What’s the story?
Whether you liked his work or not, there’s no doubt that it’s still a little weird not hearing Jerry “The King” Lawler’s voice on WWE TV every week. So, it’s was no surprise when Lawler revealed on a recent podcast that after he was taken off weekly TV that TNA reached out to him about a position. In fact, it was none other than Jeff Jarrett who made the call.
In case you didn’t know...
Until last year, Lawler had been a near constant presence on WWE commentary, stretching back to the mid-1990s. Last summer, he was moved from announcing duties and placed on the Raw and Smackdown Live pre-shows. In December of 2106, he was removed from regular WWE TV altogether.
He has returned to commentary from time to time since then, most notably the 2017 Royal Rumble. He’s also still the traditional host of the WWE Hall of Fame ceremony.
The heart of the matter
During Lawler’s podcast, Dinner With The King, he revealed that after being taken off the pre-shows, Jeff Jarrett himself called him up to ask about his availability.
I did get a call from Jeff Jarrett just saying, ‘Hey, we [TNA] were just wondering if you re-signed with the WWE or not?’ It was one of those things that I got right back to him and said I did re-sign with them [WWE]”
Lawler was also asked if the possibility of him reforming his legendary commentary team with Jim Ross was considered. To that, Lawler replied, “Without a doubt, I’m sure that’s what was in their minds and it was possibly in the mind of JR’s as well.”
You can listen to the entire show below –
What’s next?
Lawler will mostly continue to commentate, but it is unlikely that he will come back to SmackDown or RAW and rather concentrate on PPVs.
Author's take
I’m glad Lawler decided to stick around with WWE after he left regular TV. Obviously, he loves announcing or otherwise he wouldn’t have done it for as long as he did. But, I doubt he would have been happy doing commentary for Impact every week.
