According to WWE sources, Jerry Lawler was legitimately on RAW this week following Mark Henry's World’s Strongest Slam through the announcers table. The table reportedly did not break as planned and Lawler's back was said to be in "extreme pain" and he was taken to a local hospital via ambulance to be examined by Doctors. Jim Ross tweeted the following today: “Many asking about King. I’ll respect his privacy but don’t expect to see him in KC for Raw. Hope I’m wrong. He’s gonna be sore 4 days.”

Labels: jerry lawler, mark henry

Posted by Matt Loede at 12:22 PM | Permalink | Comments

The May 9th episode of WWE RAW did a 3.18 rating with 4.95 million viewers. Here's a ratings breakdown:

Kelly Kelly and Eve Torres vs. The Bella Twins with Kharma's attack lost 177,000 viewers from the opener. Kane vs. Mason Ryan and Dolph Ziggler vs. Santino Marella lost another 353,000 viewers.

Backstage segments going into Alex Riley vs. John Cena gained 104,000 viewers while the match itself gained another 685,000 viewers. You could say that Riley did better than The Miz usually does in the same spot.

The segment with Michael Cole, Jerry Lawler and Jack Swagger lost 172,000 viewers, which isn't that bad for the time slot. Swagger vs. Kofi Kingston for the US Title lost 353,000 more viewers and the main event of Miz vs. Alberto Del Rio vs. Rey Mysterio gained 736,000 viewers to bring the overrun to a 3.57.

Labels: jerry lawler, kelly kelly, RAW

Posted by Matt Loede at 1:06 PM | Permalink | Comments

Special Guest Host: Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson

WWE Title Match
John Cena vs. The Miz

World Heavyweight Title Match
Alberto Del Rio vs. Edge

The Streak on the Line – No Holds Barred
Triple H vs. The Undertaker

WWE United States Title Match
Daniel Bryan vs. Sheamus

Jerry Lawler vs. Michael Cole, Special Referee: Steve Austin
Cole’s trainer Jack Swagger will be in his corner.

Randy Orton vs. CM Punk

Rey Mysterio vs. Cody Rhodes

Snooki, Trish Stratus and John Morrison vs. Michelle McCool, Layla and Dolph Ziggler

Labels: jerry lawler, the rock, wrestlemania 27

Posted by Matt Loede at 5:11 PM | Permalink | Comments

There was actually talk in creative meetings of Jerry Lawler winning the WWE Title from The Miz at Elimination Chamber. There was one idea for Lawler to win at the pay-per-view and then drop the belt on tonight's RAW. There is a feeling that The Miz hasn't gotten over how they want and they need to give him big wins now to get him over.

Labels: 2011 Elimination Chamber, jerry lawler, the miz

Posted by Matt Loede at 11:45 AM | Permalink | Comments

- WWE superstar CM Punk, who is injured and out of action for several months, will be joining the announcing booth tonight. Punk will call the show with Jerry Lawler and Michael Cole
.
- Aside from the WWE legends already announced for the show, former WWE manager Slick will also be on tonight’s show. The “Doctor of Style” is currently backstage in Hershey, PA.

- “Cowboy” Bob Orton, Ron Simmons & Tony Atlas are also backstage at tonight’s RAW.

Labels: cm punk, jerry lawler, michael cole

Posted by Matt Loede at 8:16 PM | Permalink | Comments

TNA star Mick Foley is calling out WWE superstar Triple H for his "shallow" and "mean" joke about Lilian Garcia's appearance on RAW two weeks ago.

Garcia returned to WWE for one night to guest ring announce when the RAW crew was stranded in Europe. During the opening segment of the show, Triple H had a microphone and went over to her and said, "Even Lillian Garcia. If Lillian wants to come back here for night to the WWE just to horse around, she can do it." After Triple H's remarks, Jerry Lawler make a horse sound on commentary. Triple H's "horsing around" comment reportedly a reference to a backstage joke about Lilian that her face resembles that of a horse.

