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What's the story?
One of the best pro wrestling announce teams in history reunited when Jerry Lawler joined Jim Ross on The Ross Report podcast. Celebrities are a WrestleMania tradition going back to the very first WrestleMania in 1985 where celebrities such as Mr T, Cyndi Lauper, and Muhammad Ali took part.
On the podcast, Lawler discussed the most difficult celebrity to work with of them all.
In case you didn't know...
Celebrities have played such a huge part in WrestleMania and the WWE in general that a "Celebrity Wing" of the WWE Hall Of Fame was established in 2004 with Pete Rose being the first inductee. A total of nine celebrities are in the Hall Of Fame, with Snoop Dogg being the last inductee in 2016.
The heart of the matter
Lawler stated that legendary R&B and soul singer Aretha Franklin was the most difficult of all the celebrities he worked with at WrestleMania. Considering that Lawler has been involved with the WWE since 1992, that is quite the feat with all of the celebrities he's met over that period.
Take a look at Lawler's quote about Franklin below:
"Aretha Franklin is still alive. Remember what a pain in the butt she was at WrestleMania that year? Oh my gosh! Way passed her glory days, but still the biggest diva that we'd ever seen. Very high maintenance, Aretha Franklin."
When WrestleMania returned to Detroit, Michigan in 2007 for WrestleMania 23, Franklin reprised her role of singing America The Beautiful, a song she famously performed at WrestleMania III in 1987.
What's next?
You can catch Lawler's podcast Dinner With The King every Wednesday on iTunes or your favourite podcasting application. It is possible you may see him on the Kickoff Show for Clash Of Champions on December 17th and/or the Royal Rumble on January 28th.
Author's take
First off, that is a tremendous question that Jim Ross asked Jerry Lawler. I would have never thought to have asked that one, but it's such an interesting question and, to no surprise, Lawler didn't hold back.
Considering Franklin is one of the greatest singers of the past century, she probably has the right to be a bit of a diva though!
