There is a lot of talk amongst wrestling fans on message boards, chat rooms, at shows, and fanfests etc on who the "greatest worker of all time" is. I personally have an opinion on that and I'm not sure it's one everyone will agree with but I will explain my reasoning behind. When you ask the question "who is the greatest worker (note I said WORKER, not WRESTLER) of all time is" you get a variety of answers. Ric Flair, Hulk Hogan, Kurt Angle, HBK, Triple H, Harley Race, Dusty Rhodes, and etc but I personally think that it's someone who gets talked about a lot on this site and that's Jerry "the King" Lawler.
Now again, I didn't say greatest WRESTLER, nor did I say greatest PERFORMER and if you know the definition of that term then you will see my point. Sure, there is a case to be made for Hogan, but look at the circumstances in Hogan's case. No, not just anyone could have filled that spot but you've got an "enhanced" muscle bound guy with a huge promotional machine behind him that helped launch him and the entire WWF/E into what it is today and that is impressive but again it was the whole package, he needed Vince's push and Vince needed him to push.
Now look at Jerry Lawler, here's a guy who is just an average guy. He's not huge and muscled, he's not a "star" athelete, he's a guy who went to Memphis State on an art scholarship but he turned himself into a box office star wrestler on top for 30 years in Memphis. Who else can make that claim? Did he own part of the company? Yes. Did he push himself? Yes. Did he put himself over on every major star in the business in the 80's and 90's? Yes. Did people pack out the Coliseum weekly for years to see it? YES! That's the difference, promoters and bookers pushing themselves is nothing new, it's always been that way and always will be, but the man was over like no one else in Memphis and is to this day. So again, why? With his size and average in-ring skills (other people's words, not mine) Lawler probably would have never gotten past the mid card working strictly for other people in other places. So how did he get over besides "pushing himself"? Well for one the guy is one of the best promo men in the business......bar none. Jerry Lawler could go out on tv and turn himself face to heel and back again twice in one promo if he wanted to. But part of that being a good talker was that he was the hometown hero, he was like the home team, a victory for Lawler wasn't just a victory for the King, it was a victory for Memphis. If Lawler was going for the World title against Nick Bockwinkle, to the fans it was like having their local football team in the championship game, he was in there representing his hometown and the fans of Memphis.
Again, fans could rally behind him cause this wasn't some larger than life cartoon character like Hulk Hogan, this was a guy just like them, hell he could be their neighbor, plus he could sell his ass off. So when he was getting his ass whipped it was believable, but when he pulled that strap down and made his comeback the people were solidly behind him cause he was in there fighting for all of them and they wanted to see him win, not like now where all the "smart marks" are going "yeah he's putting himself over again". Other wrestlers have had great runs for short periods of time but who else can you name that stayed on top in one territory for as long as Lawler did with the success he had and money he drew. That coupled with the fact that Lawler could make you believe anything he told you, like Brian and I discussed on the podcast. There are people (my father included) who believed for years and years that "yeah wrestling is fake, but the stuff with Kaufman was real" because Lawler is a great WORKER. Which makes things like the recent stuff with Sal Corrente all the more difficult to sort out cause you never really now for sure with Lawler if he's on the level. A lot of people dislike and maybe they have good reason, but I do think you have to give the guy his due, even if you don't think he's the best, he has to rank pretty high up there. Again, this is just my opinion and I would love to hear other people's opinion on who the "greatest worker of all time" is and why or just your two cents on what I've said here on the message board.
