This week we go back to 1983 for an excellent card that featured one of the last few Memphis appearances of Andy Kaufman.
Andy was a comedian who was most famous for his role on the TV show “TAXI”, (back in the late 1970’s to the early 1980’s.) Kaufman’s first match with Jerry Lawler took place on April 05, 1982.
Lawler 1st match:
Andy did a bit where he would wrestle women out of the audience. He billed himself as the “World’s Inter-gender Champion”. Kaufman was in a heel mode and when he was particularly rough on one of the women, Lawler took offense. The King helped a young lady who ended up losing to Andy. Andy did rough her up after the match and there was some pushing and shoving going on between Lawler & Kaufman. This escalated into the Lawler-Kaufman match being booked.
When the match happened, Jerry gave a piledriver to Kaufman and was DQ’d. Soon after this, there was the infamous Lawler-Kaufman appearance on the David Letterman show (which featured the King slapping Kaufman out of his chair on live nationwide tv.)
The next spring, Kaufman came back to Memphis to gain revenge from the earlier abuse he received from the King. He brought in a few masked men as his helpers, but the King usually prevailed.
May 09, 1983
July 2, 1983
25 years ago today, this match took place.
July 11, 1983
Andy’s last match in Memphis was the following week.
July 18, 1983
At the end of these last set of matches, Kaufman and Jimmy Hart had a parting of the ways and became enemies. Andy talked Jerry Lawler into being his partner to team against Jimmy Hart and one of the Assassins. As suspected, Kaufman turned on Lawler and the group pounded the King down.
Around Thanksgiving of 1983, Andy was having respiratory issues and went to a doctor. He was diagnosed with rare type of lung cancer and 5 months later, on May 16, 1984, he died of that cancer. There were always rumors that his death was faked, but they were never substantiated.
----Mark James is the author of “Memphis Wrestling History – Cards, Matches, Results, Newspaper Clippings” Vol 1 and "Vol 2: The Programs 1972 - 1976" James also is the webmaster to the BEST Memphis Wrestling site in the area – www.memphiswrestlinghistory.com - Click on his site and order his books!!
