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The Gathering in Charlotte, NC kicked off yesterday with a watch part for 1987's Wrestlemania III as well as Q&A Sessions with former World Class Championship Wrestling official David Manning and Memphis Wrestling host Dave Brown.
During his Q&A, Dave Brown discussed Andy Kaufman's feud with Jerry Lawler and whether he and Lance Russell were clued in to what they had planned, noting:
"The Kaufman thing? No. Some of us were, of course, right? But, they did a lot of ad-libbing. Andy was was a special individual. He was a terrific entertainer, no matter what else you thought of him. He was a terrific entertainer. He was a heel for us! Yeah! Jerry was a good guy. But,Andy was so good an actor that uh, the night that Jerry did the piledriver uh, at the Mid-South Coliseum, Andy....he just lay there. He wouldn't budge, you know? And finally, it wasn't the main event, it was next to the last match, and we still had a main event to go.
So, Lawler called the referee, Jerry Calhoun, over and said, "Tell him it's time to go home." So Calhoun crawled back over to Andy and leaned down and said, "Lawler said it's time to go home." He says, "I want an ambulance...and he says, "Okay." So he crawls back over to Jerry Lawler and says, "He says he wants an ambulance!" And Lawler says, "Hell, we're not going to get an ambulance, that costs us $400!" *(Laughter)* So he crawled back over to Kaufman, and Andy said, "Tell him I'll pay for it." So he crawls back over to Lawler and he says, "He says he'll pay for it." He says, "If he'll pay for it, call an ambulance!"
Well, they hauled him out to St. Francis Hospital in Memphis, and he was such a good actor, they kept him in there two days! Plus, keep in mind, he's a national TV star, so they didn't want to shove him out on the street and have him have some sort of relapse and collapse and come back on them. But anyway, that's how good he was, that's how good Andy was.
As far as the Letterman show goes, you know, that's considered one of the top events of all time on television. They didn't know what they were going to do. They knew it was going to be an interview, and of course Andy came out—this was months after the piledriver—and he had his neck brace and all of that stuff on, selling that. Lawler was doing his typical sarcastic self, which was funny, but anyway, getting at... at Kaufman. And uh, Kaufman just kept on and on and on and on, and finally Lawler got up and just slapped the heck out of him! Neither one of them knew it was coming! It just... that's just the way it went. And, of course it was just huge! Then Andy jumps up and throws Letterman's coffee at him, and started cussing... if you've ever heard the uncensored version, make sure your kids aren't around, but it is amazing! And Letterman had one of the great lines of all time. Letterman says, "I think you can say *some* of those words!"
The Gathering continues all weekend in Charlotte, NC. For more, visit www.TMartPromotions.com.
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