Jerry Lawler On Roman Reigns Becoming "The Guy" And Why He Might Stop Being A Locker Room Leader
On this week's episode of 'Dinner With The King,' co-hosts Jerry "The King" Lawler and Glenn Moore devote the show to discussing The Rock's career, including his start in Memphis as Flex Kavana. The two also recapped Sunday's No Mercy show, including a discussion about John Cena "passing the torch" to Roman Reigns. They sent us these highlights of Lawler's comments on the match:
Roman Reigns becoming the "face of the WWE following match:
"The reason for that match was, we talk about mythical passing of the mythical torch, I think that's what that match basically represented. In WWE, you have to have, there always have been and always will be, a pecking order in the talent roster. And you usually have that one featured guy that is considered "the guy."
"That, obviously, is a Vince [McMahon] decision on the final say-so on who will be "the guy." You have to feature him, or "push." Sometimes if the fans don't feel that person is ready for that big push, they resent it."
Does this mean Reigns becomes the locker room leader?
"Yeah, I think so. You know what is a funny thing in the business? When you get to be 'that guy,' you suddenly no longer dress in the same locker room as all rest of the guys. You have your own bus. You have your own locker room. You're not in the one big male talent locker room.
"There is a little bit of a fallacy in the fact of the guy that is "the guy" is the locker room leader; that is just not necessary real. A guy like Brock Lesnar; you never see Brock. He's always on his bus or his own locker room. You never see him. He stays in there until basically it's time for his match. He goes out and comes back, and then he's gone."
The King also talked about his weekend in the Carolinas wrestling Terry Funk, and confirms a wrestling myth of turning an actual arrest live on Memphis television into a storyline back in the 1990s. You can listen to the full episode below: