Lawler is joined on today’s show by his co-host Glenn Moore.
Lawler opens today’s show speaking about WWE’s plans to host shows on Christmas Day and Boxing Day. He says he’s sure they’ll put off some great shows but he feels bad for the guys and girls who have to work on Christmas Day.
Lawler talks about the origins of the term ‘dirt sheet’. He informs that the term ‘dirt sheet’ originated from the fact that the initial news was written on old dirty sheets of paper. He was never a fan of the dirt sheet writers because they profited from exposing people’s private lives.
He adds that nobody in the wrestling business liked Dave Meltzer back in the day. As the years have passed the writers have become more accepted and there are hundreds of people doing it now so there’s no point in singling out Meltzer and hating him.
Lawler says he had a lot of fun working on XFL broadcasts back in the day. He still thinks that the XFL could have worked if Vince McMahon was allowed to run it on his own, without the interference of Dick Ebersol and NBC executives. The XFL needed to be different than the NFL, and McMahon tried to accomplish this by combining the worlds of football and sports entertainment.
He informs that NBC basically wanted a replica of the NFL, and McMahon knew that would never work. They based their advertising around sexy cheerleaders and explosions, and the ratings for the first two weeks were terrific. Unfortunately NBC made the decision to stop shooting the cheerleaders on the live broadcasts and Lawler knew right then that it wasn’t going to work.
Lawler knew that McMahon needed control over what the programming looked like, and the talent level on the field was never good enough to sell tickets on its own. He says that Jim Ross had a great time calling the action on the field because Ross is a huge football fan. Lawler had a great time calling the games as well because he was able to use some slightly off-colour humour, appealing to their target demo of 18-24 year-old males.
Lawler is intrigued by Vince McMahon’s decision to form Alpha Entertainment, and he wonders if McMahon plans on restarting the XFL or a different football league. Lawler mentions that streaming services are eventually going to overtake regular television and he suspects that the NFL will eventually have their own network, similar to the WWE Network.
He mentions that the WWE Network needs a variety of programming in order to be successful, and they’re lacking in that sense right now. Netflix has over 45 Million subscribers right now because they have a huge variety of content, and perhaps McMahon plans on restarting the XFL or creating a new football league to air on the WWE Network in an attempt to attract more potential subscribers.
Moore mentions that there are several rumours circulating on line regarding the WWE Hall of Fame Class of 2018. He mentions that Ivory, Kid Rock, Bam Bam Bigelow, The Dudley Boyz, and Goldberg are all rumoured to be entering the Hall of Fame this year.
Lawler mentions that all of those people are deserving entrants. Ivory was a huge part of the attitude era’s roster, and Bam Bam Bigelow was a phenomenal talent who should have been inducted into the Hall of Fame long before now. Lawler adds that Bigelow made him and his partners a lot of money during his time working in Memphis, and he went on to have a successful career in WWE as well.
He says that he likes Kid Rock a lot, and he’s a very kind, down to earth person. He’s surprised to hear that The Dudley Boyz aren’t already in the WWE Hall of Fame, but they’re certainly deserving of an induction as well. As for the headliner, Goldberg is the perfect choice in Lawler’s opinion. Goldberg had a very successful final run in WWE last year, and he’s a huge name to headline the Hall of Fame Class of 2018.
That sums up this week’s episode of Dinner With the King. You can listen to the show yourself anytime here, and I’ll catch ya net week for another recap!
