In 1980, Jerry Lawler suffered a devastating broken leg during a game of football which would put him on the sidelines for the majority of the year. In his absence, Bill Dundee and Jimmy Valiant were pushed as the top faces in the territory. At this time, a young Tommy Rich entered the territory and immediately began a feud with the top face, Bill Dundee, and the still injured Jerry Lawler.  The angle was quickly forgotten about when Rich turned face to clash with Tojo Yamamoto and a freshly turned heel in Johnny Valiant. As 1980 came to a close, Jerry Lawler made the occasional in ring appearance on house shows, sporting a large leg brace although this set back his recovery time.

In early 1981, Lawler finally returned to full time action and declared war on former manager Jimmy Hart and his stable of wrestlers which consisted of Paul Ellering, Jimmy Valiant and The Dream Machine (Troy Graham). Lawler eventually sent Jimmy Valiant packing by defeating him in several losers leaves town matches throughout the circuit. The feud raged on with Jimmy Hart bringing in outsiders such as Hulk Hogan, Kevin Sullivan and Terry Funk. Lawler's feud with Jimmy Hart would actually continue for several years.

During 1981, the feud between Jerry Lawler and Terry Funk started to boil over into a full on war, which resulted in one of the most legendary moments in Memphis wrestling history. The background was that Terry Funk believed everyone from the fans to the referees and announcers in Tennessee were against him, which resulted in Funk inviting Lawler to meet him in a empty arena, with just commentator Lance Russell and a camera crew in attendance. Lawler accepted the match and everything was set for the next week. Lawler and Funk immediately tore into each other with Lawler throwing Funk through three rows of empty seating. Funk made a comeback and the two started exchanging chair shots, with Funk starting to bleed a gusher from a deep cut. Funk gave Lawler a Piledriver on the concrete floor, rolled him into the ring and then smashed up a wooden set of ring steps. Funk grabbed a piece of wood and tried to stab Lawler with it but Lawler blocked it and dug the piece of wood right into Funk's eyes while Funk screamed in pain as the show came to a close. The two clashed throughout the early part of 1981 in a series of matches and angles, which made for some great TV.

Still in 1981, Jerry Lawler's feud with Terry Funk took him to Florida where he worked on a part time basis. Back in Memphis, Jimmy Hart defeated Lawler for the Southern Title and Lawler moved into a feud with stocky Boston native, Kevin Sullivan, and Koko B. Ware (now known as Sweet Brown Sugar), which lasted throughout the summer and fall months. During the close of 1981, a certain comedian by the name of Andy Kaufman began working house shows in the area by challenging women from the crowd to face him in inter-gender matches. Kaufman was a diminutive long time wrestling fan that had found success as an alternative comedian, and had found fame in popular TV series, Taxi. Kaufman, after defeating local women, would often claim to be the "King" of wrestling, which annoyed the majority of fans as they worshipped their resident, "King" Jerry Lawler. Kaufman first angered Jerry Lawler in one of his regular inter-gender matches when Lawler acted as the second for Kaufman's opponent. Kaufman berated his female opponent so much that Lawler climbed into the ring and pushed Kaufman, challenging him to a match the following week at the annual Memphis Mid South Coliseum Monday night show.

The big match was set for April 5 and it drew a sell out crowd of around 12,000 to the Mid South Coliseum. Following a ton of stalling, Lawler grabbed Kaufman and suplexed him out of his boots and then proceeded to drill him with two piledrivers which resulted in Kaufman being carted off to hospital on a stretcher. Many fans today still believe Kaufman was legitimately injured in the match, but the truth is that Kaufman had actually spent the night before at Lawler's house where the two choreographed the match in Lawler's front room along with Lawler giving Kaufman advise on how to sell the injury to it's full extent. Kaufman vowed revenge on Lawler, but was not seen for months as he sold the neck injuries he claimed to have suffered. The feud restarted on July 28 on the nationally televised late night David Letterman show. Still sporting a neck brace, Kaufman appeared along with Lawler on the show and Kaufman started verbally laying into Lawler which caused Lawler to get out of his seat and slap Kaufman incredibly hard across the face while host David Letterman freaked out. In reality, the whole incident was just as planned as the match in April in which all three participants met beforehand to plan the segment. Kaufman once again disappeared from the scene for a few months while Lawler, along with Dutch Mantel, battled the team of Bobby Eaton and Sweet Brown Sugar throughout the summer.

