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experts and exclusive partner of... Podcast One

2:00

Sports Net. Podcast One presents the Steve

2:02

Austin show classics. Jerry the King Lawlers

2:04

online. Jerry, what's happening man? Steve, thanks

2:06

for having me back again man. Everything's

2:08

cool, how about you? Oh dude, just

2:10

when we left off on the last

2:12

episode we were talking about promos and

2:14

everything else and I've got five, six,

2:16

seven pages of notes sitting here in

2:18

front of me and I hadn't even

2:21

used them one single time because... Man,

2:23

just in sitting there and talking to

2:25

you, one thing turns into another, and

2:27

I'm not a classic interviewer by any

2:29

stretch, it's just two cats from the

2:31

world of pro-restsman talking. Yeah, and you

2:33

know, Steve, guys like you and I,

2:35

I wrote a book, I wrote my

2:37

autobiography back in 2000, and I remember

2:40

somewhere in the last chapter, or in

2:42

the early part of the book, I

2:44

think, I put, when I first started

2:46

in the business, I would come into

2:48

the locker rooms, and I would hear...

2:50

some of the older wrestlers sit around

2:52

telling these old war stories and then

2:54

i've wrote in there if i ever

2:56

if i ever get like that somebody

2:58

take a gun and shoot me and

3:01

then at the end of the book

3:03

i think i wrote well somewhere out

3:05

there somebody's loading the gun right now

3:07

because but you know what it's just

3:09

that's just what happens i mean you

3:11

know that those are your memories and

3:13

those are fond memories and and uh...

3:15

and uh... and fortunately for you and

3:17

i Sometimes people want to hear about

3:20

our experiences that we had during our

3:22

careers, you know. Every time I get

3:24

somebody on the show, there's so much

3:26

of my crowd comes from the world

3:28

of pro-rust and as I do. And

3:30

you know, I just don't want to

3:32

keep growing out audience, but they love

3:34

talking about the old days. One thing

3:36

I forgot to ask you, last time

3:38

we talked. And I don't know if

3:41

this was specific to the car I

3:43

was in. I believe it's the way

3:45

the territory was run. I was in

3:47

USWA, it was 1990, and I was

3:49

traveling with Chris Champion and Dutch Mantle,

3:51

and every night I jumped in with

3:53

a couple of other guys. But for

3:55

some reason, back in that Tennessee territory,

3:57

all the boys rode down the road

4:00

at night after the shows with their

4:02

dome light on. Why was that? Did

4:04

y'all do that too? Somehow I started

4:06

that. You did? I did start that.

4:08

And I think I originally, I did

4:10

it to keep myself from falling asleep.

4:12

I think at first, I, you know,

4:14

the first few trips I made, man,

4:16

when we would get dark in there.

4:18

And I always, if you remember, I

4:21

almost always rode by myself. Yeah. And

4:23

just listening to the radio and the

4:25

darkness or whatever, I'd get sleepy. and

4:27

so i i just remember one night

4:29

i said man i'm turning a dome

4:31

light on it and light up my

4:34

car make it make it feel like

4:36

it's daytime and it just became a

4:38

habit and somehow i don't know somehow

4:41

it caught on everybody around the territory

4:43

in the Tennessee territory started riding with

4:45

their with their dome lights on at

4:48

night it was crazy i couldn't understand

4:50

and i got there and i got

4:52

there and i was sitting down the

4:55

light on We're talking about to turn

4:57

the dome light on. That's what we

4:59

do here. And then later on, you

5:01

know, back in the day, you know,

5:04

we were drinking, you know, driving down

5:06

the road. This is back when you

5:08

could actually do it and not, you

5:10

know, have any crashes or whatever. It's

5:13

turned absolutely crazy these days. That's 25

5:15

years ago, however many years it was.

5:17

But nonetheless, you know, here we are

5:19

drinking beer with our dome lights going

5:22

on. This isn't the smartest idea in

5:24

the world. We used to play,

5:26

we used to play, you know,

5:28

it was so boring on the

5:30

road, I mean, because, you know,

5:32

our trips were the same every

5:34

week. You know, if you're staying

5:36

in Memphis or Nashville, you know,

5:38

on Mondays you drive down to

5:40

Memphis, 200 miles each way, you

5:42

know, to and from. Choose, you

5:45

drive up to Louisville, which was

5:47

like 170 miles one way, and

5:49

then Evansville was 150 miles, and

5:51

Thursday may have been Lexington, you know,

5:53

you know, uh... i don't know if

5:55

you remember i was notorious for having

5:57

a a little portable like a blue

5:59

light uh... that i would put up on my dashboard

6:01

and i would i would if ever i would see some

6:03

you know one of the other wrestlers that were uh... uh...

6:05

that were past me or whatever uh... i would or i

6:07

would pass them i would pull off at like the next

6:09

exit and then you know what they would buy it and

6:12

speed up behind them and turn this blue light on and

6:14

they know that and and at night keep my bites on

6:16

the blue light on the dashboard they tell them I to

6:18

lean out and see you know, you know, you know, you

6:20

know, you know, you'll put your put your put your hands

6:22

on your hands on your head and face the front of

6:24

your head and face the front of your car, face the

6:26

front of your car, face the front of your car. I

6:28

can't tell you how many times I've walked up and

6:30

frisked the guys and everything like that. One

6:33

night Kamala was the funniest story ever. He

6:35

was, you know, he was kind of new

6:37

in the business and I just wrestled against

6:39

him up in Nashville and I pulled him

6:42

over about halfway down to Memphis and pulled

6:44

him off on the side of the interstate

6:46

and he's standing there on the interstate, big

6:48

old Kamala with his hands on top of

6:50

his head and I said, so I'm up

6:53

behind him. Okay, raise your right foot up

6:55

in the right foot up in the air.

6:57

I was just fixing to get in the

6:59

business, standing there on one leg

7:02

with his hands on top and

7:04

down. And funny turns around and

7:06

he goes, oh Jerry. You know

7:09

what? I was down, I was

7:11

just fixing to get into business,

7:13

I was playing football at North

7:16

Texas State University outside of Dallas.

