Looking back, it’s kind of a shame that the legendary Jerry “The King” Lawler, while in the WWE, never got a championship or even a WrestleMania moment, or at least one that wasn’t an embarrassment to him and wrestling in general. More on that later! WrestleMania 27 for the most part was just awful. No disrespect, but when your main event is The Miz walking into WrestleMania as WWE Champion against John Cena, that just doesn’t cut it. While yes, at the time The Miz was my least favorite wrestler ever and I have since grown to respect and admire the guy, at the time he just wasn’t a credible main eventer, especially at the grandest stage of them all. Even though The Rock interfered, it still didn’t matter. That’s not to say that I feel The Miz should never have been the WWE Champion, but the two times he was, neither was the right time and unfortunately WWE didn’t capitalize on him at his hottest in 2016 after his latest reign as Intercontinental Champion and his infamous blow up at Daniel Bryan on Talking Smack. But that’s another blog for another day! Back to the lecture at hand!
There were a few other things that made this WrestleMania stand out for the wrong reasons, such as Snooki of all people actually wrestling, but the worst offense was what happened with Jerry Lawler. Leading up to the show of shows, Lawler had been feuding with commentary partner Michael Cole. At the time, Cole was portraying a heel, partly because he often read the anonymous Raw General Manager’s emails to the audience. The less said about that the better. For me, it wasn’t heel heat. It was change the channel inducing. Cole also had Jack Swagger by his side, wasting Swagger’s talents as well. The two actually had a match at WrestleMania, the first and only one Lawler would have in his 18 years with the company, sadly. It was a completely unnecessary match and moment. Lawler did win but the decision was reversed, completely crapping on the whole thing. The King deserved so much better. Well, I’m going to do a little hindsight booking and give him a WrestleMania moment.
For context, we’re going to have to go back a few months, to the late Summer and early Fall of 2010. At the time, at least until SummerSlam when the angle went to crap, (thanks Cena lol), the Nexus was the hottest thing in wrestling. My booking would have had leader Wade Barrett be that year’s Money In the Bank winner and would have cashed in to become the WWE Champion. However, since I’m changing things for a different person, the sad reality needs to stay. Therefore, what I envisioned for Barrett will be what actually happened and who it happened to, The Miz.
After an actual Championship defense in early February 2011 that ended in controversy, another match was to take place at the upcoming Elimination Chamber ppv, pitting The Miz against Jerry “The King” Lawler for the WWE Championship. Even though we all knew The Miz would inevitably win and walk into WrestleMania as Champion, many fans, including myself, had a glimmer of hope, or at least a dream. Here’s where I change things for point of this blog!
In this scenario, Jerry Lawler defeats The Miz at Elimination Chamber to become the WWE Champion. Lawler is no stranger to World Titles, as he was the AWA World Heavyweight Champion at one point, along with God knows how many reigns atop the USWA, him running the Memphis promotion notwithstanding. However, let’s be honest! The WWE is on another level. Anyway, this really could be a feel good moment. By this time, The Rock was to make his return to the company from Hollywood after 7 years to host WrestleMania. In that respect, I’d possibly have his interference come at this show during this match, trying to equalize interference of Miz’s protege at the time, Alex Riley. This could then set up a WrestleMania match for The Rock, before setting his sights on John Cena the next night on Raw to set up their match a year later at the next WrestleMania.
Now that Lawler is the Champion and will headline WrestleMania, we need an opponent. In that case, it would go to the man that did challenge for the Title that year, John Cena. Cena was the man at the time, a main event player, and had headlined past WrestleManias, as well as ones after this particular one. A legend like Lawler against the current main guy for the WWE Title in the main event of WrestleMania just screams money to me. That kills two birds with one stone, giving Jerry Lawler both a long awaited Championship in the company, and a WrestleMania match and moment.
Now, I’m realistic enough to know that there would be no way Lawler would or should walk away from this match as the winner and Champion, and so is Lawler himself. This wouldn’t necessarily be called a passing of the torch, as Cena had been carrying that torch for years at this point, but I’m sure Lawler would be honored to drop the Title to John Cena, whereas Cena is humble enough to be honored by this match in general with a legend and becoming Champion because of it. It’s a feel-good moment and I believe fans would revel at the sight of these two showing respect to one another after the match. I think it’s a quality main event and would certainly be better than what we got. More importantly, it would show Jerry Lawler the respect he deserved at this point in his career. John Cena, in and out of the ring, is a gracious man who would be more than happy to pay respects to someone that paved the way for him. Everybody wins! What do you think?
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