The latest episode of legendary pro wrestling journalist Bill Apter’s podcast Is Wrestling Fixed? was released earlier this morning. It features exclusive interviews with WWE Hall of Famer Jerry Lawler and the mother of Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, Ata Johnson.
Some of Lawler’s comments about the chapter in Bill’s book Is Wrestling Fixed? about Bill introducing him to Andy Kaufman have been transcribed below.
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JL: Bill Apter is solely responsible for all of my involvement with Andy Kaufman. I think that somehow and someway that he was so determined. He had already approached Vince McMahon Sr. He was determined that he was going to wrestle some women in front of a wrestling audience. In front of people that actually came to see wrestling as opposed to just doing it at comedy clubs or Saturday Night Live or that sort of thing. I think that one way or another he would have accomplished that but thank God Bill was there and put Andy I in touch with each other and the rest is history. It worked out perfectly. As a matter of fact one time Vince McMahon and I were on his plane and he leaned over to me and said, “You know King, I don’t know if I ever told you but I was so jealous when you guys did all of that stuff with Andy Kaufman. I realized that we could have had it first but the way it worked out… not that we could have ever done what you guys did with it.” He was so complimentary about how it went. Yes, Andy did offer it to WWE first.
This issue of Is Wrestling Fixed? features:
- Brand new, exclusive interviews with WWE Hall of Famer Jerry Lawler and the mother of The Rock, Ata Johnson
- Classic audio from Bill’s archives featuring Pedro Morales
- Bill’s & Nick’s thoughts on some of the recent headlines from around the world of pro wrestling including their WWE Royal Rumble predictions
- The #AskApter Mail Bag
- More…
You can listen to the full audio archives in the embedded audio player below:
