WWE Hall of Famer Jerry “The King” Lawler was a recent guest on The Apter Chat with Bill Apter and co-host Josh Shernoff.
Lawler opened up on a myriad of wrestling related topics including the relationship he shared with his late son Brian Christopher, how he became The King, Smackdown 1000, WWE’s Saudi Arabia tour, & much more.
Lawler was asked about his son Brian Christopher and the special bond they shared,
“Brian and I….we had more, we did have a father and son relationship; but, rather than – even more than the father and son relationship, we had like a wrestling buddy relationship. Brian got into the wrestling business not long out of high school. I wasn’t really around him. He and Kevin – his brother – grew up with their mom. I first started seeing him after he graduated on a regular basis and right after that he got into the wrestling business. We missed the young childish father and son relationship and then it became – once we were in the business – it was more like wrestlers have with each other. He became one of the boys.”
Lawler talked about Brian being a Steelers fan. Lawler is a die-hard Browns fan and the two would bond over NFL football and the rivalry the two teams shared,
“It was so poignant that the first game of this season was the Browns against the Steelers. It’s all I could think of during the game was that we’d be watching together or talking on the phone back and forth, if we weren’t in the same city, about who was gonna win. Lo and behold it was a tie. Neither team won and that was almost fitting for that.”
Lawler opened up about the early portion of his legendary wrestling career, including how he became known as The King,
“I went on TV one week and I don’t even know why, just out of the clear blue trying to make some colorful speech. I said, ‘[Jackie] Fargo, you’ve been the King of Memphis for some time; but, your looking at the kid that’s gonna knock you right off your throne.’ I didn’t even know what I was thinking when I said that, just some kind of colorful speech. Anyway, that Monday night I went on, I won the match and I was going back to the dressing room some young fans that were heel fans were slapping me on the back and saying, ‘Hey, you’re the King. You’re the King now.’ That Friday night I go down to Atlanta and into the locker room comes Bobby Shane, first time I ever met him.”
Bobby Shane went by the moniker The King and had an elaborate royal costume, which included a crown. Lawler inquired as to where he could purchase such a getup and after Lawler explained the current angle he was involved in, Shane agreed to allow Lawler to borrow the robe and the crown.
Lawler continued,
“He loaned me the crown. I showed up the next morning with the crown on and the robe and that was the beginning of Jerry “The King” Lawler.”
Bobby Shane tragically passed away a month later in a plane crash and Lawler never had the opportunity to return the crown or the robe, which became instrumental to his career.
