Jerry Jarrett On Last Night's Raw "I turned the television off"

[Shockage]

Source: WrestlingNewsSource.com


Co-founder of TNA Wrestling Jerry Jarrett posted the following on Facebook today regarding the mocking of Jerry Lawler's heart attack by CM Punk and Paul Heyman on Raw:


"I watched WWE last night. Jerry Lawler was returning after surviving a life threatening heart attack. I sat watching the television with a feeling of pride that they were honoring the return of such a great wrestler. I sat thinking, “now this is real class”. Just when I was appreciating the class WWE was showing, it ended suddendly with a juvenile cheap heat angle. I turned the television off and starting thinking about Linda McMahon’s hard work and great expense running for the Senate. It is exactly this kind of programming that prevented her from becoming a Senator. Wrestling should have some limits and boundaries. If you offend great portions of the audience, it is a bad angle."

[Ramon's Razor]

Is anyone surprised this was done? JR has endured countless things like this; it's only fair the King takes one.

[flame3169118]

It was a complete tasteless thing to do.

As everyone knows I'm a huge Punk fan, but Punk or not I'll call them out on things that are bad.

Even though I expect King gave his ok to do it or it wouldn't have been done, as Lawler's of the old school mentality if it gets a person over you do it. It doesn't change the fact it was an awful segment.

[RoughRoad]

People want the Attitude era back and moan about how the current PG product is boring. And now the same people will complain about an edgy segment. Hypocrites. That segment was GOLD. CM Punk is the best heel in pro wrestling today. I loved that segment. And Mick Foley's promo afterwards was equally good.

[Goldie79]

No matter how serious an issue is.... the WWE will always run a cheap angle around it.

Distasteful.

[flame3169118]

Several current and former wrestlers comment on the segment:

Steve Austin: "I believe in pushing the envelope in an aggressive fashion. But when a guy damn near dies at ringside, let it go. You look at all the contributions Jerry Lawler has made in this business: from a work standpoint, a promo standpoint and then as a broadcaster. I think that's pushing the envelope in the wrong direction. There's better ways to go get real heat than that."

Chris Jericho: "I think it was pretty obvious, don’t you? I kind of expected it. Punk’s promo was awesome. It’s wrestling so you knew it would end up as an angle sooner or later. I got the same complaints when I did the alcoholic angle (earlier this year with CM Punk). It would be like being mad at "Breaking Bad" because the dad was a drug addict or something. It’s just a TV show, after all."

Lance Storm: "Thought it was poor. Both he and Punk are capable to get real heat, no need to sink so low. Also thought it was out of character for Punk so it hurt. Punk is about Best in World and himself. Why bother joking about heart attack it goes nowhere. Interuption was okay and in character. Fake heart attack was cheap and pointless."

WWE's Matt Striker wrote the following on Twitter:

"Watching Paul Heyman makes me feel like I need hand sanitizer"

[MartelFlair3]

People want the Attitude era back and moan about how the current PG product is boring. And now the same people will complain about an edgy segment. Hypocrites. That segment was GOLD. CM Punk is the best heel in pro wrestling today. I loved that segment. And Mick Foley's promo afterwards was equally good.

This has nothing to do with the wrestling fans asking for the return of the attitude era here RoughRoad. Several wrestlers lost their lives on the ring as a result of a Heart Attack or Heart Problems like Moondog Spot (Ironically it was in one of Lawler's show in memphis in 2003). This not something you want to play with at all.

[RoughRoad]

This has nothing to do with the wrestling fans asking for the return of the attitude era here RoughRoad. Several wrestlers lost their lives on the ring as a result of a Heart Attack or Heart Problems like Moondog Spot (Ironically it was in one of Lawler's show in memphis in 2003). This not something you want to play with at all.

Far worse things have been staged in a WWE ring before. Name of deceased wrestlers have long been used to incite cheap heat and hatred. I can't remember how many times a Eddie Guerrero death reference has been used in wrestling promos. If Jerry actually died of an heart attack, then that segment would have been distasteful. Jerry is a professional. I bet he had no problem with that segment. I think Foley's promo afterwards made up for that segment.

People are going to talk about this segment for years to come. It made an impact. Sure it was screwed up. But in a good way.

