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What’s the story?
WWE Hall of Famer Jerry 'The King' Lawler recently announced on his podcast "Dinner With The King" that he will be one of the commentators for the men's Royal Rumble match tomorrow night.
In case you didn’t know…
Lawler's contract with WWE was set to expire this month but the general feeling within WWE was that he would be re-signing without any issues. At one point a couple years ago, The King was considering to not re-sign since WWE would not allow him to compete in the ring again, but after no one disagreed with his decision to continue wrestling on the independent scene, he would re-sign a Legends contract that would see him work for WWE in another capacity.
The heart of the matter
Lawler also announced on his podcast that he had recently signed another one year contract extension with WWE. As usual, he will still continue to make independent appearances and at 68, still wrestle occasionally also, just not for WWE.
Lawler called the Manhattan Center matches and segments along with Jim Ross, and has now been announced for Royal Rumble duties as well, giving him two big WWE announcing commitments in one week. This makes it quite likely that we will be hearing more of The King on the WWE Network and WWE TV in 2018.
What’s next?
The 2018 Royal Rumble takes place tomorrow night in Philadelphia. Despite all the hype for the women's match, the men's Royal Rumble match is still slated to be the main event.
Author’s take
I think Jerry Lawler is one of the greatest commentators in wrestling history, so I am all for him calling the Royal Rumble match. The King had been in the news this week for unflattering reasons: several fans at the Manhattan Center claimed that Jerry and Jim Ross both fell asleep during the via satellite happenings from the Barclay's Center, and then several people complained of Lawler's use of the word "puppies" on the show, which is a term he used during the Attitude Era to describe women's breasts. I don't believe he and J.R were sleeping and his "puppies" comment was merely a throwback. It will be good to hear The King more in WWE this year.
