Jerry Lawler recently spoke with AL.com; you can read a few highlights below:
Jerry Lawler on the excitement for this year’s Wrestlemania:
It seems like every single year we do a Wrestlemania, I come away from the event thinking, ‘how will they top that?’ That’s the whole purpose of Wrestlemania and the WWE every year is to make Wrestlemania bigger. Last year … it seemed like we saw the last of The Undertaker. I thought that was going to be something very, very difficult to top. Now, I’m so excited about this one … and the challenge tossed out by John Cena. That will be a match a lot of people thought you’d never see. Braun Stroman is challenging for the tag team titles by himself. There is the new signing of Rhonda Rousey. And the fact that it’s in New Orleans, which is like the party center of the United States.
Lawler shares his favorite Wrestlemania memories:
I’ve only wrestled in at one Wrestlemania and that was in a match against Michael Cole (Wrestlemania 27, which was held in 2011 in Atlanta). For me, personally, walking down that aisle in front of 80,000 people was an amazing thing that will never be topped in my career. As far as things that happened at Wrestlemania … the so many great matches I’ve seen. The match I remember the most, and I think sometimes at Wrestlemania they come up with matches you’d though you never would see, and this was Hulk Hogan against The Rock (Wrestlemania 18, held in 2002 in Toronto). It was a dream match. It was like seeing Mike Tyson going against Muhammad Ali. That match, and with (Jim Ross) and I calling it, was probably one of the highlights of my Wrestlemania memories.
Lawler comments on this year’s Hall Of Fame nominees:
I’m hosting the Hall of Fame. One thing that is near and dear to my heart is that Jeff Jarrett and his dad, Jerry Jarrett, were partners owning the Memphis territory. Jeff is going into the WWE Hall of Fame along with Ivory, the Dudley Boys and Hillbilly Jim, who started out in Memphis as ‘Harley Davidson.’ Of course, Goldberg is going in. That is always a great event and I am honored to be able to host that every year. Nothing is finalized yet, but I hope to get to call a match or two. That stuff is (determined) at the last minute. If Undertaker and John Cena happens, that is one of those special matches, and I hope they put me and J.R. out there to call it.
Does Lawler think Andy Kaufman should be in the WWE Hall Of Fame?
I can’t say that I’ve campaigned. I feel that would be self-serving if I was out there beating the drum for Andy Kaufman all the time. But I do feel like he would be a worthy celebrity inductee in the WWE Hall of Fame. He was solely responsible for the stuff I did with him, and it changed the face of professional wrestling that went from professional wrestling to sports entertainment. He was a guy who really loved the business.
