I'm perusing through some old clips of late 99 (remember those days? Undertaker and Big Show were tag champs!), and I began to realize how irritating Jerry Lawler really was.
Was that by design, to somehow balance out the Attitude Era violence and shock value with some lighthearted comedy; or was he always just a vexatious jackass and he's toned it down since then?
Every time a wrestler was starting to cut a decent promo, King would interject some asinine comment during each slight pause. It was worse than the "WHAT?" chants.
King is much more entertaining in memory than history. He was one of the reasons I preferred WCW, just so I didn't have to listen to an over the hill pathetic old man yelp and holler at women even moving. The only time I've evr legitimately missed him was when Heyman took his spot. Good god. As awful as Lawler was/is Heyman made me want him back. Heyman's fine anywhere but as a commentator.
OP you seriously find the boring old bland face King to the Attitude Era King? Are you alright? I use to love when he ripped on JR and would make fun of certain wrestlers. Now King seems bored out of his mind.
I thought he was awesome as a colour commentator in the 90's. He was so quick with his insults and his banter with JR and Vince, when he was at the booth, was entertaining. Now he just doesn't seem at all interested in his job, he just plays the boring babyface role now and botches way too much when commentating. The WWE should hand him his release and replace him with someone who actually has some passion.
He really hasn't been the same since that whole Stacy Carter incident. Almost as if
he's been neutered. Story was Stacy (aka the Kat) was fired by WWF at the time that
the King and her were dating. He leaves WWF in protest and she ends up dumping him
anyway. He comes back to WWF headquarters asking for his job back. Since then he's
lost his ball sack... at least from my perspective.
When Jerry Lawler was a heel commentator he was golden. That's the problem with commentators today. They all seem to be neutral or face which is why the commentating is so crap, because there is no personality, there is no colour. There's only two guys trying to announce a match and hype fueds with no real emotion. But when Jerry was with JR it was brilliant. He had alot of good ones back then. But now the commentating is just bland and boring. I can't believe i'm saying this, but I think it's better that JR isn't working commentary in WWE anymore because he'd only have to deal with the shitty commentating we see today.
King's best stuff in my opinion was in 95/96 alongside Vince McMahon. If you look at most funny Lawler quotes they were from sitting alongside him. He used to have 2-3 funny jokes per broadcast.
Now Lawler only comes with something once every 3-4 weeks. Like:
* I found Jillian Hall's [singing] performance moving. I moved closer to the exit.
* Cryme Tyme were honors students. They were often saying 'yes, your honor'
* This gentleman needs no introduction, but if I don't give him one he'll fire me.
* Shad was wearing a Tennessee State t-shirt. I asked him, "Did you go to college there?". He said, "No, the penetentiary"
I disagree and I had no problem whatsoever with Jerry "The King" Lawler at any point in time. I thought that he was a great heel commentator, always supporting Mr. McMahon's evil ways and getting really excited about the Divas. The only thing I have a problem with is the Jerry Lawler of now that is watered down, supportive of the faces and boring.
To go a little off topic, I think that it's always a good idea to have a heel commentator at the announce table. That's not just because I thought King was great because Jesse Ventura was good as well. Personally, I think heel commentary helps the heels get over even more. If the TV crowd can see someone they love to hate and then hear someone really supporting the actions of that heel, that may just make them more angry. It makes for a much more entertaining match, too. I have to say that it was especially fun to me when Gorilla & Ventura or JR & King were arguing about the actions of the heels and faces.
I've never been much of a Lawler fan, he was 10 million times better 12 years ago than he is now, but compared to the greats like Jesse Ventura, Paul Haymen, Bobby Heenan and JBL he pales into the background
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