During a recent appearance on “The Steve Austin Show”, WWE Hall of Famer Jerry “The King” Lawler commented on going from being a wrestler to a commentator, what Vince McMahon told him, and more. You can check out some highlights from the interview below:
On his difficulty transitioning from a in-ring talent to a commentator: “Oh, I hated it … Yeah, that’s why for so many years I would always wear my tights and outfit out to the ring. And people — finally after years of doing that, people said, ‘Why does King wear wrestling tights when he’s an announcer?’ But I just, because I didn’t — even back when, we were talking about like watching Lance [Russell] and Dave [Brown] every week, I knew they were there and I was a fan of them, but I never one time thought about being an announcer. I just thought about being a wrestler.”
On Vince McMahon helping him get comfortable as an announcer: “But Vince helped me out on that, and the fact that he said, ‘We’re still gonna use you.’ And they did, from time to time, use me in a wrestling role but not as full-time. But he convinced me that — I mean, if you remember, the guy’s place that I took was ‘Macho Man’ Randy Savage, when he jumped the ship and went over. So he was already using some top guys as color men. And so that’s how he made me accept it a little more. He just said — I felt like, you know, ‘You’re taking the place of Randy Savage here when he jumped ship to WCW.’ So it made it a little more palatable. But everybody asked me, ‘How much do you love it?’ And I said, you know, I never loved it. It was always the wrestling that I loved … even to this day.”
(h/t – 411 Wrestling)
