Should Andy Kaufman Be Inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame?

If any celebrity should be considered for induction into the WWE Hall of Fame, it should be Andy Kaufman.

Before The Rock and Wrestling Connection, before Cyndi Lauper and Mr. T, there was Andy Kaufman, one of the stars of the hit television series, Taxi, and one of the most controversial entertainers of the late 1970s and early 1980s.

His work with WWE Hall of Famer, Jerry "The King" Lawler still holds up today as brilliant and should be studied by future performers wanting to get in the business. 

A huge wrestling fan, Kaufman decided to start wrestling women across the country, attracting a lot of media attention.

He named himself the Inter-Gender Wrestler of the world, taking on all female challengers.

He offered a cash prize of $1,000; he was also willing to shave his hair if any woman could beat him.

An added bonus would be that the winner could marry him. What a great talent for getting under people's skin!

Kaufman did not endear himself to anyone with the way he treated his opponents, becoming a heel in the process; a great heel I might add. 

Despite the heat he caught, Kaufman would continue to stage these performances, drawing the ire of wrestling and non-wrestling fans alike.

Kaufman was legendary for taking things too far, and was willing to push the envelope as much as he felt possible in order fool everyone.

The last thing anyone expected was pro wrestler Jerry Lawler to become involved with Kaufman or his off-the-wall antics.

Lawler, a big star in the Memphis area, thought that Kaufman was a fool and hated his act. He would later challenge Kaufman to a match after getting into an altercation with him in Memphis.

The promos that Kaufman cut in answer to the challenge were extremely funny as well as entertaining. If you didn't know better, you would think that Kaufman was a pro. 

He foolishly accepted Lawler's challenge. Kaufman, without any experience at all as a wrestler, was no real threat to Lawler. For his trouble, he ended up with a broken neck after suffering two piledrivers at Lawler's hands.

Their feud would continue to play out on the late night talk show Late Night With Dave Letterman.

After both men went back and forth with each other, with host Letterman moderating, Lawler slapped the hell out of Kaufman, knocking him out of his chair.

Kaufman would come back later on after unleashing a verbal tirade, and throw coffee in Lawler's face. Definitely must-see television at the time.  

The beauty of it all was that Kaufman and Lawler were in on it together! They were way ahead of their time with having a celebrity being so heavily involved in the business.

Both men took chances; Kaufman was still a big star. Was Kaufman crazy? No one knew what to make of Kaufman's behavior, since he was so outrageous.

Lawler was a regional star in Memphis at the time; what if this backfired and kept him from working in the big leagues? What if this hurt the business?

Well, it didn't hurt Lawler or the business. Meanwhile, Kaufman has been immortalized overall for his contributions to entertainment. He died in May 1984.

Andy Kaufman got it.

He actually understood what it meant to be a wrestler and treated the business with the respect it deserved. More important than that, he put the entertainment in sports entertainment; that moment in time, better than any other moment, definitely epitomized the term.

He handled his role as a heel convincingly, fitting right in. He was the perfect foil for Jerry Lawler and would have been a great heel in any wrestling promotion.

Imagine if Kaufman had worked with Vince McMahon during the beginning of the WWE's glory years in the '80s. Even though they didn't work together, I'm sure McMahon looked at the national exposure Lawler got doing business with Kaufman and went to the drawing board.

Throw in a little some of this, and a little bit of that, get rid of some of this and some of that and you more or less have the blueprint for the events leading up to and beyond the first WrestleMania. 

Andy Kaufman belongs in the WWE Hall of Fame. Just ask Jerry Lawler.