Jerry 'The King' Lawler Leaves WWE - Contract Not Renewed
Lawler OUT of WWE as management opts against renewing expiring contract.
Jerry 'The King' Lawler has departed WWE after the promotion decided against offering the Hall of Famer a contract extension.
PWInsider's Mike Johnson reports that Lawler's WWE contract expired near the beginning of 2024, with the company declining to renew his broadcaster's deal. Lawler remains under a WWE Legends contract despite this.
News that WWE had let the 74-year-old's agreement expire was met with surprise in WWE, given his 32-year association with the market-leading wrestling promotion. Aside from nine months in 2001, 'The King' had been with WWE since 1992, though his appearance rate had declined significantly over the past decade or so. Recently, Lawler had been out of the public eye after suffering a stroke in early 2023, so news of his departure took a while to get around.
One of PWInsider's sources indicated that Lawler would have "always been 'taken care of'" by WWE in one way or another. Now, however, this is a new era:-
“The old company is dead. People can say they hate Vince [McMahon] and Kevin [Dunn] all they want, and they’d be right to do so, but certain people would have been taken care of. Lawler would have been one, but this isn’t the old WWE. Howard Finkel, God bless him, wouldn’t have had a job for life here anymore, either.”
Fightful Select reports that Lawler reuniting with his legendary former broadcast partner Jim Ross in AEW is unlikely. Sources inside Tony Khan's promotions have stated Jerry's name "hasn't been brought up as a possibility." This would likely be precluded by Lawler's WWE Legends deal anyway.
Lawler, who has now gone over a year without wrestling for the first time in his career, is believed to still be feeling the effects of his stroke. The Memphis legend doesn't keep up with AEW, doesn't watch "much of any wrestling anymore", and is likely done in the ring.