A legend of the territory days, Jerry “The King” Lawler was an icon of Memphis wrestling, where he’s a 27-time USWA Heavyweight Champion and a 51-time (!) AWA Southern Heavyweight Champion. On the national level, Lawler’s best known as a long-running commentator for WWE, especially during the Attitude Era. Add to that the pop culture value of his memorable feud with comedian Andy Kaufman, and Lawler certainly can be considered one of the greats.
Despite that, The King has also had some seriously cringe-worthy career lowlights, both as a performer and as a commentator, so let’s take a look at some of those.
10 His Homophobic Promo On Goldust
Before his shtick got softened to “face-painted weirdo,” Goldust started out as an androgynous character whose provocative nature seemed entirely geared toward generating heel heat from homophobic fans. While cutting a promo on Monday Night Raw, Lawler in classic heel mode turn his attention to Goldust, criticizing his wig and penchant for wearing women’s clothing and going as far as calling him a homophobic slur. It’s a pretty shocking moment that remains shocking, but not for any good reason.
9 "Hey, Punk… I’ll Think About It”
Weeks before his notorious on-air heart attack, Lawler found himself challenged by a heel CM Punk to a cage match on the 8/27/2012 episode of Raw. In response to Punk’s goading, Lawler delivered the opposite of an epic clapback, saying “Hey, Punk… I’ll think about it.”
It’s gone down as an amazing terrible line in pro wrestling promo history thanks to its wishy-washiness, as well as the fact that Lawler’s entrance theme played afterwards like it was some kind of awesome line that “won” the segment.
8 Smashing A Frame Over Warrior’s Hat
After a couple of falling-outs with WWE throughout the 1990s, The Ultimate Warrior returned to the promotion in 1996, where he got into a feud with Jerry Lawler going into King of the Ring. Part of the buildup would involve a segment where Lawler presented Warrior with a framed painting of his enemy only to smash it over the hero’s head, a gimmick Lawler had apparently done a few times in the Memphis scene.
But Warrior was a primadonna and was afraid of getting cut by the glass of the frame, so he came to the ring wearing a baseball cap, which is something the character has never done before. Immediately it signaled to fans that something was up, so it was no surprise when Lawler smashed that painting over his head. It wasn’t Lawler’s fault, but it’s still an embarrassing moment.
7 Weird Comment About Nia Jax
The later years of Lawler’s career are rife with odd gaffes that suggest a figure out of touch with what’s appropriate to say on the air -- especially when it comes to women. In 2017, on the Raw post-show Raw Talk, Lawler made a joke about Nia Jax getting hit by a car and it taking three surgeons to remove the car. Lawler would defend it as an old Rodney Dangerfield joke, but fans were quick to accuse him of body-shaming Jax. Whether he meant to make fun of her size or not, it didn’t come off as anything but needlessly mean-spirited.
6 King Really Sticks It To Bad News Barrett
During his Bad News Barrett era, Wade Barrett’s whole shtick was standing behind a lectern on a scissor lift and making proclamations to deflate the crowd. On one episode of Raw, he talked about how the record numbers of Super Bowl viewers ate so much junk food that many of them wouldn’t live to see the next one. The punchline to this segment was Jerry Lawler standing up from the commentary table to say that he had some “bad news” for Barrett himself: that “hopefully, next week, YOU won’t be around.” Once again, this was treated as an epic clapback, but it was totally unclear what that was supposed to mean, or why Barrett would have been taken aback by it.
5 Introducing Isaac Yankem Via Bad Breath Jokes
Fans love to laugh about Kane’s earlier gimmick of Isaac Yankem D.D.S, but the circumstances of his introduction are flat-out bizarre. After losing a “Kiss My Foot” match to Bret Hart at King of the Ring ‘95, Lawler cut a promo in front of Yankem’s office complaining that he got a debilitating case of bad breath from kissing Hart’s foot, so he’s enlisted his dentist to not only help him recover but also fight Hart because he used to be a wrestler. Lawler does a fine job with the material, stuffing multiple sticks of gum in his mouth and furiously brushing his teeth, but it’s still just another one of WWE’s go-to juvenile jokes about bad breath.
4 Calling AJ Lee Ugly
In 2013, while doing guest commentary on Raw, Divas Champion AJ Lee mentioned that she got a tattoo on the back of her neck of the date she first won the title. In response, Jerry Lawler sleazily asked if she had any other tattoos, to which AJ delivered an actual epic clapback, saying that she was too old for Lawler at 26-years-old.
In response, Lawler, attempting to recover from the burn, audibly muttered “You’re too ugly for me too” -- a comment that he later had to apologize for on-air.
3 “Ramen Noodle Moonsault”
As established, Jerry Lawler has a tendency to say the wrong thing on commentary, a trend that’s continued into the third decade of the 21st century. On the 4/13/2020 Raw, during a match between Akira Tozawa and Austin Theory, Tozawa hit a senton to the floor that Lawler dubbed a “Ramen Noodle Moonsault.” Fans online got mad about the racist joke, forcing Lawler to explain that it was a heel line meant for the other commentators to call him out on, refusing to apologize for it. Making matters even more embarrassing is the fact that neither Tom Phillips or Byron Saxton even bothered to acknowledge it.
2 Eating Fast Food On Television After A Heart Attack
As established, Jerry Lawler famously had a very real heart attack on the air in 2012, but one that he recovered from. Despite that, months later, he was shown on camera eating Sonic as an on-air promotion for the fast-food chain. Given that Lawler’s health scare happened so recently, seeing a man in his 60s scarf down fried food ultimately proved a poor advertisement for Sonic, as it was hard not to think about the King’s poor heart.
1 WrestleMania XXVII
It may come as a surprise that Jerry Lawler never had a match at WrestleMania until 2011 where he took on fellow commentator Michael Cole in a match guest-referred by Steve Austin. The result is considered one of the absolute worst ‘Mania matches of all time, a poorly-wrestled 14-minute match that balloons into a 30-minute slog thanks to all the post-match stuff where the Anonymous Raw General Manager reversed Lawler’s win into a disqualification in Cole’s favor. For comparison, the trios match with Snooki from Jersey Shore was about three minutes long.