Various: Jerry Lawler Stroke Incident Health Update, Billy Corgan on Negative Reaction Over NWA Booking Tyrus, Indies

WWE

Oct 20, 2023

Jerry “The King” Lawler Health Status Update

As noted before, WWE Hall of Famer Jerry “The King” Lawler suffered a stroke incident at his home in Fort Myers, Florida this past February. Lawler has been recovering at his home since being discharged from the hospital.

A recent episode of Sportskeeda’s Wrestle Binge podcast featured Lawler as the guest. One of the topics discussed included Lawler providing an update on his health since his stroke incident.

“I’ve had a bunch of different things and I’m still in rehab three times a week, and probably the main thing that’s drawing me back now, that you can probably tell as you hear me talk, my voice is not the same as it was beforehand. It’s slowly coming back, but it needed to come back a little more before I could make sense with my speech and vocabulary.
I really don’t do a lot, just staying around the house and do three rehab sessions a week where I go into hospital, and then I do some more at home here in Memphis, and that’s pretty much it.”

Lawler also gave his thoughts about how his stroke has impacted him physically.

“One [rehab session] is speech – that’s my main one. That’s three times a week. When I just started this, right after I had the stroke, I could barely talk. Now I go in and I sit down with this rehab lady and we just talk about different things. She had me read stuff, and all of this stuff has just helped me day in and day out getting my vocabulary better.
My right arm and my right leg and everything on my right side of the body, it’s not hurt me where I can’t walk around. I can still walk around, but I don’t have really good control of writing my autograph. I can write my autograph pretty good, but I’ve been so proud of my autograph and artistic ability to it, but that’s all sort of taken a while to come back.”

Lawler also gave thanks for all of his fans who have sent him well-wishes and supported him during his recovery.

“I would like to say thank you for being concerned and worried about my upkeeping and what I’ve had going on. It’s just awesome to know that there are fans out there wondering what am I doing during my time off. It’s nice to talk to them.”

Transcript h/t: Sportskeeda.com

Billy Corgan on His Reasons for Booking Tyrus in the NWA

A recent episode of Fightful’s Wrestling Perspective Podcast featured National Wrestling Alliance owner Billy Corgan as the guest. One of the topics discussed included Corgan’s thoughts about the negative online reactions to NWA booking Tyrus for shows due to his Fox News sexual harassment allegations and if they accomplished what they wanted to out of it.

“Yes. The roots of that journey goes back to what I like about the gig. When I worked in the office and on the booking committee at TNA, they would give me the personalities they didn’t want to deal with. So, I was in charge of the difficult part.
I’m not even joking. Tyrus was on that list, and so was Nick Aldis. My relationships with both future NWA World Heavyweight Champions was born of working with them in TNA because they were on the difficult talent list. I formed some relationships to try to understand what was it about these personalities that were rubbing the office the wrong way. Why do they feel underutilized? Can I be a translator for them in the office? But to varying degrees of success, I was able to accomplish that at TNA.
So, my relationship with George Murdoch [Tyrus] did not end the minute he started working for a major media outlet, and I was out of TNA; we stayed in contact. He had dropped completely out of professional wrestling. When he wanted to come back to professional wrestling, he reached out to me. He asked me what I thought about it, so it was something that we had discussed.
I’ll be quick about it because every time I open my mouth about Tyrus, somebody gets mad. I told George Murdoch, the human being eight years ago, sitting backstage at Universal Studios where TNA shot. I said they’re not using you, right? George said, okay, you tell me how you would use me as a talent. What Tyrus ended up doing in the NWA was what we talked about eight years ago. So when I’m in a position of power, which I’m in. I’m going to put my money where my mouth is, and if people think I’m the type of person that’s going to shy away from the other arguments against Tyrus as a talent or as a human being, they don’t know me.”

Corgan also stated that the controversy surrounding Tyrus was worth it for the NWA since he cashed a lot of checks from Tyrus’ time with the company.

“I cashed a lot of checks with his mouth, including stuff that cost me a lot of money. So I’m not shy about that type of thing. So, did we accomplish together what we set out to do for Tyrus? The character and George Murdoch, the human being? Absolutely. The fact that it was controversial, okay! What did Eric Bischoff say? Controversy creates cash? If you’re going to let that mob book your promotion, you shouldn’t run a wrestling promotion.”

Transcript h/t: Fightful.com

Misc. Wrestling News & Notes

House of Glory recently announced that Prince Nana and Swerve Strickland will be making an appearance for the company at their Darkest Hour event on December 1st in New York City, New York.

Pro Wrestling Revolver recently announced that the Grizzled Young Veterans (James Drake & Zack Gibson) will be making their official debut for the company at their Revolver Season Finale event on December 2nd in Clive, Iowa.

All Japan Pro Wrestling recently announced the full schedule of events for Jonathan Gresham’s upcoming appearances for the company. (English translation: PostWrestling.com)

WrestleCade recently announced that Blake Christian will be making an appearance for the company at their Wrestlecade Weekend 2023 convention on November 24-26 in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre announced that they have pulled Sanley from their Grand Prix De Amazonas 2023 event on October 27th in Mexico City, Mexico due to her recently suffering an injury. It was announced that Andromeda will be replacing Sanley for Team Mexico at the event.

Thursday’s Before The Impact show for Impact Wrestling featured George Iceman teasing that this Saturday’s Bound For Glory 2023 in Cicero, Illinois will feature a “surprise visitor” making an appearance on the show. Iceman stated that a flight and hotel in Chicago has already been booked by Impact for this mystery person.

Impact recently announced two new matches for the card of their Turning Point 2023 event on October 27th in Newcastle, England:

Three-way match – Rich Swann vs. Frankie Kazarian vs. Trey Miguel
Gisele Shaw vs. Alex Windsor

DDT Pro Wrestling recently announced one new match for the card of their November 3rd event in Tokyo, Japan:

Saki Akai vs. Kazuki Hirata

Revolution Pro Wrestling recently announced one new match for the card of their Live In Sheffield event on October 22nd in Sheffield, England:

“Wild Boar” Mike Hitchman vs. Mascara Dorada

New Japan Pro Wrestling recently announced two new matches for the card of their NJPW Strong Fighting Spirit Unleashed 2023 event on October 28th in Las Vegas, Nevada:

Pre-show: 6-Man Tag Team match – Team Filthy (Danny Limelight & West Coast Wrecking Crew (Jorel Nelson & Royce Isaacs)) vs. Titus Alexander, Jakob Austin Young, & Baliyan Akk
Pre-show: STRONG Survivor match – Matt Vandagriff vs. Buck Skynyr

Blitzkreig! Pro recently announced one new match for the card of their Fall Back Down event on November 17th in Holyoke, Massachusetts:

Sonny Kiss vs. Dirty Dango