As 1982 came to a end, Lawler often wrestled Ric Flair who would make occasional appearances in the area. Lawler actually scored a pinfall over the then AWA Champion, Nick Bockwinkel, but the result was later overruled.

Andy Kaufman returned in early 1983 by costing Lawler a rematch against Nick Bockwinkel. Kaufman immediately took Jimmy Hart on as his manager, and the two continued to feud with Lawler. The feud climaxed with a handicap match at the Mid South Coliseum where Lawler faced Jimmy Hart and Andy Kaufman. The end came when Lawler was disqualified for piledriving Kaufman. Kaufman would later fall out with Jimmy Hart, and would team with Lawler in tag matches against Jimmy Hart. Of course, Kaufman soon turned on Lawler and the feud would never actually be resolved.

With Kaufman suffering health problems, Lawler moved into a feud with Jesse Ventura and Ken Patera who were passing through the area as 1983 drew to a close. By this time, Lawler was now a part owner of the territory after Jerry Jarrett handed him a percentage of the business to stop him leaving along with commentator Lance Russell to start a new promotion in Georgia. All of Lawler's time in 1984 was taken up by three men. He feuded with notorious mad man Jos Le Duc in the early part of 1984 in a series of bloody brawls after Jos Le Duc turned on Lawler after only a few matches together as a tag team. Lawler's major feud in 1984 however was against rising star Rick Rude. Rude, in his first ever-major push proved to be the ideal opponent for Lawler, as the two immediately clashed over the Southern Title with the highlight of the feud being Lawler losing a specially stipulated "Loser must wear a dress for 30 days match". Following this feud, Lawler moved into a program with a certain fellow named Randy Savage. Savage's father, Angelo Poffo, was a longtime enemy of area promoter Jerry Jarrett as in the early 80's, Poffo ran against Jarrett in the Kentucky area. The feud between the two promotions got quite ugly with the occasional legit fights occurring between the two sets of wrestlers, with Randy Savage very much in the thick of the action. The two clashed throughout the late part of 1984 and early 1985 with Lawler having the last laugh by defeating Savage in a "loser leaves town" match, although Savage would later return some 8 years later.

Fast forwarding to the summer of 1985, long time area favourite Bill Dundee returned to the territory after a spell in Georgia. Lawler and Dundee quickly became a tag team and dominated the Memphis territory for a few weeks, until Dundee challenged the top face tag team The Fabulous Ones. This angered Lawler, which resulted in the two splitting, leading to the Lawler / Dundee feud starting all over again with Dundee drawing first blood by defeating Lawler for the Southern Title via the use of a chain. The two clashed many times but the big blow off match in December 1985 was set as a "loser leaves town and their wife gets their head shaved match", with Lawler losing following interference from Tony Falk. In order to back up the storyline, Lawler went off for a tour of Hawaii until it was time for him to be brought back...

Next week I'll talk all about Lawler's return to Memphis, plus we'll follow Lawler's career from 1986 to the early 90's...

Unfortunately, wrestling has become a battleground of ideologies. The battle is not about wrestling companies nor wrestling styles per se, it's about how you watch wrestling. To simply enjoy a Rock promo or a skit of Mae Young wanting to show her "puppies" brings you the dreaded label of "mark". On the other hand, if you get "wood" watching Chris Benoit "wrestle" you are considered a "smart". I always wonder if other television shows have the same groups of fans...

