WWE: Jerry Lawler and Michael Cole's Wrestling Angle on RAW Is Just Weak

Can I have your attention, please?

Okay, I got to sound like the RAW general manager for a minute. And as I look at the screen here and type out my thoughts, I can say, I am not any better for it, rather I feel like I need to shower.

But as Michael Cole, the resident runt of RAW reads the messages from the computer on a weekly basis, we get the sense the notion of the mystery person behind the words is almost as ludicrous as the idea that Jerry Lawler, the man who owned the wrestling circuit in the Mid-South and Memphis territories in the late 1970s and mid-1980s, is wrestling again.

In the past, wrestling promotions have used older wrestlers to draw from the past.

“Nature Boy” Ric Flair wrestled “Nature Boy Buddy Rogers.” Dusty Rhodes has come out of retirement to wrestle with his son Dustin (Goldust) and Ric Flair has wrestled with and against his oldest son David, back in WCW.

Fritz Von Erich even used his stroke in World Class Championship Wrestling to get in the ring with his boys on an occasional card or two.

What makes the Lawler attempt at lacing the boots up again is that he is wrestling Cole, with the aid of Jack Swagger in what has become nothing more than an ill-conceived skit that needs to die a painful death. 

At least Von Erich wrestled the Freebirds and Rhodes wrestled the Four Horseman. But his is just painful and a waste of WWE scripting.

Lawler has had his share of feuds in the past, most notably in the Mid-South area with Bill Dundee, Austin Idol, Eddie Gilbert and the late Kerry Von Erich when Kerry was so doped up he had to be talked to and guided through matches.

And then there was the feud with Saturday Night Live guest Andy Kaufman. That fiasco led to primetime television, Kaufman wrestling women and showing how mentally unstable he might have been.

Lawler’s most effective way to help the WWE is to be a commentator where he and Jim Ross were so great together. Cole is an effective announcer, commentator and color man who uses his knowledge and drab charisma to play off of Lawler’s popularity.

But in the recent weeks, we have seen Cole (as written in script), degrade Lawler through his own son (Brian Christopher) and make countless references to Lawler’s mother who passed away earlier this year.

Then when the idea of the two men get in the ring (they have on more than one occasion), the writers of the show throw in Jack Swagger to defend Cole’s honor and allow Jim Ross to get in the ring (showing once again that Vince McMahon likes to make a fool of good ole JR) and help out his buddy Lawler.

It makes no sense.

The idea of Lawler in the ring can work if done correctly, maybe in a match against a former WWE superstar or in a tag team match with a—and get this—REAL WRESTLER.

Watching Lawler and Ross submit to ankle locks that would break real bones if done correctly and then return the next week for even more punishment just proves how fake the WWE and RAW have gotten.

The King lives on, but he should do so behind a microphone.