Jerry Lawler and his fiancee Lauryn McBride were arrested early Friday morning after police were called to Lawler’s home in Memphis, Tenn. in response to a call about a domestic incident. Police arrested both after not being able to determine who was the aggressor and have charged them with misdemeanor domestic assault. The WWE responded swiftly by suspending Lawler indefinitely.
Lawler and McBride got into an argument that turned violent, but their tales of what happened differ. McBride says Lawler hit her on the head and pushed her into a stove. Lawler says she scratched him in the face, threw a candle at him and kicked him in the groin. She accuses Lawler of handing her a gun and telling her to kill herself, while he says he did not tell her that but she was threatening to kill herself.
In a phone call to WMC Action News 5, Lawler shared his version of events and blamed the incident on McBride’s drinking.
“Well, I went to a wrestling event in Memphis last night and wrestled at a show that was labeled, ironically, ‘A Night at the Slammer,’ all the matches were cage matches. Anyway, I came home, I got home at about 9:30, and my girlfriend Lauryn had gone to some friend’s house to watch the basketball game and apparently over-indulged in drinking. She got home about 10 o’clock and she was just intoxicated. … We got in a little bit of a shouting match and then she wanted to leave. I was not going to let her leave in the car because she was just not in any condition to drive. She got more and more upset. She called 911 and scratched my face in the process. Anyway, the police came out and they said ‘it’s a domestic dispute and we’re going to have to take both you guys downtown.’ It’s just an unfortunate situation. Nobody was hit, nobody was hurt. It’s just something that happened as a result of drinking too much,” Lawler told Action News 5.
Lawler was then asked about McBride telling police Lawler pushed her into a stove and hit her in the head.
“No (that’s not accurate). Not at all. Absolutely not,” he said.
He was also asked about the gun that was involved.
“Well, the unloaded gun she had … she was threatening to kill herself. There was an unloaded gun but all she did was actually pick it up and throw it. … I might have put the gun on the counter but no I didn’t say ‘go ahead and kill yourself.'”
Lawler went on to blame his fiancee’s drinking.
“We’ve only had issues when she drinks,” he said. Lawler also says McBride got into a fistfight with her aunt last weekend after drinking.
Lawler, 66, has had a rough time the last few years. He collapsed on WWE “RAW” in 2012 after suffering a heart attack. In November, he was in a big car crash.