Foley wrote on his MySpace.com blog that Triple H's joke was the latest incident in a pattern of cruel on-air behavior from Vince McMahon's son in law:

"Why does someone like Triple H, one of the most talented, well paid guys in the business, do something so shallow and mean? Why would a multi-millionaire, with millions of fans around the world, feel the need (several times over the years) to say something that is only meant to hurt? I don't get it. I don't get why it's done, I don't get why it's condoned, I don't get what possible satisfaction anyone involved gets from demeaning someone like Lillian Garcia. I just don't get it."

Labels: jerry lawler, mick foley, triple h

Posted by Matt Loede at 4:07 PM | Permalink | Comments

On RAW this past week, both Jerry Lawler and Jesse Ventura were given "cheat sheets" with photos of the Superstars in the different matches. In Lawler's case, he doesn't watch ECW or SmackDown and Ventura didn't really know anyone besides the top guys.

Labels: jerry lawler, jesse ventura

Posted by Matt Loede at 4:46 PM | Permalink | Comments

Jim Ross has a new blog entry available on his official website. Below are the highlights:

- It looks as if as many as one dozen candidates may run for Mayor of Memphis including several professional politicos. The African American vote in Memphis will be critical for Jerry Lawler and his opponents. From what I read in the Memphis media, some of the black candidates may divide a large segment of Memphis voters which might enhance the King's chances of winning the election. Nonetheless it will be a daunting challenge for any candidate to win the October special election without an established, clear cut favorite and, unfortunately, it may be the candidate who spends the most money on TV and radio ads that "buys" their way into running the city of Memphis. The current Mayor is leaving office but will enjoy, from what I understand, an approximate $90K annual pension of which the Mayor of Memphis earns after one term in office or so it was told to me. The King has tremendous name identity in his home town but his path to City Hall won't be easy and is going to require using a great deal of "shoe leather" and pressing the flesh and spending virtually every waking minute working on his campaign. I haven't talked to Jerry in a couple of weeks but likely will soon, in Philly at the Night of Champions, and will be interested in seeing how his campaign is going.

- I got a nice email from "Hitman" Bret Hart a day or so ago and he is moving around very well with his new knee that replaced the original equipment several weeks ago. Bret is spending time in Calgary this summer and we were hoping to get together when WWE is in Alberta in a few weeks but that looks iffy due to our respective schedules. Bret and I stay in somewhat regular contact and I know he's been keeping an eye on the Hart Dynasty which are now appearing regularly on Friday Night Smackdown.

- I have recorded an United Way commercial with such luminaries as OU Head Football Coach Bob Stoops, OU Head Women's Hoops Coach Sherri Coale, Heisman Trophy winners Steve Owens, Billy Sims, and Jason White. I'm not sure how I made the cut on this one but I am proud to be associated with all these folks and even prouder to help the United Way. When the commercial is done we hope to get a copy to air here on our site. It is important for all of us to give back to our communities especially in today's challenging times. When I think about kids who don't have enough food to eat it makes me want to do more.

- Got somewhat of a break this week as I found out late Friday afternoon that the Smackdown announce team wasn't needed in Raleigh Monday to tape a Superstars' match. We will record ours on Tuesday prior to taping Friday Night Smackdown in Richmond, Virginia. I do plan on getting to Richmond, which was a vital part of the old Jim Crockett Promotions NWA territory back in the day, so I can watch my friends Billy Gibbons and Dusty Hill of ZZ Top fame "host" Monday Night Raw.

- I'm beginning to like the guest host business for Raw more and feel like there are many WWE HOF'ers, for example, who can talk and who would be great "one off" hosts of WWE's top television priority, the home of the "A Listers," Monday Night Raw. Certainly celeb's who have projects to promote are viable candidates and especially those that are fans of the genre such as Seth Green last week in Orlando and ZZ Top coming up this Monday from North Carolina State University.

Labels: jerry lawler, jim ross

Posted by Matt Loede at 1:09 PM | Permalink | Comments

There has been a lot of internal talk lately about the future of WWE’s announcing teams. With Jim Ross being 57 years old and Jerry Lawler turning 60 this year, it’s set that Michael Cole, Todd Grisham and Josh Matthews are the lead announcers. Vince McMahon is said to be happy with the situation because he now believes that the announcers should be colorless in the sense that they aren’t the stars but the wrestlers are and there’s a feeling that Ross and Lawler are stars.