7:18

I'd go up, watch a Friday

7:21

night show, sportatory. I'd go to

7:23

Saturday morning television taping. and you

7:25

know all of a sudden here

7:28

comes Kamala the Ugandan giant and

7:30

y'all did these vignettes videos of

7:32

him and these were shot in

7:34

Hendersonville right there on Jerry Jared's

7:36

property right yeah it looked like

7:38

it was Africa didn't it did

7:40

but break down how Kamala was

7:42

created because that was a great

7:44

gimmick and people bought into Kamala

7:46

man because man when he come

7:49

down with that hand strike that

7:51

was the real deal yeah it was well I

7:53

tell you what it was one Monday night We're

7:55

having a restaurant at the Mid-South Coliseum and I'll

7:57

remember, you know, we'd stand in the back, the

7:59

guys... the guys could stand in the back

8:01

and watch from around the corner, watch the

8:03

matches that were going on out there in

8:05

the arena. And all the wrestlers would come

8:08

in this one back interest. And I'm standing

8:10

there watching the matches and all of a

8:12

sudden I got a tap on my shoulder

8:14

and I turn around and there's this big

8:16

black guy, big tall guy and he said,

8:18

Mr. Lawler, my name's Sugar Bear Harris. And

8:20

he said, I lived down here in Centatobia

8:22

Mississippi and he said, I want to come

8:24

here and wrestle for you guys if I'm

8:26

if I could. And I just, I don't know

8:29

what happened. I just looked at him

8:31

and I said, has anybody seen you

8:33

yet here tonight? You've been walking around,

8:35

no sir, just come in the back

8:37

door. Would you go right around there

8:39

and just sit down in my address

8:42

and don't let anybody see you? So

8:44

he goes back there, I went and

8:46

got Jerry Jarrett, he and I went

8:48

back there and looked at him, and

8:50

I swear there was this artist named

8:52

Frank Frazetta. who did these great fantasy

8:55

paintings and as soon as I saw

8:57

this guy this painting came to my

8:59

mind there's this famous painting where this

9:01

beautiful girl is tied to a steak and

9:03

a bunch of these cannibals are like and

9:06

they're about to burn her at the steak

9:08

and a bunch of these cannibals were about

9:10

to burn her at the steak and a

9:12

bunch of these cannibals were all day at

9:14

doing this like crazy war dance around this

9:17

girl that's this painting right and that just

9:19

came to my mind and so I told

9:21

Jerry Ari could paint this guy up. So

9:23

we told him to be in Hendersonville, Tennessee

9:26

at Jerry's, Jerry had a hundred acre farm

9:28

up there in Hendersonville. We took him up there

9:30

the next day, I pulled out a

9:32

national geographic, and if you remember, and

9:34

the reason it was hot was at

9:36

the time, the president of Uganda was

9:39

Idi Amin. And he was a cannibal. He

9:41

was a confessed cannibal. And this guy

9:43

was the president of Uganda, and that

9:45

was in the news all over the

9:47

place. and so that's why it made

9:50

a topical and we i looked at

9:52

some pictures i brought that painted a

9:54

picture of that painting that frank risetta

9:56

had done and i painted camels say

9:58

i painted james harrisus face up just

10:01

like one of those cannibals in that

10:03

picture and we looked into the

10:05

map of Uganda in National Geographic and

10:07

Kamala was actually a name of a

10:10

city in the country of Uganda. And

10:12

so that's where we came up with

10:14

the name literally honed a spear out

10:17

of a stick and put a wooden

10:19

point on the end of it and

10:21

put this old loincloth on him, took

10:24

him out and Jerry's back on some

10:26

acreage back there. and got a couple

10:28

of pieces of dry ice and threw

10:30

them out in this kind of little swampy

10:33

lake that Jerry had and we put James

10:35

out there and and turned the cameras on

10:37

and had him come walking through the smoke

10:40

and it looked like i mean it

10:42

literally looked like he was in and you

10:44

know an african giant that was coming walking

10:46

towards the screen and it just it was

10:48

just one of those things that uh...

10:50

it just clicked man we we called up

10:53

and had Jay Jay Jay Dylan who was

10:55

not you know had not ever been in

10:57

our territory because we didn't want to

10:59

we wanted to make him so totally different

11:01

so we had j.j. Dylan kind of promo

11:04

we explained it to him and he kind

11:06

of promo say that he had found this

11:08

savage beast while they were touring the world

11:10

and he was going to bring him to

11:12

the united states in his first stop was

11:14

going to be Memphis Tennessee and like he

11:16

said at the time man if you did

11:18

things right people bought into it and they

11:21

believed that this guy was a was a

11:23

giant african uh... cannibal that was being released

11:25

every time he set foot in the ring

11:27

and then and he couldn't have he couldn't

11:29

have worked more perfectly we had to keep it

11:31

simple so that's where the chops came in all

11:33

the chops and all the chops and the slapping

11:35

itself on the stomach and and he didn't do

11:38

much more than that and to bite you you

11:40

know you bite in suddenly next thing you know

11:42

you're bleeding and i watched some of the tapes

11:44

of he and i having that first match and

11:46

it was just it was like magic i mean

11:48

you know he started biting my head i start

11:50

bleeding he would touch my head with his fingers

11:52

and and start licking the blood off his fingers

11:54

and and it was just you know it was

11:56

really it really looked exactly like what we told

11:59

the people he was I remember that first when

12:01

y 'all did that first video. I mean there

12:03

was like a 20 or 30 second clip

12:05

y 'all sent out It was like showed him

12:07

walking just like he said and whoever did the

12:09

voiceover is basically like Kamala The

12:12

Ugandan giant Kamala.

12:14

That was it I

12:17

was like I got to see this son

12:19

of a bitch is some bitches crazy looking

12:21

whose idea was it was the moon and

12:23

the stars on him There was that was

12:25

all kid that all came from the pain

12:27

it was great that Frank was that I

12:29

was I'll show you sometimes this Frank was

12:31

that I would later on became friends with

12:33

him He's one of the greatest artists of

12:35

all time but Anyway,

12:38

that was just the way that the

12:40

guy was body was decorated in that

12:42

painting and a funny story I for

12:44

for months. I would every night. I

12:46

would paint Kamala I would do his face

12:48

and all the pain on it down

12:50

in the locker room beforehand, you know

12:52

And I paint those stars in the big

12:54

the crescent moon on his stomach and

12:56

yellow and the stars on his text

12:58

were white and So one night after about

13:00

three or four months of painting

13:02

James And you'd have to know him. He I

13:04

mean, you know, he's just a big old

13:06

teddy bear Actually, that's what he used to wrestle

13:08

is before Kamala. He wrestled sugar bear Harris

13:10

But anyway, he just kept sitting there and I'd

13:12

paint him up and he'd be patient And

13:15

then he one day finally after about three months.

13:17

He looked down. He said Jerry. I

13:20

you a question I said,

13:22

what's that James? He said, why did

13:24

you paint the big banana on my

13:26

stomach every night? It's

13:31

not a banana it's a

13:34

crescent moon All

13:40

that time he thought it was

13:42

a banana I thought I would

13:44

have making some kind of joke

13:47

on him or something. Oh, Jesus

13:49

Paint a big banana on his

13:51

stomach You're listening to another classic

13:53

episode of the Steve Austin show

13:55

only on podcast one Hey,

13:58

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for details. You've

15:32

had some, you know, your classic

15:34

feuds with a ton of people

15:36

with, you know, from Terry Funk.

15:38

Oh, we got to talk for

15:40

a second about that Terry Funk

15:42

empty arena match. We talked about

15:44

that a little bit earlier. What

15:46

was the deal with the empty

15:48

arena match? You know, if you remember,

15:51

Stephen, I mean, in the territory days,

15:53

we, you worked the same towns every

15:55

week and usually once a week. I

15:58

mean, you know, those days. are certainly

16:00

going on with the win now. I mean,

16:02

you know, the WWO hit a city, if

16:04

you're lucky, twice a year. You know, but

16:07

back in the day, it's just

16:09

like, for instance, our major city

16:11

was Memphis, and we did Memphis

16:13

every single Monday night. We had

16:15

live wrestling every Saturday morning for

16:17

90 minutes on Saturday morning TV

16:19

in Memphis, and then that was

16:21

like a basically a 90 minute

16:23

long commercial to the show at

16:25

the Mid-South Coliseum on Monday night.

16:27

It was week in and week

16:29

out. So man, you were under

16:31

the gun to, like you said,

16:33

the last time I was on

16:35

your show, when we talked about

16:37

Jerry, Jerry promoting, he and I

16:39

were under the gun every week

16:42

to try to draw a crowd.

16:44

I mean, that building had 12,000

16:46

seats in it. And you were

16:48

just looking at 12,000 seats in

16:50

it. And you were just looking

16:52

to put as many people in

16:54

and week in and week out.

16:56

So what happened with Terry? We

16:58

got going and we were just

17:01

doing such a good run. I

17:03

mean, we'd probably, we'd probably worked

17:05

five or six straight weeks there. I

17:07

swear it just, if I'm not mistaken,

17:09

it may have been Terry's idea in

17:12

the way he got a promo one

17:14

week. He just, he just said, you

17:16

know, it's hard to get a fair

17:18

shake in this Memphis. That's Lawler's hometown.

17:21

He said, it starts from the minute

17:23

I landed land in an airplane coming

17:25

in from Texas. he starts talking about

17:27

how bad lollers gonna beat me and

17:30

then he drives me ten miles out

17:32

of the way so he charges me

17:34

extra to cab you know everybody you

17:36

know they delay my baggage because they

17:38

know i'm coming in to fight their

17:41

hometown hero he said the fans are

17:43

on lollers side the cops are on

17:45

lollers said everybody let me just tell

17:47

you if i could ever meet lollers

17:49

on a common ground where he had

17:51

no advantage to help him anybody no

17:53

referee on his side or any like

17:56

that so that was the premise of

17:58

this thing he and he had a

18:00

piece of paper in his hand, he

18:02

told Lance Russell, he said, here's

18:04

a paper with a place and a

18:06

date. And if Lawler will meet me

18:08

there, nobody but him and me, no

18:10

referee, no fans, no nothing, I will

18:13

beat him within an inch of his

18:15

life and I'll prove to everybody in

18:17

Memphis what a phony he is, you

18:19

know, that sort of thing. That's how

18:21

that came about. And then of course,

18:23

we did it, you know, we did

18:25

it on a Monday afternoon before the

18:27

matches where that night. And so we

18:29

had the arena already set up for

18:31

the matches that were going to be

18:34

that Monday afternoon. So he and I just

18:36

went over to the Coliseum early. Of course

18:38

nobody with Lance Russell and the cameraman was

18:40

there and that's where we had the match.