"Hey Bob, you watch the Andy Griffith Show on TV Land Last Night? Man, Goober totally blew that gas pumping spot and then Aunt Bee was making pie crust, and she was so lame ripping off Lucille Ball like that. Then to top it off, Opie is at the lake, fishing, and you can see he has no bait on his hook but he catches a huge trout. I can't believe it was so bad. Man, Lucille Ball must be turning over in her grave. Stealing that pie crust scene is unforgivable. That show has gone downhill so fast, it's horrid."

Well, maybe other forms of entertainment aren't like wrestling. But then again, what's the deal? To simply enjoy a wrestling show somehow shows your lack of intelligence. The simple joy of watching George "The Animal" Steele eat a turnbuckle can turn you into a heretic. Mention XPW and get ready to be tarred and feathered. And NEVER, EVER mention Hulk Hogan, because impaling of the anal orifice sounds very uncomfortable.

West Potter: What drove you to become a professional wrestler?

Harley Race: Well, when I was 14 years old I saw it for the first time on K-Q TV out of St. Joe, Missouri. I turned around and told my parents that's what I want to do. Of course everybody kind of laughed but a year later I was doing it. I quit school and started doing it.

WP: As an entertainer, what do you try to do for the fans?

HR: Whatever my opponent is capable of doing. Over the years I have been able to do virtually anything I wanted to do. I have brought into wrestling every suplex that you've ever seen so whatever my opponent is able to stay up with is what I do.

WP: As far as your career, what has been your greatest in-ring accomplishment?

HR: I would have to say the first time I won the World's Heavyweight Title.

WP: Over the course of your career, you have been in the ring with many legends. Now I would like to do a type of word association where I will mention some of those names, and if you would please comment on that individual.

HR: OK, that's fine.

WP: The first one is the Dynamite Kid.

HR: Oh! The toughest, ominous little guy I have ever met.

WP: What were your matches with him like?

HR: I didn't wrestle Dynamite all that much. I wrestled him, I imagine, four or five times. They [the matches] were good. People loved him. It's hard to have a bad match with the Dynamite Kid.

WP: The second individual is Ric Flair.

HR: Ric Flair? A lot of charisma. Pretty talented. Very flamboyant.

WP: What would you say is you most memorable match with him?

HR: Oh, I would probably say the one when I took the title back from him in St. Louis.

WP: OK, the next person is Vince McMahon.

HR: Vince is a very honorable person. If you can get him to give you his word he will keep it.

WP: Mr. Terry Funk?

HR: Tougher than a rattlesnake. Just overall a genuinely nice guy.

WP: To help clear up some speculation, there are many different theories regarding the NWA Title switch between Flair and yourself. A name that is almost always mentioned is that of David Von Erich. What are your thoughts on his death and the speculation that Von Erich was thrown into the hat to help switch up the title between you and Flair?

HR: Well, there was no doubt that he would have been in that mix sooner or later. It is an absolute horrible tragedy when someone that young dies. Circumstances of the death I don't really know, nor will I speculate on. He was good enough to be in that mix and he would have definitely in another year or so would have been heavily involved in it.

WP: Here's a question I am sure that you are asked to comment on in almost every interview: In 1981, you inexplicably dropped the NWA World Title to a somewhat unknown, "Wildfire" Tommy Rich. Why did this transfer occur, only to have you gain the title back in less than two weeks? What are your thoughts on this match?

HR: Well, anyone can get beat at any point in time, anywhere. Barnett, who had been world's champion booker for probably at that point in time five or six years. It [the territory] was his place; in Georgia that it happened. He was promoting Georgia at that point in time. And like I said, anyone can get beat at any point in time.

WP: Wrestling has gone from high school gyms to Madison Square Garden: Why is this, and what have you seen first hand because of it?

