Awesome / Jerry Lawler

• While his wrestling career takes a back seat to his color commentary nowadays, as a wrestler Lawler has held 168 titles. Think about that for a moment.
• Ric Flair showed up on the old Memphis Wrestling show back in 1982, but only to face a Jobber and give Memphis fans a taste of "big time professional wrestling at its best." Out comes Jerry, under the pretense of shaking the hand of the world champion, and, over the course of a six minute interview, he cons Flair into giving him a world title match on live television. This was virtually unheard of in 1982. See the whole incident here, from Jerry's smooth-talking to the match itself. (What is it with Jerry and Batman Gambits?)
• Jerry's entire storyline with Andy Kaufman is unquestionably the best celebrity storyline in wrestling history. This requires some detail.
  • Out of the blue, Kaufman (who in Real Life had a fondness for "bad guy wrestlers") made guest appearances on Memphis Wrestling, where he shocked fans by going Heel on them, rubbing his celebrity status in their face and challenging women to wrestling matches (claiming to be the "Intergender Wrestling Champion"). Jerry had enough of his flagrant sexism, pulled him off of a woman he was roughing up after a match, and challenged an indignant Kaufman to wrestle a man (like, say, himself).
  • In said match, after four minutes of Kaufman intentionally avoiding Jerry and acting like a total buffoon, Jerry finally nails a back suplex, then gives him two piledrivers and injures his neck. Despite losing the match (piledrivers were illegal then), Jerry was the biggest Face in Memphis after that, and Kaufman's defeat made national headlines.
  • Of course, it was shortly after this match where an even more infamous incident happened on Late Night With David Letterman.
  • Jerry would reveal in his book years later of how he and Andy staged the whole storyline and carried on with it from there (even some fellow wrestlers were in the dark about it), but the sheer impact this storyline had on Professional Wrestling, and pop culture as a whole, is something to behold, and it's definitely a major highlight in Jerry's career.
    • Arguably, this is why some people still hold on to the belief that the Montreal Screwjob was nothing but a well-executed work. Lawler and Kaufman pulled off the con that well.
• Summerslam 1993 and his match/segment with Bret Hart is one of Jerry's definitive segments. It ticks off all sorts of old school Heel tactics: he comes out on crutches, and makes up a ludicrous story about heroically surviving a pile-up on the freeway (which of course only Bobby Heenan believes). Then he sends Doink the Clown out to wrestle Bret, and then Jerry attacks Bret during the match and shows he's in perfect condition to wrestle (even healthy enough to carry out Doink). Then he's ordered by president Jack Tunney to wrestle Bret for real, but by then, Bret is so righteously pissed off over all the shenanigans that he gets disqualified for refusing to let go of the Sharpshooter (for several minutes). And after all that, Jerry wins the match, and raises a finger in victory while being wheeled out of the arena on a stretcher. From start to finish, the whole segment is a masterpiece of heel work on Jerry's part.
• In 2001, before the Invasion storyline began, Jerry left the WWE after his wife, Stacy Carter, was released from the company, and soon after, she left him for another man. After a troubling year for Jerry, it was a triumphant moment when, after Paul Heyman was (kayfabe) fired, Jerry immediately showed up on Raw as his replacement on commentary, to a warm welcome from Jim Ross and a standing ovation from the crowd. On that night, it was good to be the King.
• Main-eventing against The Miz in late 2010 and early 2011. Hell, he kicked off the feud with a TLC match, live on Raw. Jerry had just turned 61. Talk about Still Got It.
• FINALLY snapping and chasing down Michael Cole, grabbing him by the tie and slamming his head into the side of the "Cole Mine" over and over again. What makes this even better is when Jack Swagger tried to invoke the "touch Cole and be fired" thing the GM put in place, Jerry replies with Exact Words, he didn't touch Cole, he touched his tie. This results in Swagger giving Jerry exactly what he wanted.
  • Tops himself not physically by using Cole's own ego against him. He tricks Cole into saying no one remembered Swagger, Cole's Dragon-in-Chief, being WWE World Heavyweight Champion and that being Cole's sidekick was the best thing to ever happen to him. Swagger took offense to that, told Jerry "he's all yours" and walked out on Cole. Cole instantly tries to talk Jerry down, Jerry responds by pulling him down by the tie and giving him a lecture about how all the hell Cole put him through is going to come back and bite him.
• At Over the Limit 2011, Jerry finally defeated Michael Cole, making him have to kiss Lawler's foot by stipulation. He wasn't done there though. He gestures for someone to come out from backstage. Enter Eve Torres, who Moonsaults Cole. You'd think that'd be it, until he gestures for Jim Ross to come out. Ross then proceeds to dump a bottle of barbecue sauce on him. After this, Cole tries to escape, saying that he will never kiss Jerry's foot. Bret Hart wasn't too happy about this. He comes out, throws Cole back into the ring and gives him the Sharpshooter while Cole kisses Jerry's foot. Revenge was sweet for everyone that night.
• On the set of the 9/10/2012 RAW, the King suffered a massive heart attack that nearly killed him. By the 15th, he was on Tout cracking jokes. By the 17th, he was healthy enough to walk around, and touching down on a plane in his hometown of Memphis, looking no worse for the wear. If the fact that he was still wrestling matches at his age wasn't proof of his toughness and resilience, this definitely is.
  • Two months later, he returned and was cracking jokes about his condition within minutes.
  • Three months after that, he's waiting for medical clearance, so he can start competing again.