Legendary pro wrestling journalist Bill Apter has officially launched his first official podcast, Is Wrestling Fixed?
The debut episode features a new interview with Jim Cornette. A portion of their conversation is dedicated to discussing their memories of Andy Kaufman and you can find some of those comments transcribed below.
Subscribe: Is Wrestling Fixed? The Bill Apter Podcast
On Bill introducing Andy Kaufman to Jerry Lawler and then Jim Cornette being the photographer to chronicle Kaufman’s exploits in Memphis:
BA: As you know from reading my book I’m the guy who put those two (Kaufman & Lawler) together. That put the key in the ignition. Then we got these pictures in the office that Jerry Lawler sent us (with Kaufman) and they were by Jim Cornette. So, tell us what it was like when you first met Andy Kaufman and you realized that you were going to be the guy who was shooting these pictures that eventually would become fantastically looked at all the time by everybody.
JC: The thing was when Andy first came down to Memphis, the first couple of times, was to wrestle a woman. Do the thing that he was doing on Saturday Night Live and he was wrestling the women, right? Women from the audience. If he lost he had to marry one of them. Whoever beat him or if he got pinned he’d marry the girl and give her $1,000 or whatever. Anyway, obviously the instigation to get him there was like you said. He had wanted to do that act on a real wrestling show and Vince Sr. wasn’t going to go for that in the Garden. You had told him, “Hey Andy, in Memphis they go in for some of the wilder stuff.” And made that connection. So when Lawler came down he told me he was coming and I made sure to go down and shoot the matches he had with the women.
BA: Were you starstruck at that point? Had you seen him on Taxi?
JC: Yeah but it wasn’t Mick Jagger, Bill. Come on. It’s Andy Kaufman, “Tank you berry much.”
BA: To some people Andy Kaufman is Mick Jagger.
JC: In all honestly I was more starstruck around Joe LeDuc and Jimmy Valiant and all of the wrestling stars. Then I was marking out! With Andy it was, “Yes sir,” and, “No sir.” It was cool that there was a TV star here but I wouldn’t lose a lot of sleep. Anyway, I did get to meet him that night briefly and took a couple of posed pictures. I actually have a picture of him and Lawler shaking hands back in the locker room because I don’t think the angle was fully formed at that point. He was just coming in to wrestle some women and they were going to see how it went. It’s not like Lawler was kayfabing him from the start.
You can listen to even more of Bill and Jim’s first hand, detailed conversation about Andy Kaufman and Jerry Lawler’s feud in the embedded audio player above.
Related: Bill Apter’s “Is Wrestling Fixed?” The Podcast Launches On Podcast Arena
Bill begins by talking about his days on the radio and working on the magazines as a pro wrestling journalist. He also introduces the audience to his “cub reporter” Nick Hausman.
This issue of Is Wrestling Fixed? features:
- Classic audio from Bill’s archives of his old pro wrestling radio show “Inside Wrestling” featuring Capt. Lou Albano, Pedro Morales & The Great Black Demon
- A look at Goldberg’s return to WWE
- Bill’s answers to fan’s questions from the #AskApter mail bag
- A look back at one of Bill’s classic pro wrestling rankings
- Another piece of classic audio from Bill’s archives featuring an interview with The Fabulous Moolah
- A brand new, exclusive interview with Jim Cornette
- The debut of Bill’s “Apterorial” segment
- More…
You can listen to the full archives of pro wrestling podcasts from Podcast Arena including Bischoff on Wrestling and The Kevin Gill Show in the embedded audio player below:
