Jerry Lawler On Hulk Hogan's WWE Return, WWE Going To Saudi Arabia
Jerry 'The King' Lawler talked about Hulk Hogan's return and WWE going to Saudi Arabia for Crown Jewel among other topics during the most recent edition of Dinner With The King podcast. Lawler mentioned that he was happy to see Hogan back in WWE, and once again be a part of the WWE family.
"You know what? I was really glad to see that part", said Lawler. "That phase of Hulk Hogan's life come full circle and be brought back into the WWE and restored into the Hall of Fame and all that sort of stuff because that was just a shame that that all happened to begin with. I've known Terry since the beginning of his career and the things that were said about him were just, they were just not true. He's a good guy. He's always been a good guy. Somebody just said on an interview that I was on the radio? Billy Madison on the Billy Madison Show down in San Antonio; they asked me something about? 'Who do you think has been the most important guy to wrestling over the years?' And I said Hulk Hogan without a doubt. I think he was the face of this business for a long, long time and still to be, so I was glad to see Hulk coming back and it looks like he'll be doing some stuff at WrestleMania and be a part of the WWE family once again."
Lawler and his co-host Glenn Moore then talked about WWE going to Saudi Arabia for the Crown Jewel pay-per-view, and the backlash the company received for going through with their plans.
"Crown Jewel received a lot of backlash and once again, it is political correctness gone wild and what we've talked about so many times is everybody has the voice now with so much social media out there, and everybody wants to have their voice heard. The show itself was apparently a good show."
"Everybody thinks that everybody else should think the way they think and it's not that way. The people in Saudi Arabia; it's a different culture, it's a different lifestyle. Everything is different from the way we are, but we think all of a sudden, if we have any deals with them that they should think and do like we do. It's not going to happen, but by the same token, I think WWE working in Saudi Arabia and taking some of our western values, I think it can really make a major difference and I'm not just talking about entertainment or wrestling. I'm talking about a major difference in the way the Saudis treat women and females. I think that the fact that Renee Young getting to go over there is something that years ago would have been unheard of.
"(It's) very unfortunate thing that happened with the reporter from Saudi Arabia being killed at the consulate (in Turkey), very unfortunate, but that's one of the things? again, their way of life is totally different from ours. You're talking about a country over there that in the past, if you stole something they cut your hand off. If you looked at somebody else's wife, it's like the death penalty. We think that it's totally wrong and things need to change, and I think that working with them, if you just shy away from them and never have any interaction with them, nothing's going to change, they're going to always stay that way. If we could bring our values into play over there, I think it can't do anything but help. I don't think there should be any backlash on that thing. It's all good."
If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit Dinner With The King podcast with an H/T to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription