8 Times Disrespected Wrestlers Went Nuts On Reporters
6. Jerry Lawler Goes Nuts On Andy Kaufman
Andy Kaufman, though not technically a reporter, was the star of Saturday Night Live and Taxi, and a huge fan of wrestling. He had been developing a comedy routine whereby he'd started wrestling women in nightclubs and referring to himself as the Inter-Gender Champion, claiming that no woman could defeat him.Memphis Wrestling was no stranger to the more outré type of wrestling and invited Kaufman down south to peddle his act in the Midsouth Colosseum.
The idea of a comedian from New York(of all places) coming to Memphis in order to beat on the local ladies and pin them in shoot matches, infuriated the southern crowd and the King of Memphis wrestling, Jerry Lawler, eventually stepped in to challenge Kaufman to a match. Lawler delivered the piledriver to him and the hapless comic was lead away in an ambulance.
Shortly after, according to his new documentary 'It's Good To Be The King', Lawler was invited to New York to bury the hatchet with Kaufman on the David Letterman show. He was told that Kaufman would apologise, sing 'Love Sweet Love' and that would be the end of the angle. However, Kaufman had other ideas.
As the two men sat there, being interviewed by Letterman, it became increasingly obvious that Kaufman had no intention of apologising, in fact he started being even more antagonistic. The two men went increasingly off-script until Lawler stood up and slapped the taste out of Andy's mouth, knocking himoff his chair.
Kaufman went on a huge tirade against the King, unleashing a volley of foul language, screaming about suing Lawler and pounding on Letterman's desk, before throwing coffee over Jerry and running away. The confrontation was on the front page of every New York newspaper the next morning and was one of Lawler's most famous feuds in his 40+ year career.
Despite the angle being manufactured from the start, the violence between the two men, in such a public forum, wasn't planned and convinced countless viewers that the conflict between the two men was utterly real.