18:42

But how was it working with just all

18:44

that silence because you listened to a crowd

18:46

as good as anybody in the history of

18:49

the business? And it's so glad to take

18:51

the adrenaline out. I mean, that was the

18:53

first time I'd done anything like that either,

18:55

you know. And so it was strange. but

18:57

tarry you know if you if you ever

18:59

go back and watch the footage tarry was

19:01

never quiet for one second during that branch

19:03

he was always shouting or yelling or something

19:06

so wasn't exactly like it was completely

19:08

completely quiet you know but uh... i

19:10

just wish we'd have done more outside

19:12

the ring thrown into the chairs and

19:14

different things like that but it all

19:16

led up to the big finish up

19:18

with terrier busted the ring steps and

19:20

had this big jagged piece of wood

19:22

and he got me in the ring

19:24

and he was just about to stab

19:26

me with that piece of wood when

19:29

I ticked it back and he gouged

19:31

himself in the eye and of course

19:33

the blood started flowing out of his eye

19:35

and then the classic unforgettable thing, my eye,

19:37

my eye, it was just so great, you

19:39

know, and just uh... What made it so

19:41

different was, you know, Terry, it made it,

19:44

Terry made it look like this, it was

19:46

real and the fact that, hey, nobody was

19:48

there, and this wasn't really going to be

19:50

on TV or anything, so he was cussing,

19:52

it was like a stone col promo, you

19:54

know, he says, where is that son of

19:56

a bitch? I told you that yellow bastard

19:59

wouldn't show up. You know and this is

20:01

what this was unheard of at the time

20:03

so you knew he's gonna to bleep it

20:05

out but it still it made it it

20:07

made it seem so real. Let's talk a

20:09

little bit about Andy Kaufman. You guys had

20:11

a damn feud and I watched that thing

20:13

of course I remember back in the day.

20:15

Whose idea was it to bring Andy

20:18

Kaufman in? It was Andy's idea. So what

20:20

did he do? Did he reach out to you

20:22

and call you? He reached out the first

20:24

thing Andy did. and then let me just

20:27

give you a real quick background on andy

20:29

cough and andy coughlin was from long island

20:31

new york he grew up as a kid

20:33

uh... being a huge wrestling fan i mean

20:36

that was i mean he he told me

20:38

we used to watch nature boy buddy rogers

20:40

and uh... and and the funny thing about

20:42

the wrestling had a major influence on and

20:45

his entire career he used to tell me

20:47

he's i was amazed at this watching this

20:49

nature boy buddy rogers that somebody could go

20:51

on tv and intentionally he said i could

20:53

tell he was trying to make the people

20:56

hate him and he said but yet he

20:58

was still popular and he said that just

21:00

uh... he said that just like struck a

21:02

court with me and as and he grew

21:04

up in his performances he always had that

21:06

in the back of his mind and he

21:08

would tell you and he would tell you

21:10

and he told me many times he's not

21:12

a comedian i never told a joke in

21:14

my life he said i'm just a performance

21:16

artist and he said i'd just like to

21:18

do things to do things to listen don't

21:20

like me and so he would do a

21:22

lot of that sort of thing and throughout

21:24

his career but then when he became the

21:27

lota character on the taxi and taxi was

21:29

the number one show in america at the

21:31

time the highest rated show on TV and

21:33

Andy just wanted to use that celebrity status

21:35

that he had to sort of live out

21:37

a fantasy of his and that was to

21:40

be a bad guy wrestler and so he

21:42

started doing that in some of the nightclub

21:44

comedy acts that he did and comedy clubs

21:46

and things he would fight women up on

21:48

the stage to wrestle with him and he'd

21:50

have some mats down and he'd have his friend

21:53

Bob's a mood addressed in a referee shirt and come

21:55

out and he just played the role of bad guy

21:57

wrestler, he didn't salt the women and do all of

21:59

this sort of uh... you know degrading comments

22:01

to him and then and then he'd

22:03

wrestle him actually beat him in the

22:05

wrestling match and he did that for

22:07

a while he did it on saturday

22:09

night live and on the merv griffin

22:12

show at different different places but he

22:14

wanted to wrestle in front of an

22:16

actual wrestling audience so one night in

22:18

in new york i think the show

22:20

is at long island and he went

22:22

to the show and he approached vense

22:24

McMahon senior at the time And you

22:27

know he introduced himself and said that

22:29

you know I told him what he'd

22:31

been doing and he said I just

22:33

want to wrestle and wrestle in front

22:35

of actual wrestling fans in front of

22:37

people that came to see wrestling and

22:39

see the response that I'll get doing

22:42

it there. Fortunately for me Vince McMahon

22:44

Senior said well Andy he said our

22:46

fans are kind of skeptical anyway and

22:48

he said I'm just hesitant to involve

22:50

a Hollywood actor. In our shows, he

22:52

said, I'm just afraid that the people

22:55

might think, you know, that we're all

22:57

actors and that we're all acting. He

22:59

said, so I appreciate it, but I'm

23:01

going to pass it this. He was

23:03

30 years too soon. 30 years too

23:05

soon, exactly. But my friend, Bill after,

23:07

you know, Bill after, he was the

23:10

editor of Pro Wrestling Illustrated or a

23:12

photographer and writer for them. He overheard

23:14

the conversation and he knew. So Bill

23:16

said, hey, I got a friend, Jerry

23:18

Lawler, has a territory down in Memphis,

23:20

Tennessee. He said, I'll bet he'd be

23:22

interested in this. Let me give him

23:25

your number. And so out of the

23:27

blue, I get a call from Andy

23:29

Kaufman. And he's talking about coming down.

23:31

And he just told me the same

23:33

thing that he told Vincent Mann Senior.

23:35

And I thought, God, I mean, this

23:37

guy's one of the biggest stars I'm

23:40

telling him. and he did that we

23:42

sold out immediately the people hated him

23:44

he made cut some promos talking about

23:46

the women talking about the south and

23:48

all of this sort of stuff did

23:50

you help him with the promos or

23:53

was that just all of him doing

23:55

his thing well the first one he

23:57

did He sent one in, as he

23:59

just did on his own. And the

24:01

next ones, he actually came over to

24:03

my house, and we sat down and

24:05

we cut promos within him. He and

24:08

I just came up with him for

24:10

about an hour, and because he wasn't

24:12

going to be able to come back

24:14

every single week, so we wanted to

24:16

have plenty of promos in the can.

24:18

And I swear, after the first three

24:20

weeks of showing his promos, the TV

24:23

station manager called up and said Jerry.

