Jerry Lawler Has Some Depressingly Predictable Views On Political Correctness

Unless you've been living under a rock (and honestly, who can blame you), or in the boardroom of WWE Headquarters, where fingers in ears to prevalent social concerns is mandatory, you'll know with depressing familiarity the controversy surrounding the company's latest desert junket, Crown Jewel.

Quick recap: state-sponsored murder of a journalist, affront to press freedom and basic human rights, WWE does show anyway, $45 million, thank you very much.

It seems Jerry Lawler, possibly with his crown wrapped too tightly around his head, totally missed the point of the - for once - perfectly justified outrage. Perhaps on purpose.

Speaking on his podcast recently, 'The King' exposed his own crown jewels to the inevitable social media backlash by opening up about a phrase which oddly, only ever seems to be used by those mithering over it.

Yup: political correctness. And guess what? He thinks it's gone mad!

Lawler, to be fair, was originally making a mostly valid comment about the disproportionate uproar caused when Republic Senate candidate Marsha Blackburn visited a branch of Gibson's Donuts in his native Memphis. Supposedly, Blackburn's cup of coffee was enough to convince people to take their business elsewhere.

The outrage extended to an apparently innocent snap 'The King' took with Blackburn, causing some to denounce his Coliseum Coalition - a cause designed to re-open the Memphis venue - because of his involvement. It's hard to disagree with Lawler that it's all a bit over the top.

Unfortunately, he managed to confuse 'political disagreement' with 'political correctness', failing to note that opposing viewpoints do not equate to an attempt to create a fairer society:

Anyway, that’s the kind of backlash that nowadays has to be accepted because with our politically correct society, everything you say or do is going to offend somebody and now with all the social media that somebody has a voice and they’re gonna get on there and they’re gonna complain.

As if that semi-coherent statement wasn't enough, Lawler then bizarrely compared the situation to WWE's ineffable, indefensible decision to go ahead with their most recent Saudi Arabia show:

Somebody writes, ‘I wouldn’t want Jerry Lawler to be a spokesmen now after seeing this.’ That’s the kind of backlash that Crown Jewel got.

Lawler had earlier excused the Saudi regime for their murder of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi, demonstrating understated restraint rarely seen on commentary by describing the situation as "unfortunate". He further went on:

If we could bring our values into play over there, I think it can’t do anything, but help. I don’t think there should be any backlash on that thing. It’s all good.

Apparently he forgot he was there for The Greatest Royal Rumble in April, and it didn't make a jot of difference.

Obviously, there are mitigating factors behind Lawler's wilful ignorance. He's a very smart man, and clearly knows which side his bread is buttered. Either that, or the WWE bubble is so impervious, it can't be popped by a giant in track spikes.