Jerry Lawler Came Close To Wrestling Elvis Presley
The Hound Dog vs. The Puppy Lover almost happened...
During a recent episode of Dinner With The King, Jerry Lawler revealed that he almost had a wrestling match against Elvis Presley - Yes, that's Elvis Presley 'the King of Rock and Roll', not to be mistaken with Pelvis Wesley of Southpaw Regional Wrestling fame.
"One day we were just driving up to Louisville from Nashville, and I was talking about ‘Wouldn’t it be cool to have a match with Elvis Presley?’ Because Elvis was really in the news then about karate, doing all this karate, and I think this is when his wife, they’d had kind of a falling out and Priscilla was doing some hanky-panky with one of Elvis’s karate teachers. That was what was in the news back then, and I thought, I was telling (Lawler’s manager) Mickey Poole ‘How cool would it be to have a match with Elvis?’ And just out of the clear blue, he says ‘Well, if you want, I’ll have my brother ask him if he’d want to do that.’ And I said “What?’ He says ‘Yeah, my brother is the president of the Elvis International Fan Club and has been for, like, eight years and hangs out at Graceland all the time,’ and I said ‘Aw, Mickey, you’re crazy.’ He says ‘No, really, I’m serious.
"They thought it was a great idea.’ He said ‘As a matter of fact, I gave him your number and Vernon Presley is going to call you.’ Then I’m thinking ‘Now I know this guy has lost his mind,’ right? Sure enough, the next day, I leave home and go to Evansville, Indiana, and when I get home that night, they say ‘You had a phone call earlier today,’ and I said ‘Who was it?’ They said ‘Well, he said he was Vernon Presley.’ I said ‘You’re kidding.’ That went on two different times, he called and I was on a wrestling trip. Then finally, they gave him the date to specifically call me and, sure enough, he calls up, you know ‘It’s Vernon Presley,’ he said that Mickey’s brother had run the idea by him and Elvis liked it and that’s when he told me ‘When he gets back from the tour, we’ll put the whole thing together.’
“I’ll never forget, one of the last things Vernon said to me was ‘I’ll be honest with you, Jerry. Elvis is not in that great of shape right now, but he’s fixing to start working out and getting ready for this tour and as soon as the tour is over, we’ll do this thing.’ Of course, he never made it to the tour.”
Crucially, Lawler mentioned that if the match actually came to fruition that he would've booked the match to keep Presley happy. "We would’ve done anything that would have made him happy," he said.
"One day we were just driving up to Louisville from Nashville, and I was talking about ‘Wouldn’t it be cool to have a match with Elvis Presley?’ Because Elvis was really in the news then about karate, doing all this karate, and I think this is when his wife, they’d had kind of a falling out and Priscilla was doing some hanky-panky with one of Elvis’s karate teachers. That was what was in the news back then, and I thought, I was telling (Lawler’s manager) Mickey Poole ‘How cool would it be to have a match with Elvis?’ And just out of the clear blue, he says ‘Well, if you want, I’ll have my brother ask him if he’d want to do that.’ And I said “What?’ He says ‘Yeah, my brother is the president of the Elvis International Fan Club and has been for, like, eight years and hangs out at Graceland all the time,’ and I said ‘Aw, Mickey, you’re crazy.’ He says ‘No, really, I’m serious.
"They thought it was a great idea.’ He said ‘As a matter of fact, I gave him your number and Vernon Presley is going to call you.’ Then I’m thinking ‘Now I know this guy has lost his mind,’ right? Sure enough, the next day, I leave home and go to Evansville, Indiana, and when I get home that night, they say ‘You had a phone call earlier today,’ and I said ‘Who was it?’ They said ‘Well, he said he was Vernon Presley.’ I said ‘You’re kidding.’ That went on two different times, he called and I was on a wrestling trip. Then finally, they gave him the date to specifically call me and, sure enough, he calls up, you know ‘It’s Vernon Presley,’ he said that Mickey’s brother had run the idea by him and Elvis liked it and that’s when he told me ‘When he gets back from the tour, we’ll put the whole thing together.’
“I’ll never forget, one of the last things Vernon said to me was ‘I’ll be honest with you, Jerry. Elvis is not in that great of shape right now, but he’s fixing to start working out and getting ready for this tour and as soon as the tour is over, we’ll do this thing.’ Of course, he never made it to the tour.”
Crucially, Lawler mentioned that if the match actually came to fruition that he would've booked the match to keep Presley happy. "We would’ve done anything that would have made him happy," he said.
Written by Ross Tweddell
Written and video journalist for Cultaholic Wrestling | twitter: @rossonrasslin | instagram: @rossonrasslin