Labels: jerry lawler, jim ross, michael cole

Posted by Matt Loede at 4:03 PM | Permalink | Comments

In an interview with the Peoria Star, Jerry "The King" Lawler said he's seen seen former WWE/WCW star Sid Vicious and he believes he's completely healed from his gruesome leg injury. "To me, he's better than ever," Lawler said. "He's the same Sid he was before the broken leg." Lawler added that he's heard talk of Sid returning to WWE and he'd like to see it happen. "He's completely healed, and there is some talk he might return to WWE," Lawler said. "He could come back and make a big splash."

Lawler also talked about the differences between working with Michael Cole and working with Jim Ross. "J.R. and I worked together for 15 years. He is great at what he does. He takes it so seriously," Lawler said. "Working with Michael Cole is easy, as well. Michael is a little more ... gosh, he might be a little more like me in the fact he's kind of laid back." Lawler added, "I always keep in mind, this isn't brain surgery, it's not life or death. It's wrestling."

Labels: jerry lawler, sid vicious

Posted by Matt Loede at 1:44 AM | Permalink | Comments

Jim Ross is back with another blog update over at jrsbarbq.com. The highlights:

- Jack Swagger, really nice name, is the real deal and, as legend has it, never lost a street fight while attending Oklahoma University where he came as a two sport, full scholarship athlete. Swagger will someday be an ECW Champion, or hold other gold, and is likely a year away from getting his chance to be a regular, contributing member of the main event society within the WWE but make no mistake that this young man is a keeper. Nice bout between the former OU Wrestling All American and veteran Tommy Dreamer on Tuesday night on Sci Fi. FTW as some will try and figure it out, I watched it on DVR.

- Speaking of the King and I, we will be heading to Houston in January to do some PR work for the on sale date of the WWE Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony that will be a part of WM25. It would be nice to know an inductee or two by then but I’m not holding my breathe on that one.

- Bold statement in a recent newspaper interview by DH Smith that he is the best second generation wrestler in the WWE today. I like the young man’s confidence and after seeing him this week he looks physically ready to go. Smith is very laid back but something tells me that he has a bona fide mean streak ala his Grandfather Stu Hart. I suspect that Smith will debut on Smackdown in the next few weeks but that is speculation only.

- The Undertaker’s submission hold is now being called officially, “Hell’s Gate.”

Labels: jack swagger, jerry lawler, jim ross, undertaker

Posted by Matt Loede at 6:12 AM | Permalink | Comments

RAW Monday night was a jam packed show, some of which was pretty good, but as usual some of which was very bad. Here we go with another edition of our Good, Bad and our Grad from RAW:

The Good
--------------

* The opener with C.M. Punk and Chris Jericho for the World Heavyweight Title in a cage was a solid match and way to start the show. Both guys I thought worked hard, and while the ending was a little lacking, I thought overall the match was well done and pretty good. Got the crowd right into the show.

* The finale with the announcement of Chris Jericho vs Shawn Michales was not only a surprise, but a welcome surprise with the stip of the ladder match. And here I thought they would go with another Batista challenge for the title. I guess they will keep that for Cyber Sunday. For now, Michaels and Jericho should put on a good show.

* Candice Michelle again looked strong as she gets set to challenge Beth Phoenix at No Mercy. Against Jillian Hall she had her best match by far since coming back. Now we'll see if she can do it vs Phoenix when it counts at a PPV.


The Bad
------------

* The whole Kane-Mysterio thing was awful. The match was watchable and okay, but the ending was so weak, and now we throw a very green Evan Bourne in the mix? Don't really get what that is all about, other than a major rush job to bury Bourne next week vs Kane (which you know is coming).

