Steve Carrier on February 26, 2018
Lawler is joined on this week’s show by his co-host, Glenn Moore.
Lawler begins this week’s show by speaking about his match against James Ellsworth last weekend. He points out that Ellsworth was the hometown hero in this match, and he blames his loss on the referee who was clearly related to, or good friends with Ellsworth.
He points out that he had Ellsworth beat on one occasion but the referee failed to count to three, claiming that Lawler’s foot was touching the bottom rope during the pin. Eventually Lawler found himself laying on his back and Ellsworth covered him. Ellsworth put his two feet on the middle rope for leverage right in front of the referee and the referree still counted to three, giving Ellsworth the victory.
Lawler welcomes Jeff Jarrett to the show.
Jarrett informs that his Hall of Fame induction has been kept under wraps for a while, and he and WWE were both pleasantly surprised that the news didn’t leak before the official announcement. He admits that he didn’t even tell his father about the news; he only told his wife, and eventually his teenage kids squeezed the news out of them as well.
Jarrett mentions that a lot of people are very surprised that WWE invited him to join their Hall of Fame, and he doesn’t blame them for feeling that way. He points out that you should never say never in the wrestling business, and he’s very grateful to have received that call from WWE. He’s very proud to join the prestigious ranks of the WWE Hall of Fame.
Lawler recalls receiving a call from Vince McMahon several years ago, informing him that he’d be inducted into the Hall of Fame. Lawler replied by saying, “No!” which really surprised McMahon. Lawler explained to McMahon that he didn’t want to be inducted into the Hall of Fame at that point because he wasn’t ready to retire and he felt as if he still had plenty to offer to the business.
McMahon guaranteed Lawler that he didn’t have to retire just because he was entering the Hall of Fame. WWE simply wanted to celebrate Lawler’s accomplishments in the business up to that point. Lawler felt much better about accepting the honour after McMahon’s explanation.
Jarrett admits that he was completely caught off guard when he received the call from a WWE executive who he prefers not to mention by name. 2017 was an up and down year for Jarrett, admittedly more down than up, and this call really brightened his spirits. He didn’t even know how to respond to the caller or the invitation, asking the caller if he had to answer “Yes” or “No” right away.
Lawler mentions that he’d love to see WWE establish a brick and mortar Hall of Fame, where fans could walk into a building and see all of the old memorabilia from wrestling’s past. Jarrett agrees entirely, pointing out that WWE is a publicly traded company where the bottom line is king, and he truly believes a physical Hall of Fame would be a money-maker for the company.
Jarrett informs that he worked his first wrestling match on April 6th, 1986. Coincidentally, his WWE Hall of Fame induction will take place on April 6th of this year. Lawler is amazed by the length of Jarrett’s career, pointing out that time really does fly.
Lawler informs that when Jarrett debuted in WWE as Double J, he was supposed to have an entire entourage of people accompany him there from Memphis. For some reason the creative changed for Jarrett shortly before his debut, and several performers were left behind in Memphis which was a great disappointment for them.
Lawler points out that there are only 200-300 people in the WWE Hall of Fame, and while some people might think it’s a gimmick, it’s actually a very big accomplishment for professional wrestlers. He adds that he’d love to see former Memphis Wrestling talent, Kamala inducted into the Hall of Fame at some point in the future.
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 next week for another recap!
February 26, 2018 12:30 am
Disqus Comments Loading...
