Jerry 'The King' Lawler Vs. Larry Zbyszko

King was an excellent heel and personality back in his day. It's one thing to watch his stuff on youtube like you do and it's another to have actually been there for it when it was new.

Is there anybody that you actually do "get" that doesn't relate to Hulk Hogan or WCW in some way?

I am a huge Jerry Lawler fan. The man was a master of ring psychology. There's nothing the man didn't get about the business. He may not have had a lot of wrestling skills which is probably why some people may not take to him. The man could talk people into a building by the thousands with his interviews. Heel or face the man just got it. When he pulled that strap down, the whole building was whipped into a frenzy. Larry Z I am a fan of also. He had more of a slow paced style which some people didn't care for, but he was tremendous.

You're not the first person to say that about the King. Regarding his looks and size. The man had the best looking punch in the business though. That really helped. It looked believable. They even worked angles around him having less wrestling skills. They brought in Bockwinkle to the territory and they did a match where Lawler wasn't allowed to throw any punches. That and the promos surrounding it how he couldn't wrestle and all that. But I do think he has more skills than he got credit for. He just got over huge ever since 1974 and when Jackie Fargo finished up, he was the man to run with the torch. Successful booker also. The Kaufman stuff everybody remembers. Didn't really do that much for the territory, but everybody knew about it and nationwide also. I caught that whole run. I'll watch it again once I get all the discs.

I think I vaguely remember that about Larry. Wasn't that after he stopped wrestling full time? 1997 or something like that? I think I liked his Crockett stuff the best and some of the AWA stuff. And Georgia too feuding with Paul Orndorff that was cool. You never really saw him as a face since before he turned on Bruno, but people liked his commentary on the pro show.

You mean with the USWA unified title? It was pretty much the same formula that worked for them throughout the 70's and 80's. He was the southern champion, he'd have a 2-3 week program, drop the title and regain it. It worked for a long time. When that basically morphed into the USWA unified title they just did the same thing. There really was nobody else you want to put that title on long term in that territory. They put the title on Sid for awhile and that worked, and you can have Brian Christopher or Bill Dundee sometimes, but Lawler was the #1 guy. He didn't do it for ego or to keep anybody down. That was basically just business. If he was booker in wcw and he put the wcw title on himself and won it 57 times, that wouldn't work. But for Memphis it did.

This is a good topic. It depends on the time period you're asking about. In the 90's, the talent pool was kind of thin because all the top stars were either wwf, wcw, or ecw. So there was really nobody else for them to push. They were forced to use some talent that was a bit below par and you had your guys like Dundee and Brian Christoper that got pushed. They relied on bringing in wwf guys like Razor Ramon, diesel, or Tatanka to wrestle Jerry Lawler and beat him for the title and drop it back next week. So there was really nothing else they could do in the 90's. They just couldn't pay anybody. The undercard was making 30 dollars a night.

But in the 70's and 80's, At this point in wrestling, each territories had a few mainstays, and the rest were just coming in for 3-6 months and moving on to another territory. That's how everybody's product stayed fresh and nobody got tired of seeing the same guys. So every 6 months or so the landscape of a territory would completely change. So you really couldn't push anybody long term. Add in the fact that they had to fill an 11,000 seat arena not once a month or once a year, but every Monday night. Not to mention the rest of the towns like Louisville, Evansville, Nashville, etc... Those were every week they were running those buildings. So there was really no time to slowly build up angles over a 3 month period. That also was the reason why there were so many title reigns. If it was like the WWF at MSG which they ran once a month, they could milk it for 3 or 4 months or so. But running every week in the same building They had to keep it hot and move it quickly. Nobody ever got the best of Lawler in a feud though unless he was heel. Because the people paid to see Lawler get the best of the heel in the end.

But as far as the names that ran through the territory, again it depends on the time period. Most of the biggest stars in the business have come through there at least once. Once the NWA and WWF went national they took a hit. In the 70's up until the mid 80's, Lawler was making several thousand dollars a week in the Memphis territory. He was making huge money. He owned half the territory as well. So there was really no reason for him to leave. He would've had to take a major pay cut to come to the WWF or to wrestle for Crockett. So a lot of stars would come through Memphis, some for a month, some for a few months etc.. That's just how it was before national wrestling companies. Guys going around the loop and working for different territories and Memphis was a hot stop to make for a lot of guys.

Gilbert, and Rich, and Landel to a certain extent, all had programs with Lawler that did really well. So it was basically the same formula that always worked. They'd get over on Lawler, and Lawler would get his revenge in the end. If Lawler doesn't get his revenge in the end, the fans get their revenge by not coming to the buildings anymore. Taker came through at a time when he was still green and just gaining some experience. Sid also, but came back after the WWF and WCW didn't want him anymore. So basically in the 70's and 80's the place was on fire and guys could make some money. In the late 80's and into the 90's, you had mostly guys that were just breaking in, or guys that were finishing up there careers because there was no money to be made there. Jarrett was able to keep the place in business by only really paying his top few guys.

I had never seen that Truman show you speak of. That does sound kind of interesting. But what you say with Lawler, kind of goes back to what we talked about in the other thread. Bruno was a huge mega star. But he would not get over in the Carolinas, or Florida, or anywhere in the South. The fans would never have accepted him or his style. Maybe Lawler never would've gotten over up North. Who knows. I personally think he could've.

I don't think they really had any interest in Lawler at any point in his career. Possibly for his style, his size, and being a southern guy. But you have to remember that by the time Lawler made it into the WWF in 1993, he was already 44 years old. He was still capable of having damn good matches, and he did in Memphis around that same time. But a run on top in the WWF just wasn't going to happen at that point. He had aged, had kind of a gut, and looked like an aging star. The robe and the hat and all that was kind of silly looking. That was more of a WWF thing and not something he really did much in Memphis or any place else. When Lawler was really at his best was around the late 70's up until the late 80's when he had the AWA title win around that superclash time. On a side note, they brought the Hart/Lawler feud over to Memphis with Lawler as the face and Vince and Brett coming in as heels and I liked those matches better than their wwf matches.

But that was an interesting time to watch the programs. It made for some great interviews back and forth with Bill Dundee and Lawler on Memphis tv. He'd give him crap for selling out and putting on the mickey mouse suit and going into the wwf. Lawler would say he did that to make some money but he came back to his real home every monday night to wrestle at the mid south coliseum. He was still over as a face in Memphis but some people didn't like seeing him as heel in the wwf on cable tv which everybody had by that point.

But also remember he lost the belt rather quickly in something like a 9 minute squash. We wouldn't want that for the king lol. But in all seriousness, if you remember back to Randy Savage in the early 90's that was a big thing with him. Vince thought he was too old at that point in 1993. I thought that was ridiculous because the guy could still go like he always did at the point.