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What's the story?
WWE Hall of Famer Jerry "The King" Lawler has sort of been in a state of semi-retirement ever since WWE stopped doing their Raw and Smackdown pre-shows on the WWE Network. That all seems about to change, however, and as soon as the Royal Rumble, as a matter of fact.
In case you didn't know...
Interestingly enough, the last time Lawler was in a WWE booth was last year's Royal Rumble, where he was a special guest commentator. Unfortunately, nearly two months later, he suffered a stroke in his Memphis home, causing him to lose the ability to speak for three whole days.
Thankfully, he made a full recovery not long after. Since then, however, he hadn't appeared on WWE in any capacity.
The heart of the matter
On the latest edition of his "Dinner with the King" podcast, Lawler revealed that he just recently signed a new two-year deal with WWE. (H/T Cageside Seats)
”Basically, it’s a personal service contract that everybody signs, same type thing, and it just says you belong to the WWE... When it comes to services, it may be commentating, may be doing voice overs for the video games, maybe hosting, maybe personal appearances; all this sort of stuff is in the contract, personal services.”
Apparently, the deal was signed at the last minute, as his current contract was set to expire this week. While the WWE was aware his contract was expiring soon, the holidays got in the way of the two parties communicating and once they did, the company sent him a contract to sign right away.
While Lawler might not be the only hot free agent in the news lately, Lawler says that he was never contacted by AEW to sign with them, eliminating any chance of him joining Chris Jericho in the fledgeling promotion. Lawler maintained he was happy working with WWE and would have only considered signing with Cody and the Young Buck's new company had he been looking for work - which he maintains he wasn't.
He also mentioned that the new contract included a raise.
What's next?
Lawler's next appearance for WWE will be in a little under two weeks, as he'll be joining Michael Cole and an also-returning JBL on commentary for the Royal Rumble on January 27th in Phoenix, AZ.
