JERRY LAWLER: We're in what I refer
to sometimes as my Bat Cave.
Most people call it a man cave.
This is all stuff that really meant something
to me from my childhood.
Gosh, as a kid growing up, moved to a little town right outside
of Cleveland with my parents and became
a huge Cleveland sports fan.
I was right at the age, I was in my teen years
when Beatlemania hit.
It's still there.
I'd wear a Superman ring instead of my WWE Hall of Fame ring
because five years old, I became an unbelievable super hero fan.
And that's when I first realized I could draw.
When it comes to art, I realized that it's
a God-given talent that all my life
have really taken for granted.
I think in my first grade and the teacher
wrote to my parents, talk about what
great artistic ability I had.
It was just something, like I said,
that just always came natural.
And I was always just shocked that everybody couldn't draw.
[music playing]
I think the first time that my artwork
got any real attention was when my dad and I were going
to the live wrestling shows.
ANNOUNCER: This is Lance Russell from the Memphis
Mid-South Coliseum.
JERRY LAWLER: Memphis wrestling, it was the biggest thing
that happened in the city.
ANNOUNCER: What a match this one has been so far.
JERRY LAWLER: The first time I watched
wrestling was with my dad.
My dad actually worked as an usher.
And that way, we got free tickets.
When I was watching the wrestling,
I watched it really, really closely.
I watched the moves that the guys were doing.
And I would try to think in my mind
how you would emulate those things.
I remember starting to draw some pictures of the wrestlers.
Somebody said, man, you ought to take some of those pictures
and send them in to the TV station
that airs wrestling every week.
Jerry was 14 or 15.
And he came to me by the mail.
He sent in some drawings on wrestling.
JERRY LAWLER: Sure enough, about halfway through the show,
he says Dave, we have a young fan
that sent in some pictures that kind
of illustrate what took place.
LANCE RUSSELL: And I would use it
to tell people about what happened last week
down at the auditorium.
I thought, man, couldn't get any better than that.
But it did because a week later, I got a call
from Lance Russell himself.
And he said, listen, everybody loved your artwork.
Maybe you could come over to the studio next week,
show your artwork, and everybody wants
to see what you look like.
Plus, Jackie Fargo wants to check
with you about having you do some artwork
for his nightclub in Memphis.
Fabulous Jackie Fargo, I mean, he was The Rock or John Cena.
He was a top guy in the Memphis territory at that time.
He had a guy named Eddie Bond on a nightclub in Memphis.
And he wanted me to come to that nightclub
and literally paint caricatures of he
and Eddie Bond all over the inside of his club.
For the next few years, he would send me
on errands and all of this different kind of stuff.
But I didn't mind.
I just still got to be around him.
Being around Jackie Fargo, the huge celebrity
that he was, I mean, it just really turned my head.
Girls were going crazy.
And I'm looking around.
And I look up at him and I said, now, that is what I want to be.
Forget about being an artist.
I'm thinking, oh, my gosh.
I would love to get into this business as a wrestler.
But I was just too embarrassed to say anything to Jackie.
I mean, I just think he was just looking
at me as just a punk kid that had some artistic ability.
At that time, I had heard that every Saturday night in West
Memphis, Arkansas, right across the bridge,
they have live wrestling matches.
I would talk to the promoter.
And next thing you know, I'm in the wrestling business.
Now, I had never even been in a ring before.
I'm fixing to step into a ring, an actual wrestling ring,
without having any training.
I get tagged in, the first time I'm in the ring now.
So man, he grabs me, he throws--
runs across the ring.
He throws me out of the ring.
The next thing I know, I'm waking up.
I'm like this.
I'm waking up.
We're already back in the locker room.
And I said, what happened?
And all I remember was hearing a loud pop when
I got thrown out of the ring.
Yeah, that was your head hitting the concrete floor.
You've been knocked out for about five minutes.
Stepping into that ring for the first time with people,
they're cheering for.
You they're clapping their hands.
It was just something I had never experienced before.
And I knew I wanted to do it again.
Jackie Fargo hears about this.
And he gets upset.
And he said, kid, you don't want to do this.
You're too good an artist.
Stick with art.
Don't mess with the wrestling.
And I said, Jackie, please.
I just want to do it in Memphis.
He said, all right, kid.
If I stick my neck out to the promoters and tell them to book
you on TV, will you do the one match and then forget about it,
go back to being an artist?
I said, I promise you, Jackie.
I will.
And of course, here 52 years later, I'm still doing it.
JERRY JARRETT: Lawler, from very, very early on,
was a star.
JERRY LAWLER: All I cared about was being on TV.
And I loved it if somebody would ever ask me for an autograph.
Even though I was only getting to wrestle once a week,
it was a great learning process.
JERRY JARRETT: He was terrific at bumps.
His basic wrestling knowledge was advanced for the experience
that he'd had.
But what he did that really set him apart was that he
connected with the fans.
JOHN BRADSHAW LAYFIELD: People related to him.
He was one of them.
Jerry Lawler was different and the fact that he was real.
JERRY LAWLER: It just kind of came natural to me.
And Jerry Jarrett started putting
me higher up on the card until I would reach main-event status.
JERRY JARRETT: Jackie Fargo was getting older.
And I was in need, as a booker, a promoter,
of a single wrestling star.
JERRY LAWLER: And I'm suddenly pushed
into the limelight in a feud with Jackie Fargo, my mentor.
He's a very tough opponent.
And he's always competition when you get in the ring.
JERRY JARRETT: It was the program that passed
the torch from Fargo to Lawler.
ANNOUNCER: And Fargo taunting Lawler.
I said, Jackie Fargo, you're a legend.
You're the best.
You've been the king of Memphis wrestling for years.
But you're looking at the kid that's going
to knock you off your throne.
And somehow, I won the match.
And as I was going back to the dressing room,
there was a lot of young people.
And they were patting me on the back.
And some of them were saying, hey, you're the king now.
You beat Jackie Fargo.
You're the king.
The next morning, Memphis TV, I come walking out with the crown
on, the robe on, and I was, from that moment on,
the King of Memphis.
[music playing]