Jerry Lawler Talks Hulk Hogan’s WWE Return, Crown Jewel, & ‘Political Correctness Gone Wild’

Jerry Lawler and co-host Glenn Moore came together once again for their weekly Dinner With The King podcast. Lawler opened up about Hulk Hogan‘s WWE return, WWE’s controversial Saudi Arabian Crown Jewel pay-per-view and what the WWE Hall of Famer thinks about today’s politically correct climate.

On Hulk Hogan’s WWE Return:

I was really glad to see that phase of Hulk Hogan’s life come full circle and be brought back into the WWE and restored into the Hall of Fame and all that stuff because that was just a shame that that all happened to begin with. I’ve known Terry since the beginning of his career and the things that were said about him were just, they were just not true. He’s a good guy. He’s always been a good guy….he was the face of this business for a long long time and still to be, so I was glad to see Hulk coming back and it looks like he’ll be doing some stuff at WrestleMania and being a part of the WWE family once again.

On WWE Crown Jewel:

Lawler: [Talking to Glenn Moore] You were right when you led off with this that Crown Jewel received a lot of backlash and once again, just oh my gosh, it’s political correctness gone wild and what we’ve talked about so many times is everybody has the voice now with so much social media out there and everybody wants to have their voice heard.

The show itself was apparently a good show.

Glenn Moore: It was the first time I watched a pay-per-view start to finish in months. I enjoyed it.

Lawler: So anyway, anything you do is gonna offend somebody and they’ve got a voice now [social media] to sorta be heard.

Glenn Moore: Unfortunately, the ‘backlash’ for the show in Saudi Arabia overshadowed Renee Young, a woman who was broadcasting for the event in Saudi Arabia.

Lawler: That would be unheard of.

Glenn Moore: She was there doing commentary ringside and worked the whole show and no one’s talking about how that took place. They’re all talking about the backlash in WWE and Saudi Arabia, which is ridiculous. Renee deserves credit for being there and WWE deserves credit for compromising with Saudi Arabia to do that because I’m sure people in Saudi Arabia weren’t happy about it, but kudos to WWE for doing it.

Lawler: That’s the way things have been since the beginning of time. Everybody thinks that everybody else should think the way they think and it’s not that way. The people in Saudi Arabia – it’s a different culture, it’s a different lifestyle. Everything is different from the way we are, but we think all of a sudden, if we have any deals with them that they should think and do like we do. It’s not gonna happen, but by the same token, I think the WWE working in Saudi Arabia and taking some of our Western Values, I think it can really make a major difference and I’m not just talking about entertainment or wrestling. I’m talking about a major difference in the way the Saudis treat women and females. I think that the fact that Renee Young getting to go over there is something that years ago would have been unheard of.

Glenn Moore: It’s a start. It’s not gonna change overnight. It’s gonna take progress, but having Renee Young there and her working the whole show, being ringside, I think it’s a great start.

Lawler: I do too and the very unfortunate thing that happened with the reporter from Saudi Arabia being killed at the Consulate, very very unfortunate, but that’s one of the things again that their way of life is totally different from ours. You’re talking about a country over there that in the past, if you stole something they cut your hand off. If you looked at somebody else’s wife, BOOM, it’s like the death penalty. We think that it’s totally wrong and things need to change and I think that working with them, if you just shy away from them and never have any interaction with them, nothing’s gonna change, they’re gonna always stay that way. If we could bring our values into play over there, I think it can’t do anything, but help. I don’t think there should be any backlash on that thing. It’s all good.

On Political Correctness & A Recent Encounter With Senator Elect Marsha Blackburn:

We happened to be at Gibson’s and at 7:45 in the morning, in comes Marsha Blackburn, who was running for Senate in the state of Tennessee. Memphis, over here in West Tennessee, we don’t get a lot of visits from politicians that are running state wide. They know that Memphis is pretty much a Democratic strong-hold and no matter what you say, they usually campaign in the rest of the state, but they came to Memphis and she was running against Phil Bredesen. If you remember, Taylor Swift came out and she backed him. She voted for Phil Bredesen. It didn’t help a bit. Anyway, Marsha Blackburn comes in and all the media is following her with all the cameras and stuff and she wanted to take a picture with me. The place was packed with people, so I took a picture with Marsha Blackburn and didn’t think a thing about it. Of course, the election was that day and immediately, as soon as the pictures and the word that she was in Gibson’s Donuts [went out], the backlash went crazy from, I guess, the Democrats sending out…they made a news story about it. [Gibsons] got all these threats and the backlash because she came into the store. What are you gonna do, refuse somebody that wants to buy donuts or a cup of coffee? People were saying, ‘I’ll never go to Gibsons Donuts again,’ which is insane. Anyway, that’s the kind of backlash that nowadays has to be accepted because with our politically correct society, everything you say or do is going to offend somebody and now with all the social media that somebody has a voice and they’re gonna get on there and they’re gonna complain.

There’s a Facebook called Coliseum Coalition. They’ve been around trying to keep the Coliseum alive and try to get it re-opened and keep it from being torn down for years now and I’ve been a big part of it. Once a year they’ll have an event…to try to keep awareness up about the Coliseum and I’ve been a strong advocate of the Coliseum Coalition and keeping the Coliseum alive here in Memphis. That’s where we had wrestling for 20 years every Monday night. All of a sudden somebody puts this picture of me standing next to Marsha Blackburn, somebody on the Coliseum Coalition page. Somebody writes, ‘I wouldn’t want Jerry Lawler to be a spokesmen now after seeing this.’ That’s the kind of backlash that Crown Jewel got.

(Transcription Credit: Michael McClead, WrestleZone)

Lawler and Moore also talked about The Chris Jericho Cruise, Triple H‘s injury, and Jerry Lawler’s upcoming appearance at WWE Survivor Series. Readers can listen to all that and more below:

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