* I don't think I have to say too much good to say about the ultra-weak 6-man tag that was a total waste of time. Why keep throwing two very good tag wrestlers along with a new guy we've never seen against one good current wrestler in Kofi Kingston and a joke of Jerry Lawler and Charlie "JR" Haas is totally beyond me. You can't come up with something better?

* Wow, so Layla is jumping ship to William Regal and leaving Jamie Noble?! A: I never knew she and Noble were actually together, and B: who really cares?

Final Grade for the Show: C-

Labels: charlie haas, chris jericho, jamie noble, jerry lawler, kane, layla, rey mysterio

Posted by Matt Loede at 9:19 PM | Permalink | Comments

From: WrestleScoop.com

In case you missed it, Jerry Lawler noted on commentary during Monday's Raw that Shane and Stephanie are looking for a new General Manager for Raw. Here is what WWE.com wrote regarding this in their Raw recap: "As rumors swirled about that Shane and Stephanie McMahon were currently in the process of searching for a new Raw General Manager, World Heavyweight Champion CM Punk defended his title against Batista in a match that saw involvement from Kane, JBL and John Cena."

Labels: jbl, jerry lawler, john cena, shane mcmahon

Posted by Matt Loede at 2:28 PM | Permalink | Comments

According to a report in The Wrestling Observer Newsletter, there is said to be a tremendous amount of internal unhappiness within WWE over the current pairing of Michael Cole and Jerry Lawler as the Raw announcing team. Based on reports, there has been lots of second guessing of the original move since the first week and that has increased even more so this week.

There is said to be so much concern that some discussions have reportedly taken place of shooting an angle to put the old team of Jim Ross and Jerry Lawler back together. However, at this point these are only being considered small discussions and nothing has been planned yet. Many have found this entire situation to be extremely humorous as many know Vince McMahon has been prone to going back on decisions of pushing JR out of the Raw announce table many times.

What makes things interesting is that while JR was against the move to Smackdown at first, he has since commented on his official blog that he now likes his new schedule as it gives him more time to spend at home and is the greatest work schedule he has ever had. As things stand now, Vince is reportedly against making any change to how things are and is in favor of getting Cole to become more of what he wants the main Raw announcer to be since he hasn't been happy with him in the last few weeks so far.

We'll see where this goes but there is a lot of second guessing going on over the situation.

Labels: jerry lawler, jim ross, michael cole, vince mcmahon

Posted by Matt Loede at 5:14 AM | Permalink | Comments

Matt Loede of Let’s Talk Wrestling sits down for a few minutes with WWE Hall of Famer, Jerry “The King” Lawler. The two talk about the recent draft, the situation around Jim Ross and his feelings about being moved, competition in the wrestling industry right now, and the good and bad about his deal with the company and what he still likes about his position. Click below to hear this interesting interview with “The King.”

Labels: jerry lawler, matt loede

Posted by Matt Loede at 2:48 PM | Permalink | Comments

The Following was Posted One Year Ago today on Let's Talk Wrestling:

Four days away from the next WWE PPV, and it's as if no one really knows, nor cares about it. A shame that a PPV that actually may have a solid match or two is simply being buried right now by one of the most ridiclous angles in years in the "death" of Vince McMahon. Last night's ECW show solved the mystery of who will be in the ECW Title match, and that will be Chris Benoit vs C.M. Punk. I am sold now on the fact that Benoit is going over, and that was/is the selling point for him to make the move to ECW in the first place. Hopefully a Benoit title win will give the belt a little taste of legit, and hopefully he will be allowed to hold it for awhile.

Wrestling Observer reports today that there is a column called "Sportsbiz" at CNBC.com that rips apart the company for the McMahon storyline. It basically goes on to say that the company is being irresponsible to shareholders for the storyline, pretending that McMahon is dead. A shareholder speaks in the column about an email he sent to the company telling them they are being "reckless with investors money." You have to wonder how much of this backlash they are willing to take before they move the storyline ahead and get it over with. Of course if the RAW ratings stay as strong for the three-hour show this week as last, I think as written yesterday that we are in for a long saga that may go for a few months.