24:25

you guys we can't show these calls

24:27

but promos anymore and I said why

24:29

he said oh my god the people

24:31

with their phone calls they're threatening to

24:33

burn the station down you know if

24:35

we continue to show these these people

24:38

the fans hate Andy they don't you

24:40

know and of course you know what

24:42

we had done we I gave him

24:44

a bar of soap and he cut

24:46

the promo saying yeah let me introduce

24:48

you to people here in the south

24:51

to something this is soap say it

24:53

after me soap It's soap. And he

24:55

said, what you do is you put

24:57

it under the faucet, run some water

24:59

on it, and rub it around your

25:01

hands, it'll make a lather. Put it

25:03

under your arms and wash under your

25:06

arms, and you know, it's like, you

25:08

know, just insinuate the people in the

25:10

South would never bathe. Then we cut

25:12

a promo the next week of a

25:14

roll of toilet paper. And so the

25:16

people literally hated this guy. and we

25:18

went for several weeks of him wrestling

25:21

the women and then I'm thinking I

25:23

gotta get a way to get a

25:25

rub off of this big Hollywood guy

25:27

so it went to Andy and I

25:29

said and literally he was not thinking

25:31

of doing anything but wrestling women and

25:33

I said really absolutely he never never

25:36

once thought of having a match with

25:38

a man right and that's what I

25:40

told him I said Andy this is

25:42

going to only go so far we

25:44

need to keep this you need to

25:46

have a wrestling match with a man

25:49

and he said and i and he

25:51

said i'll get hurt and i said

25:53

look you and i can have a

25:55

match and i promise you won't get

25:57

hurt it'll be simple but then Most

25:59

of it will be the build-up, the

26:01

lead-up to the match. It would be

26:04

tremendous, you know. And I said, we

26:06

can just do anything to get out

26:08

of it. And that's how, you know,

26:10

that's how the match came about. And

26:12

then, of course, we really didn't, if

26:14

you remember, we didn't do anything in

26:16

the match other than drop him on

26:19

his head with a suplex one time,

26:21

which he told me later, he's just

26:23

laying there. and so our referee Jerry

26:25

Calhoun and then we you know we

26:27

had to turn away crap 12,000 people

26:29

there and they were all up around

26:31

the ring and they were so happy

26:34

that Andy had finally got what he

26:36

deserved and they're screaming and hollering and

26:38

Andy just laid there motionless like he

26:40

was dead you know so I'm walking

26:42

around holding my hands up and finally

26:44

the crowds kind of you know yeah

26:46

and I'm thinking well okay it's time

26:49

to get him back and getting back

26:51

to the restroom so I told Calhoun

26:53

the referee the referee I said all

26:55

right go over and tell Andy you

26:57

know to help him up and get

26:59

him back to his feet and get

27:02

him back to the dress room. So

27:04

Calhoun walks over and he kneels down

27:06

and I'm just still walking around, looking

27:08

around and waving and so Calhoun, I

27:10

see him talking to him so then

27:12

Calhoun comes back to me and he

27:14

says, Andy says he wants an ambulance.

27:17

And I said, an ambulance, he's not

27:19

hurt on the way back to the

27:21

dresser room. And so Calon goes back

27:23

over and goes back over again and

27:25

tells him and then later he comes

27:27

back to me and says, really, he

27:29

really says he wants an ambulance. And

27:32

I said, go tell Andy that an

27:34

ambulance costs about 300 bucks to come

27:36

out of here. And I said, Plus,

27:38

where do you got to take him?

27:40

Again, he said, tell him it's too

27:42

expensive. We're not going to get an

27:44

ambulance. Right? So Calon goes over and

27:47

kneels down beside Andy again. And the

27:49

referee comes back over to me and

27:51

says, he says he'll pay for it.

27:53

Oh God, that's great. Well, okay. pay

27:55

for it. Down to the call and

27:57

ambulance. So next thing you know they

28:00

call the ambulance. We wait there another

28:02

15-20 minutes. He's still there. The crowd

28:04

wouldn't leave. They're all there and he's

28:06

laying there like he's dead and his

28:08

manager George Shapiro from California was there

28:10

and his writer Bob Zamuda were there

28:12

by his side and his girlfriend and

28:15

you know and so finally in comes

28:17

the ambulance they put him on the

28:19

stretcher and they put the neck brace

28:21

on him. Take him to the hospital.

28:23

He goes through all the tests. and

28:25

he stays in the Memphis hospital for

28:27

three days with his neck intraction. Are

28:30

you kidding me? Three days he stayed

28:32

in the hospital with his neck intraction.

28:34

But he's okay, he's just working the

28:36

gimmick. He's okay, he's working the gimmick.

28:38

But don't have to book that out.

28:40

This was him on the fly thinking

28:43

this is what I'm going to do.

28:45

Absolutely. him on the fly thinking this

28:47

is what I want to do. That's

28:49

just the way he was. He was

28:51

a genius. I mean, and even the

28:54

bit on Letterman was him on the

28:56

fly. I mean, it was... Well, let's

28:58

talk about the Letterman thing. Little pause

29:00

for the cause, but we're going to.

29:02

I'm talking to Jerry the King Lawler.

29:05

We're talking about his famous

29:07

feud with Andy Kaufman. We'll

29:09

pass. A

29:21

true crime podcast. It got me

29:23

upset because this is someone's kid

29:25

and someone knows she's gone. That

29:27

takes a different approach. It was

29:30

shocking for something like this to

29:32

happen in our little town.

29:34

Focusing on the communities affected

29:36

by life-shattering crimes. It made

29:38

news throughout the entire region that

29:41

these two people had been shot

29:43

while they slept in such a

29:45

safe community. To give a new

29:47

perspective on the devastation crimes can

29:49

cause. It was shocking for something

29:51

like this to happen in our

29:53

little town. Featuring cases from quiet

29:56

towns to bustling cities and interviewing

29:58

the people close. to the case.

30:00

My first thought was that it's an

30:03

unusual location for us to have a

30:05

homicide. Listen to the True Crime podcast

30:07

City Confidential and step beyond the yellow

30:09

tape to learn just how far a

30:12

crime can reach. There are certain cases

30:14

in the history of Boston that I

30:16

think sort of define the city. I

30:18

think this is vulnerable. New episodes of

30:21

the City Confidential podcast are available every

30:23

Thursday, available wherever you get your podcasts.

30:40

Andy Kaufman selling the pile driver to hospital

30:42

for three days. I'm talking to Jerry the

30:44

King Lawler, the man who delivered this pile

30:47

driver. So before we left her a little

30:49

break, Jerry, the pile driver heard around the

30:51

world. Andy Kaufman shells out 300 bucks. to

30:53

bring your hamlets out. You tightwads. Look at

30:56

it at the bottom line. Don't want to

30:58

spend 300 bones on a hamlet. So he's

31:00

in a hospital for three days. And so

31:02

then you go to visit him, obviously, or

31:05

call him. So what do you guys do

31:07

to book the next part of this? Oh

31:09

no, I did not go to visit him

31:11

at all. No, I didn't do that. Or

31:14

call him or anything. He was just one

31:16

day out of the blue and he said,

31:18

hey. Do you want to be on the

31:20

David Letterman Show? And I said, let me

31:23

think about it, Amy. Yeah, I want to

31:25

be on the show. Dude, straight up, that's

31:27

a shoot. He was in the hospital three

31:29

days, but he was in hospital for three

31:32

days. He was in hospital for three days.

31:34

He was in hospital for three days. He

31:36

goes back to LA and then down the

31:38

road, you get a call and he says,

31:41

you want to be on Letterman? But he

31:43

said, you know, you know, you know, you

31:45

know, it's this. He said it's a big

31:47

network TV show and I just thought it'd

31:50

be cool to be a way to keep

31:52

our our feud going and I said yeah

31:54

of course and so you know then he

31:56

got back with me with a day he

31:59

said the letterman people would be calling me

32:01

so they got back with me with all

32:03

the travel arrangements now hold it hold it

32:05

hold it hold it when you say yeah

32:08

of course you're thinking yeah of course because

32:10

you want to be on TV or yeah

32:12

of course we can keep this feud going

32:15

well both okay gotcha okay I got you

32:17

okay I'm with you probably most of all

32:19

I want to be on TV that's the

32:21

most but then I'm thinking you know I

32:24

mean we had done nothing but draw sell

32:26

uh... you know fighting the women and then

32:28

the cell out with me down in mess

32:30

so he had he and he was selling

32:33

tickets all my god huge absolutely huge and

32:35

and he just got it as far as

32:37

being a as being a bad guy, being

32:39

a heel. I mean, he just had that

32:42

natural instinct in him and he knew how

32:44

to, he knew how to play it. Often

32:46

he knew once again, we talked a long

32:48

time ago about personal, you know, personal issues.

32:51

He made it personal by attacking the women

32:53

and attacking the people from Memphis. And that

32:55

just made everybody there. It was a personal

32:57

issue with him and here's this, you know,

33:00

I'm the big star, I'm from Hollywood and

33:02

you people are just a bunch of hillbill,

33:04

a bunch of hick. And I flew up

33:06

there and got to the Rockefeller Center there

33:09

and they had his meet early in the

33:11

day. They filmed Letterman at 5.30 in the

33:13

afternoon. So they met with us about 10

33:15

o'clock in the morning. They met with only

33:18

me when I got there. They said, well

33:20

Andy didn't want to be around you, so

33:22

I'm going to have you meet with Bob

33:24

Morton, who was the big producer of the

33:27

show at the time. He said, well, here's

33:29

what we want to do. We've got the

33:31

footage of you piled driving Andy. We're going

33:33

to show that. We're going to show Andy

33:36

making some remarks about the women and about

33:38

the South and that sort of stuff. And

33:40

he said, that'll be in the first segment.

