talents have been let go, furthering the company’s problems.
Moore points out that veteran referee Earl Hebner was released from the company this week as well, and he wonders if we’ll ever see Hebner in the WWE Hall of Fame. Lawler says Hebner was a WWE staple during the company’s glory years but unfortunately he didn’t leave on the best of terms. The thing about Vince McMahon, is he always forgives and forgets.
Lawler doesn’t know of one person who McMahon has remained angry at forever. He’s a tremendous businessman and he understands the value of making things right with people who have fallen out of the company’s good graces over the years. McMahon has always been able to separate personal feelings and business.
Lawler doesn’t think we’ll ever see Earl Hebner return to the company as a working referee on a regular basis, but it wouldn’t surprise him if Hebner is inducted into the Hall of Fame. Speaking about the Hall of Fame, Moore believes another Superstar worthy of induction is Vader. Lawler agrees and believes Vader will be inducted sooner rather than later. He also mentions that Andy Kaufman is one person who he’d love to see inducted into the Hall of Fame.
That sums up today’s episode of Dinner With the King. You can listen to the show yourself anytime here, and I’ll catch ya next week for another recap!
November 7, 2017 9:34 pm
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