What Really Happened When Vince McMahon Took Memphis

Jerry ‘The King’ Lawler marched into the World Wrestling Federation in December 1992 as a similarly cartoonish outlaw, sporting a cape, crown and sneer for any babyface that crossed his path. He was iconic amongst wrestling fans in Tennessee as an unassailable champion of Memphis, knocking back the repeated challenges of outside invaders. Jerry would invariably run the marauders out of town and the locals would celebrate until the next menace arrived.

Lawler’s WWF signing represented the continuation of a loose working relationship with his USWA promotion. Their struggling houses had been boosted by Titan talent for years in an agreement that allowed McMahon to cherry-pick some of the best in the territory, as well as afford some of his performers invaluable experience. Appearances by Bret and Owen Hart in 1993 at the company’s regular Monday Night Mid-South Coliseum shows were a boon, but they became part of some canny gamesmanship that allowed Lawler to serve all masters in his dual role.

Whilst the heel Jerry was scathing on WWF television as part of his ongoing conflict with ‘The Hitman’, the Hart brothers took revenge as villains in Memphis. Bret was globally popular, but his chicanery in Memphis helped shore up Lawler’s seemingly irrational hatred on any given edition of Raw or Superstars. A tainted victory for Bret and Owen over Lawler and fellow babyface Jeff Jarrett thanks to corrupt referee Paul Neighbours lit the touch-paper for the biggest WWF appearance of all.

Neighbours was a used car salesman of a performer with a barrel chest and thinning skullet, but fit the mould of a traditional regional heel at the time. There was little reason to consider him any sort of threat, until one final pre-match promo in which he dropped a name as if it were an atomic bomb. He confirmed that Vince McMahon himself would be ringside to watch his match with Lawler. For their part, Vince and Jerry taped a ‘Kings Court’ segment exclusively for the Mid-South crowd in which they exaggerated their switched personalities. Both were exquisitely deft in their careful portrayals.

True to his word, Vince sat ringside with Pat Patterson acting as security for the nervous North Easterner. Feverishly booed by the Lawler loyalists, he cut a promo dripping with disdain for the crowd, before tripping ‘The King’ on the outside to provide a distraction in what was otherwise a one-sided affair. As the tension between the pair grew, Patterson held Lawler for McMahon to wallop him with a single right fist before indignantly storming out of the building.

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