HR: First off, wrestling back before it was the big industry that everybody likes to believe that it is today has been in MSG virtually since MSG has been there. It just didn't miraculously appear in MSG. On the other part, there was wrestling in 29 different promotions throughout the United States and Canada. Wrestling was somewhere in America seven nights a week. If anyone has ever been smart enough to keep a tally on what each of those seven nights per week...well, lets just take the Carolina's for instance. Every Monday night, they ran three towns. Florida ran two and Atlanta ran two. So, you're at seven right there. Now multiply that times 29 promotions nationwide and you're talking about a hell of a lot of people. Versus running three or four towns a month which, is what they do now and a lot of those tickets are give-a-ways to fill the buildings up. Television revenue of course now is staggering. But the actual butts in the seats throughout a year, I beg to differ which a lot of people that say wrestling is better off today that it was.

WP: How has the sport changed from when you first broke in?

HR: It's a lot more open. It's a lot more relaxed. When you wrestle an hour, and I did it seven nights a week virtually 365 days out of the year for 12 or 13 years, now, its more conversation and very little wrestling.

WP: Who/What is responsible for this change?

HR: Well, you'd have to say when Vince first went worldwide with the WWF that's when the change became real prevalent.

WP: How have the wrestlers responded to this change?

HR: I'd imagine that a lot of them like it because a lot of them can't wrestle to start with and those who can I think like it because it's much easier on your body to go out there and talk for 30 minutes than it is to wrestle for 30 minutes.

WP: How have the fans responded?

HR: Well, I think that if you look at the crowds that they're having, they must like it. For how long, I don't know. But for right now, they're liking it.

WP: Do you think this change has been good for the sport?

HR: No.

WP: You sound fairly confident about that...

HR: Well, everyone's entitled to their own opinion, and that's mine.

WP: Have the fans lost the true "meaning" of the sport because of this change?

HR: I don't know. It's really hard to say. They seem to enjoy. I do know one thing for sure: if I paid $50.00 for a ringside seat and had to set and watch a teletron, for hour after hour, I'd be a little pissed off about it!

WP: If you could pick one match that may have signaled the change in wrestling, what match would that be?

HR: God, I don't know. For one to just pick out of the air would be Hogan and Andre at Wrestlemania III.

WP: Due to the popularity of the major shows today, do you think the smaller federations will ever completely fade out?

HR: No. My own is getting stronger every day. There's going to be some that come and go, but the ones that go out of it are the ones who don't really deserve to be in it anyhow. You've got kids out there now who are promoting backyard wrestling and you've got other guys who have never legitimately been in the ring anywhere in there lives coming up with enough cash to buy a makeshift ring and they are promoting wrestling. Those people are going to go by the wayside.

WP: Would you say that within the smaller federations those, that do make it, there is less talk and more wrestling?

HR: Yes.

WP: Out of the guys on TV today, who would you say is one of the best?

HR: It would be a Rock, Stone Cold, Goldberg is coming along fairly decently. I don't know if Bret Hart is still active, if he is, he is the best. Chris Benoit, Dean Malenko, Saturn. There's a lot of good guys still out there.

WP: Now, kind of a futuristic question: Where do you see the sport in 20 years?

HR: Being the longest surviving sport on the face of the earth, it will still be around. But how high it will be, or how low it will be I don't have any idea. If I could foresee that future, there'd be a lot of things that I'd buy right quick.

WP: What is your favorite match that you wrestled?

HR: Well, I have had a lot of what I consider great, great matches. But, none that took me any higher than win I won the World Title. The first [title win] was probably the tops. The seventh was probably was right close to that. The reason for that being both of those were in my home state and the seventh broke Lou Thesz's record which stood for many years.

WP: Right, what are you thoughts on Lou Thesz?

HR: During his time period, Lou was as good as they got.

WP: How do you think he would compete today?

HR: Well, if they'd let him compete, he'd do pretty decently. No one is allowed to really wrestle anymore. How long has it been since you saw a match go over 6 or 8 minutes?

WP: That's right. It doesn't happen anymore.

HR: Without fifteen people interfering in it.

