Jerry Lawler addresses 'Ramen noodle moonsault' comment on Raw

[Big Red Machine]

https://www.f4wonline.com/wwe-news/jerr ... raw-309706

By Josh Nason | @joshnason | Apr 26, 2020 12:38 pm


On the latest edition of his podcast, Jerry Lawler addressed his recent "Ramen noodle moonsault" comment while doing commentary on WWE Raw.

On the April 13th edition of the show, Lawler was calling an Akira Tozawa-Austin Theory match with Tom Phillips and Byron Saxton when he referred to a Tozawa senton as a "Ramen noodle moonsault". The comment was later edited out of the Hulu edition of the show.

At the 53 minute mark, Lawler asked his co-host if he could address the elephant in the room about the comment and why being racist was "the furthest thing from his mind."

He said he was doing commentary in 2016 with Mauro Ranallo and given Ranallo's history with Japanese wrestling, he heard him call a move something that he figured was made up because he had never heard of it before. He said he later made up some names of what he thought would be funny moves to go back at Ranallo at when he called a move.

"I would say something like, "There’s the Ramen Noodle moonsault" and he would say, "Oh, King! You know there's no such thing!" and we would just go on. I was doing it just to play devil’s advocate with Mauro. If I were still doing commentary with Michael Cole or JR, we had the chemistry to where each one of those guys would have known that I was almost making a fool out of myself by claiming like I was acting like I knew what this unbelievable looking move was.

"Then either Cole or JR would have said ‘"Oh, King! You know better than that!" With Byron and Tom, we don’t have that chemistry yet. We have only been working together for a short time so when I said that, they didn’t even acknowledge it so it kind of went out and they just kept talking and I kept talking. I didn’t think anything about it either.”

Lawler and his co-host then intimated that the intent was that the joke was supposed to be on him for being behind the times.

"That’s where me, Bobby Heenan, Jesse Ventura...all of the heel commentators do that sort of stuff and the joke is on yourself that the people out there say, "Look at that idiot. He doesn’t even know what he’s talking about and he thinks he does.' That's where the joke was."

Lawler did not apologize for the comment and remains on the commentary team for Raw.

[cero2k]

that doesn't even come close to an excuse, let alone an apology.

[Big Red Machine]

that doesn't even come close to an excuse, let alone an apology.

I think excuse is a pretty apt term for it.

But even if it's the sincere truth, it exposes that Lawler is so out of step with how these things are perceived today (and, quite frankly, the role people expect the heel announcer to play) that he shouldn't be on TV, simply because he's not effective in the role (never mind issues like this that he creates).

[KILLdozer]

that doesn't even come close to an excuse, let alone an apology.

I think excuse is a pretty apt term for it.

But even if it's the sincere truth, it exposes that Lawler is so out of step with how these things are perceived today (and, quite frankly, the role people expect the heel announcer to play) that he shouldn't be on TV, simply because he's not effective in the role (never mind issues like this that he creates).

Get the man gone by now! He's almost 70 or more! I'm sorry but it just isn't possible to recreate and duplicate the magical great energy of heel Jerry Lawler from the lates 90s/early 2000s in 2020. He isn't capable of it anymore and 95 percent of these announcers don't have what it takes to effectively be the guy that he plays off of and plays off of him.

He can barely talk and let alone, died. He just isn't in that kind of shape anymore.