33:42

And he said, then we want you and

33:45

Andy to talk a little bit. Maybe in

33:47

the first segment. Maybe in the first segment.

33:49

Maybe in the first segment. Andy will apologize.

33:51

Andy. dropping him on his head with a

33:54

pile driver. And then Andy will get up

33:56

and sing what the world needs now is

33:58

love, sweet love. That's the way they had

34:01

it laid out. That's what they told me.

34:03

And then I left and went into my

34:05

cab back to my hotel near Rockefeller Center,

34:07

waiting to come back at 5.30. When I

34:10

was back in my hotel, Andy called me

34:12

and said, well, what do you think about

34:14

what? He said, well, what do you think

34:16

about what? What they want us to do?

34:19

And I said, well, well, I mean, you

34:21

know, it sounds like it sounds like it'll

34:23

be funny, it'll be funny. probably pretty much

34:25

be the end of our years of my

34:28

feud with you and I apologize to each

34:30

other and everything being smoothed over and he

34:32

said yeah I know that's what I was

34:34

thinking too but then he said then just

34:36

out of the blue he hesitated a little

34:38

bit and he said wonder what would happen

34:40

if you just hauled off and slug me

34:43

and it was so funny because I you

34:45

know usually would have used haul off and

34:47

punched me or something he used that return

34:49

he said if you just hauled off and

34:51

slug me and I said First of

34:53

all, probably I'll get arrested. I said,

34:55

I don't want that. And it's the

34:58

second of all. You know, they won't

35:00

show that. They probably won't even show

35:02

it. I said, well, they may have

35:04

made this trip for nothing, you

35:06

know. And he said, yeah, yeah, you're

35:09

probably right. But wouldn't that be great?

35:11

So that right there is just the

35:13

way that's the last time I spoke

35:15

to Andy. Straight up before we went

35:17

on there with Letterman. there was no

35:19

other talking or planning about what was

35:21

going to happen i just it was

35:23

all that from that point on it

35:25

was just all flying by the sea

35:27

of our pants it was all improv

35:29

or winging it if you want to

35:32

say i just knew that we went

35:34

through the first segment and we were

35:36

sort of antagonistic a little bit and i

35:38

realized why at that point because when we were kind

35:40

of when it was time to go to a break

35:42

they had a wrestling ringbell under day's desk and he

35:44

can ring it with his foot right He made it

35:47

look like things were kind of getting out of hand

35:49

and he started ringing that bell. And he said, okay,

35:51

all right, we need to sell things down here and

35:53

let's take a break and we'll come back and see

35:55

if we'll get the hoses out and see if we

35:58

can calm things down a little bit, right? So we

36:00

took the break and during the break

36:02

you just Andy got up and walked

36:04

away they turned the lights down because

36:06

it gets so hot in the studio

36:08

turn all the lights down. There was

36:10

a studio artist I think about 650

36:13

people in this in this video right

36:15

so anyway the two minutes go by

36:17

for the break and they say okay

36:19

we're coming back on in three two

36:21

one they turned the lights back up

36:23

no more back on Andy sits back

36:25

down and so Dave starts talking again

36:27

he says well you know Jerry do

36:29

you think you owe Andy apology and

36:31

I And I don't know why, I

36:34

just said, I said, no, not really.

36:36

So it went from there, it just

36:38

kind of escalated. And he didn't apologize

36:40

to me, and I didn't apologize to

36:42

him. And I think in watching it

36:44

back when I look at day's face,

36:46

I think that's the first time he

36:48

realized, uh-oh, something's not going right. Right.

36:50

Not the way we planned this, right?

36:52

So then suddenly, Dave, I guess he

36:54

thought, well, we're out of time for

36:57

this segmented. We're just going to take

36:59

a break here and we're going to

37:01

see if we can get things sorted

37:03

out. So I knew that was our

37:05

second segment and we were done after

37:07

that. So when Paul Schaefer started playing

37:09

the music, and I swear, Steve, when

37:11

I watch it back is like an

37:13

out-of-body experience, it's like I'm watching somebody

37:15

else do something. I don't even recall

37:18

doing it. I just suddenly stood up.

37:20

Looked down at Andy, made eye contact

37:22

with him, and I think at that

37:24

moment he realized what I was about

37:26

to do, and man, I just slapped

37:28

a taste out of his mouth. Knocked

37:30

him right, I hit him as hard

37:32

as I could, knocked him right out

37:34

of the chair over onto the floor,

37:36

and the music stopped playing, and everybody

37:38

was just like, oh my God, what

37:41

just happened, you know? And so... So

37:43

anyway, the security guard comes over and

37:45

grabs me and takes me back to

37:47

the green room and then I can

37:49

hear this commotion going on out there

37:51

like, you know, Andy starts, gets up

37:53

and starts just ranting and raving and

37:55

screaming and all of this sort of

37:57

stuff. So about literally... usually they just

37:59

take a break for two minutes and

38:02

literally about 15 minutes went by while

38:04

all this commotion was going on and

38:06

sort of then finally it's sort of

38:08

quieted down and I'm just sitting by

38:10

myself in the green room and suddenly

38:12

the door kind of opens up a little

38:14

bit and this intern sticks his head in

38:16

and he said Mr. Lawler I think he

38:18

was thinking I'm gonna stick my head in

38:20

here with a killer. I was the first

38:22

first person ever striking another guest on a

38:24

talk show ever in history right? And so

38:26

he says Mr. wondering if you'd like to

38:28

come back out and sort of wrap things

38:30

up and I said sure I'll do whatever

38:32

so I go back out into the studio

38:34

and Andy's way over by the door he

38:36

said and I sit down by Dave again

38:38

and it's a crowd it turned into

38:40

sort of like a wrestling crowd all

38:43

of a sudden these six hundred fifty

38:45

people start booing me as well right

38:47

so then I sit down and they're

38:49

going like ten nine and Dave looks

38:51

over said Andy are you're going to

38:53

come back in here or not? And

38:55

he says, no, if I do, I'll

38:57

say words you can't say on television.

38:59

And he says, okay, and there's three,

39:01

two, one, we're on and they says,

39:04

well, I'm here, and Jerry Lawlers here,

39:06

and Andy Kaufman here, and some nights

39:08

I wish Tom Snyder, we're still here,

39:10

which is just taking over for Tom

39:12

Snyder on the show. So anyway, he

39:14

said, well, Jerry, I like you, thank

39:16

you for being here. And right about

39:18

that time, Andy comes in offset. standing

39:21

behind Dave and he starts pounding on

39:23

Dave's desk and screaming every kind of

39:25

obscenity you can think of. Absolutely. You

39:27

know he's just cussing, F you, F

39:29

this, mother this, and one thing you

39:31

had to know about Andy and I

39:33

think this is what really sold Dave

39:35

on the deal was Andy didn't ever.

39:37

curse or swear or get upset or

39:39

anything like that and for him to

39:41

be doing this was just so out

39:43

of character but I'm thinking oh my

39:45

gosh Andy what's wrong with you you

39:47

know they they're obviously going to show

39:49

the slap or they wouldn't have us

39:52

back out here and now here you

39:54

are you're totally ruining it now I

39:56

was just thinking you know he's this

39:58

is never going to get air So

40:00

with my body language, I try to sit

40:02

back in the chair and just like cross

40:04

my leg like like show my disgust with

40:06

Andy, you're killing it, right? And so he

40:08

grabs Dave's coffee, makes eye contact with me

40:10

to let me know what I'm about, what

40:13

he's about to do. And he throws the

40:15

coffee so that I can get out of

40:17

the way of it. And I jump up

40:19

again and then he runs off the set

40:21

again, the security guy comes back again. and

40:23

Dave was just so frazzled it was a

40:25

it was just unbelievable so the security guy

40:27

takes me off the set again and takes

40:30

me straight to the elevator and he and

40:32

I get on the elevator and I'm thinking

40:34

what's he gonna do take me down lock

40:36

me up or whatever as soon as the

40:38

door closed on the elevator and as soon

40:40

as the door closes on the elevator and

40:42

as soon as the door closes on the

40:44

elevator the door closes on the elevator the

40:47

door close on the elevator so let me

40:49

get you down the cabin I go back

40:51

to my hotel I didn't hear from anything

40:53

from anybody, this was like at about maybe

40:55

7 o'clock or something, and the show of

40:57

course came on at 1130, and I didn't

40:59

hear a word from anybody, and I'm thinking,

41:01

what are they going to do? Are they

41:04

going to show this or what? So anyway,

41:06

I turned on the TV at 1130, and

41:08

there it was, the whole thing, they showed

41:10

it all, except of course, when Andy started

41:12

cursing and swearing, They put in, they bleeped

41:14

it out, but they didn't put in beets,

41:16

they put, what made it even funnier, they

41:18

put in these little, gookoos, gookoos. Every time

41:21

he said a cuss word is it, gookoos.

