In the 1970’s, Jerry Lawler became the biggest name in Memphis professional wrestling. His impact was big enough on the weekly Monday night live events at the Mid-South Coliseum in Memphis, that having him on the card could double the attendance and guarantee a sellout crowd. This was a time when professional wrestling was made up of small promotions that controlled wrestling territories/ These territories were respected by the other promotions. There were no national wrestling promotions like the WWE today. The company in Memphis got attention from the rest of the country because of the success with Jerry Lawler.
For much of this time, he wrestled as a bad guy or as they are known in the wrestling business, a “heel”. At that time, crowds for wrestling matches would always pull for the good guys, known as “babyfaces”. Like most wrestlers, Lawler would switch between being a heel and a babyface. His popularity grew enough while he was a babyface that crowds continued to cheer for him when he was a heel. The quality of his smack talk increased when he was a heel making him more fun and entertaining. At this point in my years of watching wrestling, a heel getting this type of adoration from the crowd was unprecedented. I think it was for most people. I was at a live wrestling event in my high school gym and Lawler was on the card. He was wrestling as a heel but most of the kids in the crowd were cheering for him. I was sitting in the bleachers, but I had a good view of the ring and the crowd sitting in the ringside seats. There was an old man sitting in the back row of the ringside seats who was as entertaining to watch as the wrestling match. When he wasn’t shouting at Lawler for being a heel, he was shouting at the kids in the crowd for cheering for Lawler. He tried to maintain his composure, but he couldn’t sit still. In his excitement and frustration, his skinny little legs crossed and uncrossed. His arms waved in the air. I didn’t know this man, but I could visualize him nervously working a cigarette between in fingers and his mouth if he could have smoked in the gym like he did when he watched wrestling in his living room. This was when I learned that watching the crowd can be more entertaining than the wrestling.