WP: If you were in your prime today, how would you compete with today's athletes?

HR: Well, since I helped originate two-thirds of the stuff they're doing, I think I'd probably do pretty damn good.

WP: Back in the locker room, how or when did you first sense that the sport had or was changing?

HR: If you are talking to the kids, you don't really see a lot of the change. Where you see your change is when they walk out to that ring. Most of the guys can still talk about the things that they could have done, should have done, would have done had it not been for something else.

WP: Do you think that today's wrestlers do more talking to cover up a lack of ability?

HR: A lot of them are no athlete at all. Then you have the others that are great athletes. The ones that do 99% of the talking...take the Rock. The Rock is a good athlete. Stone Cold is a good athlete. But why abuse your body when you don't have to?

WP: Out of all of the venues you wrestled at, which was your favorite?

HR: My all-time favorite would be the Keel Auditorium in St. Louis. But, it wouldn't take a mathematical genius to figure out why someone would say the Pontiac Silverdome. There were a lot of great arenas. Houston, Texas had a great arena. Atlanta at the Omni was a great event. For a smaller venue, there is nothing more exciting than the times at the old Armory in Tampa, Florida.

WP: During your stint in the WWF, how was that different compared to your tours with the NWA?

HR: Touring with them [WWF] most of the guys, even today, respect me. But the respect level was not that of when I was World's Heavyweight Champion, traveling everywhere. Of course you had Hogan who was above anyone else that was there.

WP: Recently, we have seen celebrities being brought into the wrestling scene. The have been brought in to enhance ratings, or just to draw a different type of crowd. What are your thoughts about seeing the belt being put on these non-athletes?

HR: I think it's a bunch of bullshit. But, I can understand why they are brought in. If they're brought in as a referee or something like that, that would be fine; brought in in some cases in tag matches, where they can be protected and left standing out on the apron, that is fine. But to make one of those clowns champion is absolutely ridiculous.

WP: So, I think it is safe to say that you didn't agree with WCW putting the belt on David Arquette...

HR: No. Do you think anyone else agreed with it?

WP: Who had the biggest influence on your career?

HR: The influence was before I became champion and all that stuff. I kind of built my style of wrestling after two individuals: one was Buddy Austin, who a lot of people didn't know, or don't remember. The other one was Ray Stevens. It was kind of a combination of those two people.

WP: Did you ever have the chance to meet those individuals or actually wrestle them?

HR: Yes. At the point in time when I wrestled those two, at the beginning, of course I got my ass kicked! But later on I wrestled Stevens when he came up around the Minnesota area. It was honor to get in the ring with him, that's for sure.

WP: Are you still actively wrestling in any fashion?

HR: No, I'm not. I had a car wreck in 1995 and three surgeries later I wound up with an artificial hip. Since then, February, a year ago this month, I had two pipes and eight screws inserted into five vertebrae in my back.

WP: As you just proved with your comments about the back surgery, wrestling is tough on the body physically. How does it affect one mentally?

HR: Once you are in the ring, if you really love what you're doing you don't feel anything unless you get a bone broke or something. All of the anxiety of the day is worked out in that hour that you're in there or however long you're in there. I worked many and many a hangover off in that ring. You sweat that out of you. That part of it was a piece of cake to me. But, there's that constant travel to get there.

WP: Can you comment about the travel?

HR: There's no way of shortening it, so it has to be done.

WP: Which is worse: the wrestling or getting to the event?

HR: The travelling.

WP: Finally, if you pick any opponent to work with, past or present, who would it be?

HR: If I could go back and actually get in the ring with somebody? I guess everybody would expect you to say a Rock or a Goldberg of Stone Cold or somebody like that. Not really. The hours upon hours upon hours that I spent in the ring with Dory Funk, Jr. are probably some of the best experiences that I ever had in my life.

WP: Ok, well as far as questions, that completes the interview. I certainly thank you for your time.

HR: Thank you.