41:23

There was a lot of them. It made

41:25

it, yeah, there were a lot of them,

41:27

but it made it hilarious, you know. And

41:29

then as soon as that was, as soon

41:31

as that show went off the air, went

41:33

off the air, it meant my phone blew

41:36

up, it was like the New York Times,

41:38

the New York Times, the New York Post,

41:40

the Daily News, the Daily News, You know,

41:42

Inquirer magazine, everybody you can take us started

41:44

calling about that. And then the next day

41:46

it was on the front page, pictures of

41:48

me slapping Andy was on the front page

41:50

of every New York newspaper. You know what,

41:53

just last week Steve, the New York, the

41:55

TV guide had on the front cover and

41:57

a big story about the top 60 most

41:59

riveting moments in television. history and that is

42:01

it says in their wrestler Jerry Lawler fights

42:03

with Andy Kaufman on the David Letterman show

42:05

was one of the top 60 films to

42:07

this day yeah I mean the number one

42:10

the number one is like the Beatles making

42:12

their first appearance on the Ed Sullivan show

42:14

Elvis Presley appearing on the Ed Sullivan show

42:16

in the Ed Sullivan show in 1956 and

42:18

it goes all the way back to television

42:20

history and that is included in the top

42:22

60 most riveting moments of pop culture you

42:24

know well when you guys are doing this

42:27

angle and it was tremendous you know what

42:29

we kept him away from everybody else and

42:31

and he was with and he was different

42:33

in the fact that he would do uh...

42:35

meditation before match so we he had his

42:37

own dresser room nobody was allowed to bother

42:39

him because he would literally meditate for like

42:41

a hour and a half before it was

42:43

time for him to go out and do

42:45

anything straight up away from everybody he was

42:47

he was sort of a strange duck in

42:50

the sense that he had these he had

42:52

these little you know he was different from

42:54

what the guys you know for what we

42:56

used to being used to being around but

42:58

uh... but by the same token he was

43:00

a nicest guy ever most respected love the

43:02

wrestling business i mean and i was same

43:04

age and he never referred to me once

43:07

as Jerry always call me mister loller and

43:09

i would always come on and he but

43:11

he just will you know he was so

43:13

respectful of the business and and wrestling and

43:15

he told me before you know he said

43:18

i'd give up everything i'm doing in hollywood

43:20

i give up the taxi all the t.v

43:22

shows everything if i could just stay involved

43:24

with wrestling that's how much he loved it

43:26

You're listening to another classic episode of the

43:29

Steve Austin show only on Podcast One.

43:31

Here's a message from our

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work together. ziprecooter.com/work together. Well

44:21

you guys are feuding 82 did that carrying

44:23

the 83 because he died in 84 I

44:25

mean carried right up until right up until

44:27

Andy passed away Yeah, so was he feeling

44:29

the effects of the of the cancer? So

44:32

how was he to deal with was he

44:34

feeling? No, he you know what? He never

44:36

and none of that ever showed that hit

44:38

Andy so fast But Andy and I had

44:40

you know after that he came back and

44:43

we had match after match we dead ahead

44:45

of down to where he was doing boxing

44:47

matches saying that he'd been trained by Muhammad

44:49

Muhammad Ali and show did you know all

44:52

of this kind of stuff and then he

44:54

started bringing in people like ken patera jessie

44:56

the body ventura and all of these guys

44:58

with a bounty on my head that they

45:00

were so he was gonna pay anybody five

45:03

thousand dollars that could hospitalized me with a

45:05

pile driver and you know we just we

45:07

just kept it going week in and week

45:09

out and he just kept coming back and

45:11

then one week if you remember i had

45:14

a i had a thing on sunday morning

45:16

to call the Jerry Lawler show that was

45:18

on sundi more is just a thirty minute

45:20

talk show uh... was caught wrestling as a

45:22

centerpiece and i had Andy on as one

45:25

of my guest on there one morning and

45:27

uh... you know he was in another studio

45:29

and it made it look like he was

45:31

out in hollywood talking and it was it

45:33

was around thanksgiving and uh... we were doing

45:36

this little segment where we was called the

45:38

biggest turkey of the year and we were

45:40

gonna super impose Andy's head on the turkey

45:42

and i'll never forget that the camera on

45:45

Andy and he was sitting over there and

45:47

he was sitting over there I'm gonna sue

45:49

you, I promise you. And he was coughing

45:51

throughout this. I remember that. Yeah, and then

45:53

after that interview was over, he walked over

45:56

in the studio and he said, he said,

45:58

Jerry said, Mr. Law, he said, I apologize

46:00

for coughing during that. I said, but I

46:02

just this past week got diagnosed with cancer.

46:04

At the time, he thought lung cancer. And

46:07

so anyway, that was the first, and

46:09

just like in the movie, I

46:11

said, oh, Andy, you know, that's

46:13

not funny. And he said, no,

46:15

I'm serious. And so then right

46:17

after that, he started going to

46:19

get in treatment and he immediately

46:22

started losing his hair and then

46:24

that once he lost the hair,

46:26

he didn't come back anymore. and

46:28

then you know that the cancer

46:30

was so fast-acting he only lasted

46:33

about three months after that. Oh man

46:35

that was rough. How was your

46:37

experience making Man on the Moon

46:39

the story of Andy Kaufman? Well I

46:41

mean you know certainly I had a

46:43

great time I enjoyed it with the

46:45

only the only exception was the fact

46:47

that it was tough working with Jim

46:50

Kerry because for some reason one reason

46:52

or other Jim Kerry Was so I

46:54

don't know if it's method acting or whatever,

46:56

but he was so He was so in

46:58

want to be so in character He would

47:00

show up every day on the set

47:02

already dressed already in makeup as Andy

47:05

Nobody even the director and the director

47:07

was Milos Foreman who directed man who

47:09

directed who directed Amadeus and and one

47:11

flew over the cuckoo's man. He was

47:13

one of the most famous directors ever

47:16

even he was not allowed to refer

47:18

to him as Jim Kerry everybody had

47:20

to refer to refer to him as

47:22

Andy Right. I mean, and so that's

47:24

how in character he was. And so

47:27

apparently, one day I finally asked, I

47:29

asked Emilos former, I said, does this

47:31

guy, has he even read the script?

47:33

Does he not know that Andy and

47:36

I were really friends? Because he treated

47:38

me throughout the movie, like Andy and

47:40

I acted always on television. We were

47:42

bitter enemies, you know. I mean, he

47:44

threw eggs at me at me at

47:47

one time. He threw eggs at me

47:49

at me at one time. and then

47:51

one and then actually one time during

47:53

the filming of the fight scene he

47:55

was so into want to do and

47:57

experience everything that Andy experienced he we

47:59

were were getting ready to, we were

48:01

doing the pile driver scene. So he

48:04

had actually called the week before we

48:06

flew out to Hollywood to do the

48:08

thing, he called, I got a call

48:11

in like 2.30 in the morning and

48:13

I wake up and it's Jim Carrey

48:15

and Danny DeVito and somebody from the,

48:17

from my, he's from the studio and

48:20

an insurance guy, four people on a

48:22

conference call with me at 2.30 in

48:24

the morning and I'm like, what the

48:27

hell. Anyway, there's Jim Carrey and then

48:29

were asking me. Do you think it

48:31

would be possible for me to actually

48:33

give Jim a pile driver without him

48:36

getting hurt? And because Jim was adamant

48:38

on the fact that he wanted to,

48:40

you didn't want to use a stunt

48:43

double, he wanted me to actually give

48:45

him a pile driver so that it

48:47

would be so realistic. And it would

48:49

be just like what happened to Andy.

