By the time Jerry Lawler signed with WWE in 1993, he found himself in a unique position. Because of his status as a former AWA World Champion, plus his years as the defining star of the Memphis territory—not to mention having been a management figure for decades—he entered the company a legend. Whereas Vince McMahon notoriously ignored or downplayed the accomplishments of wrestlers outside the bounds of his own mythology, Lawler was one of those veterans like Ric Flair, Goldberg, or Sting, whom WWE did immediately treat as important. So it was that most of his early feuds in the company were opposite top-tier stars like Bret Hart, Roddy Piper, and none other than The Ultimate Warrior. Their issue in 1996 turned out to be the last major WWE storyline Warrior participated in.
Jerry Lawler Felt The Ultimate Warrior Blew A Key Spot
One of the most famous spots in the feud between Jerry Lawler and The Ultimate Warrior saw the two partake in an in-ring interview segment. The segment saw Lawler present Warrior with original artwork Lawler had made, featuring Warrior, only for things to take a violent turn when The King smashed the picture frame over Warrior’s head to incapacitate the babyface.
Lawler wrote in his book, It’s Good To Be The King… Sometimes that he had worked the picture frame spot a number of times and knew it to be perfectly safe. However, Warrior wasn’t so trustful and decided to take it upon himself to wear a baseball cap to the ring. That wardrobe choice, which Warrior had never made on air before and never would again thereafter was a huge cue to fans about exactly where the segment was going—that the babyface was protecting himself against broken glass he knew was coming. To be fair, it was fairly clear once the art was introduced to the equation where things were headed, but Warrior wearing the hat did telegraph Lawler’s actions all the more clearly.
The Ultimate Warrior Vs. Jerry Lawler At King Of The Ring 1996
The Ultimate Warrior and Jerry Lawler blew off their issue at the 1996 King of the Ring PPV, going one on one in a grudge match. The bout was a reasonable draw on paper for being a first time collision between two major names. However, Warrior was never exactly a great match machine, with his best bouts revolving around epic storylines and careful planning (like Pat Patterson plotting out his WrestleMania 6 match with Hulk Hogan or Randy Savage meticulously planning their WrestleMania 7 bout). Lawler was a bit past his prime and his best performances had historically depended on more raw heat than this issue had behind it.
The King attacked Warrior with a royal scepter to kick off the match before nailing him with a piledriver. Warrior no sold Lawler’s finisher and went on the rampage, hitting all his signature offense to win the match in under four minutes. It was simple, straightforward storytelling that paid off the story at hand, but it was not exactly a memorable encounter.
The Ultimate Warrior’s Departure From WWE
For as polarizing as he could be among fans and colleagues, The Ultimate Warrior was a huge name for WWE. The mid-1990s saw the company struggle after top stars like Hulk Hogan and Randy Savage had defected to WCW, and main event projects like Lex Luger and Diesel failed to pan out. While WWE was pushing Shawn Michaels as its top guy, Warrior stood to remain a featured attraction, and, in 1996, it was realistic to think he may have had another world title reign in his future.
Warrior was gone from WWE the following month, though. Accounts vary about the details, with the only real consensus being that, like in 1992, Warrior departed WWE in 1996 on messy terms. There were rumblings that Warrior no-showed events, and counter-claims that he had done so on account of a loss in the family. On the Something to Wrestle with Bruce Prichard podcast the suggestion came up that Warrior had a falling out with WWE management because of disagreements about the legalities and financial matters around Warrior publishing a comic book series about himself. Regardless, Warrior wound up out of the WWE fold until his Hall of Fame induction nearly two decades later.
The Ultimate Warrior wasn’t done in wrestling when he left WWE in 1996. Two years later, he resurfaced in WCW for a run that was even worse than his final stretch as a wrestler for WWE. WCW tried in vain to recapture the magic of Hulk Hogan vs. Warrior from years past, and it resulted in an incoherent storyline with a truly terrible blow off match at Halloween Havoc 1998. In the end, it was clear that Warrior’s best days as spotlighted pro wrestler had come and gone in the 1980s and early 1990s.