WWE News: Jerry Lawler And Fiancee Arrested For Domestic Violence; Suspended by WWE

WWE Hall of Famer and current Smackdown announcer Jerry “The King” Lawler was arrested late Thursday night in his home in Memphis, Tennessee on domestic assault charges. Lawler, who is 66 years old, got into a dispute with his 27 year old fiancee Lauryn McBride and she was arrested too.

Here’s more on the story from WREG CBS in Memphis:

Memphis wrestling legend Jerry “The King” Lawler and his fiance’e, Lauryn McBride are facing domestic assault charges.

The 66-year-old Lawler and the 27-year-old McBride were both booked into the Shelby County Jail around 1 a.m. Friday.

According to the affidavit, the two were involved in a violent confrontation at Lawler’s home on St. Nick Dr. in East Memphis.

McBride claims Lawler struck her in the head and pushed her against a stove while Lawler claims McBride scratched him in the face, threw a candle at him and kicked him in the groin.

McBride also alleged that Lawler got an unloaded pistol, put it on the kitchen counter and told her to kill herself.

Lawler says McBride was intoxicated and claims McBride is the one who brought the pistol into the kitchen.

It didn’t take long for WWE to comment on the story as well. Early Friday morning, they announced that Lawler has been suspended from his announcer duties indefinitely. This is from their WWE.com story on the incident.

Jerry Lawler was arrested at his home Friday morning by the Shelby County Sheriff’s Office in Memphis, Tenn.

According to a police report, Lawler and his girlfriend, Lauryn McBride, were taken into custody and booked on alleged charges of domestic assault—bodily harm, a misdemeanor.

WWE has zero tolerance for matters involving domestic violence, and per our policy, Jerry Lawler has been suspended indefinitely following his arrest.

TJR Thoughts: It’s a sad story to wake up to, that’s for sure. He’s got his side of things and she has her side, but the fact that something happened is obviously very bad and it’s no surprise that WWE would suspend him indefinitely. They have a policy about things like this, so they are going to apply it in this case.

Lawler has always had a penchant for being with younger women. I have heard him talk about Lauryn in the past, but I had no idea she was nearly 40 years younger than him. I thought she was older than that, but apparently she is just 27 years of age.

To his credit, Lawler has done a good job as a Smackdown announcer this year because he got to be a heel again after being a face announcer for over a decade.

As for Lawler’s future, at 66 years of age he was probably going to retire soon or be forced out anyway. WWE has a main roster commentator in waiting in Corey Graves, who has done great work in NXT for the last couple of years. I would assume that Graves will step in while Lawler is gone and will probably take the job permanently. Once the brand extension starts on July 19 they probably need another new commentator on Smackdown assuming Byron Saxton stays on Raw only instead of working both shows like he is now.

It could be weeks or months before there’s a resolution to this whether Lawler is charged for the incident or if it’s dropped. Former WWE star Adam Rose had a domestic incident while he was still in the company, but those charges were recently dropped.

Lawler has worked for WWE for the majority for the last 24 years and was inducted in the WWE Hall of Fame in 2007. He wrestled for the first few years while also settling in as a commentator and was part of the legendary announce team with Jim Ross through the late 1990s and into the 2000s.

The company may ride it out to see what happens with him in this case, but if they were to release him in the near future it wouldn’t be a surprise either.