48:52

But the movie, you know, the people

48:54

that were doing the movie, the insurance

48:56

people and all this, they were against

48:59

it. Danny DeVito was one of the

49:01

producers, he was against it. But Jim

49:03

was getting me on the line to

49:05

try to convince him that there was

49:08

no way he could get hurt. And

49:10

so I'm telling him, well, I'm telling

49:12

him, well, you know, I'm giving a

49:15

pile of it to a thousand people

49:17

and I've never really hurt anybody to

49:19

film the scene out in Hollywood. and

49:22

they had a stunt double that looked

49:24

as much like Jim Carrey and Jim

49:26

Carrey did. It was amazing. His guys

49:28

all dressed up just like Jim Carrey

49:31

and so they had, when they're filming,

49:33

they took the Olympic Auditorium out there

49:35

and they tried to make it look

49:38

like the Mid-South Coliseum. It was a

49:40

funny story and I guess the writers

49:42

were from Hollywood and they bought into

49:44

so much of this, the stick that

49:47

Andy had said. We get out there

49:49

and get ready to film this scene

49:51

and it's supposed to be the Mid-South

49:54

Collissout- and Steve, I look in the

49:56

audience and they've got probably a thousand

49:58

extras in this audience and about half

50:00

of them are wearing straw hats and

50:03

overall. I said, so I went over

50:05

to the director and I said, man,

50:07

let me tell you something. I said,

50:10

Memphis is not like some po-dunk hillbilly

50:12

town. I said, I don't think I've

50:14

ever seen anybody wear a straw hat.

50:17

I've been resting there for 20 years.

50:19

I said, there was anybody where a

50:21

straw hat. I said, there was anybody

50:23

where a straw hat to the match.

50:26

And I said, Memphis is a

50:28

costume and guy. straw heads, put

50:30

them under your seats. A hundred

50:32

people take off these cowboy heads

50:34

and put them up under their

50:36

seeds, right? So we get ready

50:38

to start filming the fight scene.

50:40

And so Jim does all the

50:42

lead up to the stuff of

50:45

the antagonistic things. And then finally,

50:47

I get him, he gets me

50:49

in the headlock and he's standing

50:51

with me in the headlock and

50:53

the directoro cut. And so then

50:55

the stunt double comes in, he

50:57

gets me, Jim gets out of

50:59

the ring, the stunt double comes

51:02

in, puts me in the headlock,

51:04

I pick this guy over, he

51:06

says, action, I pick him up,

51:08

boom, drop him on his head

51:10

and the director goes, cut, he

51:12

rolls out of the ring, Jim

51:15

rolls back in and he lays

51:17

down where that guy was, his

51:19

action, and so then I reach

51:21

over, they get out of the

51:23

ring. the stunt double gets in,

51:25

puts it in there between my legs,

51:27

action, I pick him up, boom, giving

51:29

the bile driver, same thing, cut, in

51:32

rows, gym, and we go through this

51:34

for about 10 takes, right? And finally,

51:36

the people in the audience are

51:38

actually yelling at Kerry, what the

51:40

matter are you afraid to get

51:42

a problem? Some of these extras

51:44

are actually excellent on him, right?

51:46

And so we're getting ready, and

51:48

this was amazing, it was like...

51:50

director meals form and gets on the microphone

51:52

and says ladies and gentlemen I know you're I

51:54

know you're getting antsy I promise you this is

51:57

the last take we're going to do this one

51:59

more time we're just adjusting some lights. This

52:01

is going to be the last take

52:03

and then we'll call it a wrap.

52:05

Everybody will be able to go home.

52:07

So I'm standing there in my corner

52:10

and all of a sudden here comes

52:12

Bob Zamuda who is who was Andy's

52:14

best friend and writer and everything is

52:16

real life Andy and he comes walking

52:18

over to me in the rain and

52:20

he's just talked to Jim who's in

52:22

the other corner and Bob Zamuda kind

52:24

of under his breath says Hey Jerry.

52:27

on this take when the director, when

52:29

you pick him up for the pile

52:31

driver and the director yells cut, he

52:33

said just go ahead and give him

52:35

the pile driver and we'll have it

52:37

on film and there'll be nothing new

52:39

about it. And he said Jim wants

52:42

you to give him the pile driver.

52:44

And so then he turns around and

52:46

walks back across the brain, right? So

52:48

now I'm thinking, holy crap. Now this

52:50

is all on me. I'm going to

52:52

give this guy a pound driver. I

52:54

know what he's going to do. He's

52:56

going to lay there like he's hurt.

52:59

He's going to have him call in

53:01

an ambulance and all this crap, just

53:03

like Andy did. And I'm going to

53:05

look like the big a-hole, right? So

53:07

the director, Milos, former, is walking by,

53:09

said, everybody in the place, says, get

53:11

ready. And I leaned down. I said,

53:13

yes, Jerry. And he just sent Bob's

53:16

a mood over here, or not Andy,

53:18

I said Jim just sent Bob's a

53:20

mood over and he said, when, when

53:22

you yell cut, he wants me to

53:24

go ahead and give him the pile

53:26

driver. And he just wants to take

53:28

the pile driver. And he said, oh,

53:30

Judy, I'm so glad you told me.

53:33

Thank you very much. Oh my gosh,

53:35

I looked over and Jim Kerry was

53:37

freaking furious. He's eyes, got his biggest

53:39

sauce, and he's looking at me, and

53:41

he storms out to the middle of

53:43

the ring, and he grabs the ring,

53:45

and he grabs the microphone that the

53:47

ring announcer was using, and he starts

53:50

feeding the house, and he said, let

53:52

me tell you people something. I wanted

53:54

to take a pile driver, but the

53:56

insurance people, and they were afraid, and

53:58

they wouldn't let me do it. I'm

54:00

not afraid. And all of a sudden

54:02

they cut the microphone off. Suddenly he

54:05

couldn't be hurt. And he was really

54:07

even more furious now, right? So he

54:09

starts screaming, I have worked on Broadway

54:11

and I do not need a microphone

54:13

to be heard. I am not afraid

54:15

to take the power driver. Lawler's just

54:17

afraid to give it to me. And

54:19

he comes right over. I mean, this

54:21

was like a total shoot. He comes

54:23

right over and gets right in my

54:25

face. And veins are bulging out in

54:27

the side of his neck. right in

54:29

my face. It's a big hogs right

54:31

in my face and I just I

54:33

went what the and I just lost

54:35

him suddenly I think he came to

54:37

a senses realize what he had done

54:39

and he runs he turns around he

54:42

starts running across the ring I've just

54:44

lost it then and I run across

54:46

and I catch him right before he

54:48

can slide out of the ring by

54:50

his neck I had him in like

54:52

a reverse face lock right a reverse

54:54

chin lock and he's tried to slide

54:56

out underneath the bottom rope and he

54:58

had about a three hundred pound this

55:00

big black guy that was his security

55:03

guard he sees what's going on so

55:05

he grabs carried by the ankles and

55:07

he's trying to pull him out of the

55:09

ring and I got him by his neck

55:11

I'm pulling him back into the ring and

55:13

I'm pulling him back into the ring and

55:16

all of a sudden I'm thinking oh wait

55:18

I can't what am I going to do

55:20

I got beat up Jim Carrey here in

55:22

front of the world. He goes to the

55:24

hospital, I go back to my trailer and

55:27

everything, and he goes to the hospital and

55:29

I didn't hear any more until later on

55:31

that night at like 11 o'clock news. I

55:33

swear there's a freaking big hurricane. I

55:36

don't know what the hurricane was. There's

55:38

this hurricane going on in Florida. People

55:40

are getting their homes blown away and

55:43

everything. It's a big, huge news. And

55:45

the lead story on the 11 o'clock news

55:47

was... Jim Carrey injured by a wrestler

55:49

on the set of man on the

55:51

moon, news at 11, you know, film

55:53

at 11. And that was like the

55:55

huge big story of Hollywood. And then

55:57

the next day I get word that

55:59

I'm fired. from the movie and that

56:01

I just I go home and Jim

56:03

Carrey wants me replaced and all the

56:05

scenes re-shot with somebody else and and

56:08

so I'm just thinking geez you know

56:10

what it what am I gonna do now

56:12

anyway I go home and about a

56:14

week goes by and I didn't hear

56:16

from anybody except all this news that

56:18

I'm off the movie and they're gonna

56:21

replace me and everything and then about

56:23

a week later I get a call

56:25

from Velos Forman and the director and

56:27

he says hey Can you be in

56:29

New York on this day? We're going

56:31

to film the Letterman scenes with David

56:34

Letterman. And I said, I thought, I

56:36

thought I'm fired. I thought he wanted

56:38

me out of it. He's calmed down.

