Born on November 29, 1949, Jerry O'Neil Lawler is a man of many talents and is known as The King. He began a career in music as a disk jockey, soon attracting the attention of local wrestling promoter Aubrey Griffith. The two made a deal in which Lawler would help give Griffith free publicity in exchange for free wrestling training. Lawler launched his career in wrestling, debuting with his first championship in September 1971, when he won a battle royal. He later won the NWA Southern Tag Team Championship with Jim White, and later fought for the AWA Southern Heavyweight Championship. He also earned the CWA World Champion title from Billy Graham. In March 1983, Lawler won the AWA International Championship from Austin Idol and the NWA Mid America Champion from Randy Savage a year later.
In 1985, Lawler flew to Japan, where he won the Polynesian Pacific title in January 1986. Heading back to the United States, he defeated Bill Dundee and captured the AWA International Champion
Launching a career with the WWF Superstars of Wrestling, he began as an announcer. He then began a two-year feud with Bret Hart and the rest of the Hart family at King of the Ring 1993 when Lawler interrupted Hart's victory ceremony and attacked Bret. The two were supposed to fight at SummerSlam 1993, but Lawler suffered injuries in a car accident.
In 2001, Lawler momentarily performed on the independent circuit in Australia and North America and joined the fledgling World Wrestling All-Stars promotion as a color commentator.
In November that year, Lawler returned to the WWE to work as a color commentator for the Raw and PPV events. Two years later, Lawler and Jim Ross fought Jonathan Coachman and Al Snow, to whom they lost.
In March 2007, Lawler was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame by William Shatner, whom Lawler had a memorable altercation with on a January 1995 episode of Monday Night RAW.
(Photo courtesy of WWE)