WWE Hall Of Famer Jerry “The King” Lawler is the guest on the latest episode of “Stories with Brisco and Bradshaw.”
Lawler talked about his WrestleMania match with Michael Cole:
“What was good about that was, I can’t knock it because after almost 30 years being in the WWE, I made my biggest payday ever working with Michael Cole. My only WrestleMania match. That’s the only match I had at WrestleMania.”
Lawler talked about the match he was going to have with Elvis Presley before Elvis died:
“Elvis was known as the King of Rock and Roll. I was known as the King of Wrestling. As a matter of fact, in 1977, I had this manager named Mickey Poole. This was after Sam Bass got killed in the car accident in ‘76. We actually hired him (Poole) to drive me on the trips. I just hated to drive. When Sam was there, Sam would always drive to Louisville and Evansville and I would sit on the side and read comic books. We hired this guy named Mickey Poole, who it was like he wasn’t exactly right, maybe just a little bit off. Anyway, he was a good driver. Anyway, we were driving to Louisville, and an Elvis Presley song came on. The news was out then that Elvis was doing this martial arts stuff with Kang Rhee who was a famous karate instructor down in Memphis. I said to Mickey, ‘You know what would be cool is if we could somehow get a hold of Elvis Presley and do a wrestler vs karate match’, because they already did the Muhammad Ali and Inoki match.
Just crazily, out of the blue, he said, ‘Well you know what? I’ll tell my brother to ask him if he would want to do that?’ I said, ‘What do you mean, you’ll tell your brother?’ He said, ‘My brother is the president of the Elvis International Fan Club and has been for 7 years. He hangs out at Graceland at the front with Elvis’ uncle Vester.’ I didn’t even believe him, and I said, ‘Yea, get your brother to ask him if you would.’ Two days later we’re driving somewhere else and he said, ‘By the way, my brother talked to Elvis’ dad, Vernon Presley. Vernon asked Elvis if he would be interested, and they loved the idea so Vernon Presley is going to call you. I gave him your number.’
I said, ‘Are you serious?’ He said, ‘I swear.’ Mickey was known for being a goofball and I still didn’t believe him. It was on a Wednesday and I left about 1 o’clock to go to Evansville, IN and this was before cell phone days. I was married at the time living in Hendersonville. I got back that night and my wife said, ‘Somebody called you this afternoon. His name was Vernon Presley.’ I said, ‘Are you serious?’ She said, ‘Yes. He said he’ll call back tomorrow.’ The next day, I waited by the phone. No call. So I went to the town and wrestled. I got back that night, and my wife said, ‘Well, that Vernon Presley called again.’ I said, ‘What did he sound like?’ She said, ‘He sounds like a real nice, real southern accent guy, and I told him to call you in the morning and he said he would.’
Sure enough, the next morning the phone rang, I picked it up. ‘Jerry, this is Elvis’ father, Vernon Presley. They got through to us with the idea of you and Elvis doing something at the Mid South Coliseum and Elvis loves the idea.’ I’ll never forget how he said this. He said, ‘I’ll be honest with you Jerry. Elvis is not in too good a shape right now, but he’s fixing to start working out. He’s got this tour coming up next month. He’s going to work out for that, and as soon as he gets back from the tour, we’ll get in touch with you and we’ll put this thing together’, and then of course, he died before he even did the tour.”
