Jerry Lawler Comments on WWE Cutting Back on Scripted Promos on Raw, Drew McIntyre’s Push
If you have been a fan of wrestling for any significant period of time you have without question heard a fan or even a wrestler complain that today’s product is too scripted. Jerry “The King” Lawler, who has returned to WWE as a regular announcer on Raw since October 2019, recently appeared on The Steve Austin Show and explained how with Paul Heyman now being in charge of Raw, the days of overly scripted promos may finally be behind us.
“I remember when I was not doing [RAW] on a regular basis, but I would come back and do WrestleMania, or Royal Rumble, or something like that. And I’ll never forget. I was in the back. And [Austin has] come back and been in the back. And all-of-a-sudden, you’ll get something from the writers, an interview they want you to cut, right? And I’m standing there in the back, and I looked over, and I see Ric Flair reading a promo that some 20 year old kid has written for him. And I thought, ‘oh my God, what on Earth has happened to the business [of professional wrestling]?’ (laughs) That’s the part that I don’t get.”
“But do you know what? I really do think a little bit of that is changing now with Heyman in charge of RAW. Yeah, he’s letting guys – like [Austin] said, giving them some bullet points and letting them go on their own.”
Drew McIntyre recently got the biggest push of his life, as he won the Royal Rumble and is going on to main event Wrestlemania against Brock Lesnar. Lawler explained to Austin how he believes that McIntyre has what it takes to be the next big thing in wrestling.
“[McIntyre] loves the business. He really does and he’s excited to be where he is right now. I think he could be the guy. We all know that they’ve been looking for somebody since John Cena and they tried so hard with Roman Reigns. And, of course, Roman’s over big and he’s probably as good as anybody that they pushed to that extent, but I still think there’s room. He’s not John Cena. He’s not ‘Stone Cold’ Steve Austin. He’s not a Rock yet. And they’re looking for that type of personality and I really think just in being around him and watching him – I mean, he looks fantastic – I really think he could be the guy.”
Thank you to WrestlingInc for transcribing part of the interview.
Matt’s Musings: As a fan of professional wrestling for over 30yrs, I often miss the days of unscripted, off the cuff promos. Hopefully Lawler is right and wrestlers are going to get more of a chance to be themselves and show their individual personalities in the future.