[Shockage]

I wish Goldust was on hand to give Lawler mouth to mouth like he did to Ahmed Johnson.

[Goldie79]

Far worse things have been staged in a WWE ring before. Name of deceased wrestlers have long been used to incite cheap heat and hatred. I can't remember how many times a Eddie Guerrero death reference has been used in wrestling promos. If Jerry actually died of an heart attack, then that segment would have been distasteful. Jerry is a professional. I bet he had no problem with that segment. I think Foley's promo afterwards made up for that segment.
.

Paul Heyman still pretended to have a heart attack right in rfont of Jerry. That was distatesful.
Sure the likes of Eddie and Andre have been talked about plenty of times in death.... but its not as though WWE re-enacted their deaths like Heyman was doing with Jerrys close call

[Darth Shizzel]

I had no problem with the promo it was more then likely oked but the fake heart attack should not have been done, that x symbol needs to be taken seriously and using it for something like that doesnt help things.

Still despite people wanting the attitude era back this kind of.crap wouldn't have been seen in the attitude era sure flags wouldce been burnt, live sex shows and plenty more would be there and people would be complaining about that, WWE needs a bit of edginess this is how it will happen.

[Shockage]

It's distasteful if you bought into WWE's insincere "Get Well Jerry" bull that they crammed down everyone's throat the night Jerry had the heart attack.

[The Indy Junkie]

I think we are all missing the funny point here. He is talking about WWE being distasteful but yet he has no word on his former companies angles where they poked at adultery and impregnation? Kinda rings the pot calling the kettle black especially taking into account that one guy on the roster is known to have had an adulterous wife.

Was the move distasteful? Of course. Was it wrong to do this to a legend? Yes. Will Lawler lose sleep over this? No! Lawler knows the score. WWE will run with anything no matter how bad it is.

Why is he referencing Linda? She failed because she is an idiot.

Jerry I am sure may help screw Punk on Sunday so he will probably get a small bit of vengeance.

[Shockage]

But how many wrestlers died or had heart attacks while under Jerry Jarrett's watch?

[Turley]

I bet Vincent had to be talked out of making Owen harts death into an angle

[Darth Shizzel]

I bet Vincent had to be talked out of making Owen harts death into an angle

Even Vince would know to steer clear of that espcially with WCW around at the time.

[Mighty Boosh]

For those who haven't seen it

+ YouTube Video

I'm guessing creative suggested this, or maybe Vince pushed for it, I mean even Punk said it was in bad taste. With that said Punk did a great job taking it and cutting a promo, the promo itself was great, distasteful but well done. Was it even distasteful? I mean Punk basically pointed out that it was wrong, he just turned it around and did so in character.

That said the Heart attack was absolutely unnecessary, no reason to go that far, it contributed very, very little.

The thing is though, I can see why people (take Jarrett) would change the channel, so although I thought minus the fake heart attack it was well done, I don't know if it was a good idea. Also was it absolutely necessary to do the angle this week, I mean Lawler just came back, couldn't they have a huge celebration let Lawler have his night then do this angle say next week? I could see people being much less offended then, particularly if they cut the fake heart attack. Sure it built up SS but couldn't Punk benefit from some post SS heat, win or lose?

[RoughRoad]

I bet Jarrett was the only viewer who changed the channel in the middle of that segment. No matter how edgy the segment was, it was interesting. How can someone possibly change the channel during that segment?

[Shockage]

I bet Jarrett was the only viewer who changed the channel in the middle of that segment. No matter how edgy the segment was, it was interesting. How can someone possibly change the channel during that segment?

Someone with 6 decades of promoting and booking wreslting

[Goldie79]

I bet Jarrett was the only viewer who changed the channel in the middle of that segment. No matter how edgy the segment was, it was interesting. How can someone possibly change the channel during that segment?

I'm sure Jerry wasn't the only one. If I was a betting man it would be tens of thousands

[Turley]

All this has done is shown us that management don't have faith in Punk as a heel.

[Shockage]

I was listening to Wrestling Weekly podcast, and apparently the ratings showed that around 800,000 viewers turned off when Punk/Heyman began mocking the heart attack. So I guess Jarrett wasn't the only one that switched off.