Jerry Lawler responded to a hoax started by Andy Kaufman’s brother on Monday by saying he’d love to wrestle the deceased comedian at WrestleMania if the jokester is somehow still alive.
Andy Kaufman died in 1984 from a rare form of lung cancer. Much like with Tupac Shakur, conspiracy theorists have always maintained that Kaufman is still alive and that the comedian was only faking his death. But the Los Angeles coroner re-released Kaufman’s death certificate this week to quell the whispers.
The rumors about Kaufman still being alive were started by his brother, Michael, at the 9th Annual Andy Kaufman Awards at the Gotham Comedy Club in New York City on Monday. Michael said he found a note from his brother saying Andy planned to fake his death and resurface at a restaurant on Christmas Eve in 1999. Michael then said he went to the restaurant and was handed a note by a parking attendant that said Andy was alive and living with another family. Michael then brought a woman up on stage who supposedly was a mystery daughter Andy had. The Smoking Gun later reported that the woman is an actress and not related to Kaufman.
Anyway, now that we’ve confirmed this was all a hoax by Michael, let’s get back to the Lawler stuff.
Lawler and Kaufman had some epic wrestling matches in the ring. Kaufman loved being an antagonist, and there was no better way to work up a crowd than by playing a bad guy in the ring and pulling stunts like taunting and wrestling women.
CNN reached The King by phone on Thursday and Lawler told them he would love to wrestle Kaufman if his former buddy were still alive.
“I would like nothing better than to know that Andy was still alive and been with us all this time,” Lawler told CNN Thursday. “But like anybody else, I really don’t know any more than what I’ve heard.
“It could be a great hoax in his honor, dreamed up by his friend Bob Zamuda and his brother, Michael. That would be something that would be in keeping with Andy’s tradition, but who’s to say. It could really be legit.”
“There should be a WrestleMania rematch between Andy and The King,” Lawler said. “We could rekindle the feud with no problem.”
Kaufman still isn’t alive, but that would be the greatest trick ever if Lawler somehow pulled off a stunt that featured him supposedly wrestling Kaufman. If a hologram could recreate Tupac, maybe it could do the same with Kaufman.