56:40

Everything is okay. We got all smoothed

56:42

over. We love you, Daddy. You terrific.

56:44

Of course, I do. So the funny

56:46

thing was then, then of course, you

56:48

know, the scenes we were shooting next

56:51

were the Letterman where I got to

56:53

slap him. And man, old man, did

56:55

I paste that song a bit? Jim

56:57

Carrey, so freaking hard. Much harder than

56:59

I hit Andy Kaufman. And he got

57:01

up and he was homeless and he

57:03

said, oh my God, you really punk

57:05

me out on that one? And he

57:07

said, Milos, I hope you got that

57:09

on one thing because I can't do

57:11

that again. So he knew he'd been

57:13

a jackass, huh? Oh yeah, he knew

57:15

it. He knew it. And he gave

57:17

me, he gave me this nice. North

57:19

Face Jack and he gave me a

57:22

bunch of gifts and stuff like that.

57:24

And you know what, I just, I

57:26

swear to God, I just a few

57:28

weeks ago, I heard from Jim Carrey

57:30

in years, a few weeks ago, I

57:32

get a call from his secretary and

57:34

says, Jim has something he wants to

57:36

give you, want to get your mailing

57:38

address. I think, what? And so I

57:40

give him my mailing address, I give

57:42

her my mailing address, and I said,

57:45

what is it? She's, oh, I can't

57:47

tell you. So anyway, a couple of

57:49

days later I get this box and

57:51

that very big box in the mail

57:53

and I open up there's this letter,

57:55

a handwritten note from Jim Carrey and

57:57

it was weird in the sense that

57:59

apparently... Apparently, somebody gave Jim

58:01

Carrey the wrestling costume that I wore

58:03

in the movie, Man on the Moon,

58:05

and apparently he thought it was from

58:08

me. I don't know. I never saw

58:10

it. I wanted the costume. I never

58:12

saw it after the making of the

58:14

movie. But in this letter, it says,

58:16

Dear Jerry, the gift

58:18

of the costume that you wore in Man

58:20

on the Moon is possibly one of the

58:22

greatest gifts I've ever received. Working with you

58:24

in that movie was both an odyssey and

58:27

was shining moment in something I don't know,

58:29

like really putting me over, right? And he

58:31

said, I know that you have dabbled in

58:33

music and cut your own albums. He said,

58:35

I just wanted to give you something from

58:37

my record album collection, and I hope you

58:39

enjoy it. And he said, next time you're

58:41

in LA, he said, I have a suite

58:44

at the Staple Center. Give me a call.

58:46

I'd love to have you as my guest. And

58:48

so anyway, that's the letter. And

58:51

then in the box were about eight

58:53

record albums, pristine condition, mint condition

58:55

record albums, all by wrestlers, all like

58:57

there was the, you know, the

58:59

Hulk Hogan WWE album, album by Sweet

59:01

Daddy Seeky, album by Antonio Rocco,

59:03

all of these different wrestlers that over

59:05

the years, I mean, someone went

59:07

back to the, you know, the sixties

59:09

and everything, all of these records

59:11

that had been cut by wrestlers that

59:13

somehow he had in his record

59:15

collection. And he sent them all to

59:17

me for some reason or other. But anyway, that

59:19

was his gift that he sent. So do you

59:21

play them all the time? No, I've never played

59:23

it. Hey, before

59:25

we wrap this one up, and

59:28

you got to come back on the

59:30

show, because I knew when we

59:32

started talking, there was going to take

59:34

multiple shows. But before we wrap

59:36

up the conversation about Andy Kaufman and

59:38

yourself, at one point during the

59:40

feud, you wrestled a guy on behalf

59:42

of, you know, Jim Carrey, and

59:44

he was the Colossus of Death. Right.

59:48

Who was the Colossus of

59:50

Death? I must know. The

59:53

Colossus of Death was, oh my

59:55

gosh, what is his name? He

59:57

came in with, he came in

59:59

with. the Garvins. He

1:00:02

was a big guy. He came in

1:00:04

with Jimmy Garvin as his partner. Steve,

1:00:08

I'm the world's worst on trying to

1:00:10

remember. Just part of the way he walked

1:00:12

across the ring with his hands up,

1:00:14

you know, was thinking plan nine from outer

1:00:16

space. You know, it was just, it

1:00:18

was a tremendous, but, and then you go

1:00:20

ahead and lock up with him because

1:00:22

he had his arms out, you know, kind

1:00:24

of like walking like a, like he

1:00:26

was sleepwalking kind of. Right, like Frankenstein. Yeah.

1:00:28

Walked like Frankenstein. I just had to

1:00:30

know who the Colossus of Death. Oh my

1:00:32

gosh. If the next time you have

1:00:34

me back, I'll have his name. I just

1:00:36

can't really, can't recall it right now, but,

1:00:38

uh, and you would know him. Oh gosh.

1:00:40

One of the lines also, I think when,

1:00:42

when Kaufman kind of started feuding with Jimmy

1:00:44

Hart there towards the end, they had to,

1:00:46

you know, they had their little tiff and

1:00:48

I guess Kaufman slapped Jimmy Hart and Hart

1:00:50

was running off in the mouth that he

1:00:52

had been slapped in front of 355 ,000 people.

1:00:56

355 ,000 people. I guess at the

1:00:58

time that was a population of Memphis.

1:01:00

Exactly. That was tremendous. our

1:01:02

viewing audience. That was what, that was our,

1:01:04

that was our Saturday morning ratings. And

1:01:07

we were, you know, in Memphis, of course

1:01:09

you were proud. I mean, because the

1:01:11

population of Memphis literally was about 700 ,000

1:01:13

people and we had on Saturday mornings, 355

1:01:15

,000 of those people were watching Saturday morning

1:01:17

wrestling. So that was a huge, I

1:01:19

mean, that was a big news story in

1:01:21

Memphis. So for him, what, that's what

1:01:23

he was, that's what he was referring to

1:01:25

at the time. And, you know, of

1:01:27

course, everybody that was watching that did seem

1:01:29

like a huge, a huge amount of

1:01:31

people from Memphis TV. But you're right, that

1:01:33

the little, the little tiff that when

1:01:35

we worked Andy in and that all, it

1:01:37

all became a ruse as they were

1:01:39

actually working together to get back at me

1:01:41

at the end. But when they had,

1:01:44

we had the little interview set there with,

1:01:46

with Andy and Jimmy Hart fighting. If

1:01:48

you watch that, it's the best

1:01:50

non -fight scene you'll ever see. Both

1:01:52

these guys are like two girls slapping

1:01:54

at each other. Neither one of them

1:01:56

made contact with anything. And it

1:01:58

was the funniest and the greatest pull apart

1:02:00

that has ever been in wrestling if

1:02:02

you ask me. Well I'm talking to

1:02:05

Jerry the King Lawler you can follow

1:02:07

him on Twitter at Jerry Lawler at

1:02:09

Jerry Lawler on Twitter his website is

1:02:11

WWW WW King Jerry lawler.com. Jerry

1:02:14

thanks for coming on the show

1:02:16

I hope you had a good

1:02:18

time because we've got man I've

1:02:20

got six pages of notes I

1:02:23

didn't even get to yet so

1:02:25

please say you'll come back. I

1:02:27

know, I get a little long-winded

1:02:29

sometimes, especially when I'm talking about

1:02:32

myself. It ain't long-winded! I'll be

1:02:34

more than glad to come back

1:02:36

any time. Thank you for joining

1:02:38

us for another classic episode of

1:02:41

the Steve Austin Show. Please leave

1:02:43

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1:02:49

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