Lawler is joined on today’s show by his co-host Glenn Moore.
Lawler mentions that he and Jim Ross will be traveling across the World with WWE to call the “Greatest Royal Rumble Ever”. Moore asks Lawler if he’ll be competing in the first ever 50-man Royal Rumble, but Lawler says he’d definitely be surprised to be asked to compete. Lawler mentions that this event will be broadcasted on the WWE Network, and he’s very excited about it.
He notes that anything is possible because Daniel Bryan was cleared for a return to the ring this past week when many people thought he’d never be able to get cleared again. Lawler points out that Bryan took a lot of physical abuse on RAW this week especially for his first night back in action, and he felt overly concerned about Bryan’s health while watching it.
Lawler thinks this is the reason that WWE feels hesitant about putting performers like him back into action. He assumes that WWE doesn’t want fans sitting on the edge of their seats feeling legitimate concerned about someone’s health when they’re supposed to be enjoying the action. Lawler is sure that WWE is concerned that if they cleared him for a return to the ring, he’d drop down dead in his first match back.
Lawler believes that Bryan had his mind made up, and after his WWE contract ended he was going to leave the company in order to be able to wrestle again. In a sense, he thinks this forced WWE’s hand to clear him. Regardless, he’s sure WWE didn’t rush into this decision and they certainly checked all their boxes, requiring Bryan to be cleared by multiple doctors around the World.
He goes on to say that there’s a big difference in Bryan returning to the ring and him returning to the ring. Bryan is a much younger competitor, and Lawler admits that WWE mightn’t be using him to wrestle even if he didn’t have the cardiac event several years ago, given his age.
Lawler suspects that WWE is heading towards Shane McMahon & Daniel Bryan versus Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn at WrestleMania this year, and he likes that idea.
Lawler speaks about his WrestleMania match against Michael Cole. Some people have dubbed that match the worst match of all time, but he doesn’t think that was the case at all. He points out that Cole was “blown up” very early into that match which made things difficult, and he also thought WWE failed to use Steve Austin and Jack Swagger effectively during that match. Regardless, he doesn’t think it was the worst match of all time.
Lawler mentions that people ask him all the time which match he’d consider to be his favourite, out of all the matches he and Jim Ross called together. Lawler says he and Ross agree that The Rock versus Hulk Hogan was their favourite match to call. The feeling in the air that evening and the entire situation was incredible, and Lawler hasn’t been involved in anything like that since.
Lawler mentions that payouts for the Kickoff Shows are less than payouts for performers who work the main shows. He goes on to say that more people watch the Kickoff Shows because it’s available on so many more platforms than the actual show, and WWE uses the Kickoff Shows as advertisements in the hopes of getting fans to buy the main show. He informs that he’ll be working at least one hour of the WrestleMania Kickoff Show this year.
For two weeks in a row Lawler has really enjoyed John Cena’s promos. He has enjoyed the build towards Cena/Undertaker at WrestleMania, and he’s interested to see where WWE goes with this story next week on RAW.
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!