Jerry "The King" Lawler had charges filed against him today after an incident at Sam's Town Friday night when reports say that "The King" allegedly punched Sal Corrente a few times. Reports say that Jerry hit Sal after he thought that Sal had hit a fan.

Here is the latest Vengence Card for Sunday in Sold Out Houston:
* WWE Championship Challenge Match - John Cena vs. Booker T vs. Randy Orton vs. Mick Foley vs. Bobby Lashley
* World Heavyweight Champion Edge vs. Batista (Last Chance Match)
* Intercontinental Champion Santino Marella vs. Umaga
* United States Champion MVP vs. Ric Flair
* World Tag Team Champions Lance Cade & Trevor Murdoch vs. The Hardys
* Cruiserweight Champion Chavo Guerrero vs. Jimmy Wang Yang
* Women's Champion Melina vs. Candice Michelle
* ECW Title Match - Chris Benoit vs. CM Punk

I have to say I have more than a few conversations with wrestling fans over the last two days about the disrespect they gave to Sherri Martel on Monday night with about the weakest tribute to a passing star that they have had in a long time. Other than about a 5 second basic black screen with a pic of Martel and telling us of her passing, they basically ignored the whole thing. So sad, considering if we were not in the midst of the stupid McMahon storyline we for sure would have had a video tribute. Instead, they just went ahead and almost made it like it didn't happen. Sad.

Labels: batista, c.m. punk, chris benoit, edge, jerry lawler

Posted by Matt Loede at 6:09 AM | Permalink | Comments

Quite a few years ago I had the pleasure of interviewing Jerry "The King" Lawler at a Cleveland Indians game while he was a visitor in the press box. At that time he was in between stints with the WWE, and we had a chance to talk "off the cuff" about things in the WWE and how the shows were booked. That is what leads me to today, where I recall Jerry bringing up a term that I think fits what the company is going to try and pull off tomorrow night on RAW - a one night King of the Ring. The term that fits this show from the word go - "panic booking."

Yes, the WWE is coming off a long overseas tour, and it seems like they want to throw something big together for their three-hour show they have set for Greenville. With that, instead of the draft, which is what we all were expecting for this three-hour epic, they are going to go with an idea that they have put on the shelf more than once. The King of the Ring was an annual event that kicked off in 1985, and then hit PPV in 1993. It had its moments of good and bad, with the highlight probably being the birth of "Austin 3:16" after Steve Austin beat Jake Roberts in 1996 and blurted out the phrase to mock Roberts new found religion.

From there, the event was a staple till it died after 2002, and then they brought it back in 2006, to put the title of "King" on Booker T., as he became King Booker for the end of his WWE run. The event died after 06, and now it looks as if trying to draw some sort of rating for one night, they are going to try and revive the event. There are quite a few problems with that, one of which includes the simple fact that they tried to throw this thing together in one week. Yes, an event that they took months to build on the past, they are now doing in one week. Bad idea.

They also have not thrown out there who we are even going to see in this 8-man tourney. Names that have been rumored to be in the show include Triple H, John Cena, Shawn Michaels, Batista, Finaly, C.M. Punk and others. They have said that all three brands will be represented, but at the same time, with no idea on who in the three brands will be in the event, it makes it very hard to even get a grasp on who to pick as a possible favorite.

If I was booking this (and if I was I would have never have thrown this thing together this fast anyway), I would let someone mid-card win this thing to give them a boost. How about a King Kennedy? King Carlito? King (Matt or Jeff for that matter) Hardy? There are plenty of guys that could use the boost, guys other than Cena, Triple H or Batista. Bottom line though, this thing is such a cluster, who knows what to expect.

This night will also do very little to push forward the Backlash PPV that the the company should be focusing in on for this Sunday. Three hours is a lot of time to kill, and yes, they will push the show to some extent, but the night is going to be far out of focus, and right now, this PPV is in a lot of trouble, and this years King of the Ring is going to be one of the lowest rated Monday night shows of the year for the company.

Labels: carlito, jerry lawler, john cena, king of the ring

Posted by Matt Loede at 8:19 PM | Permalink | Comments