Jerry Lawler Calls Out Dave Meltzer; Details Early Struggles With Bret Hart

On the most recent episode of Jerry Lawler’s Dinner with the King podcast, Lawler called out the Wrestling Observer’s Dave Meltzer for being a ‘sensationalizer’ and propagator of what Lawler calls ‘fake news.’

On Dave Meltzer’s beginnings in the pro wrestling business:

“Back in the day Dave Meltzer was one of the originators of what we called dirt sheets. This was kind of even before internet. I remember when he used to put them together. It was called mimeograph before copy machines. He’s staple them together and mail them out and you would go out and get your little Wrestling Observer Newsletter in the mail every week. It was just insider information that people in the wrestling business would try to protect from the fans. These were things in the wrestling business – stuff about their personal lives they felt shouldn’t have been out there. There was stuff about the behind the scenes of the business that shouldn’t have been out for the fans. That’s how Dave Meltzer became somebody people knew about, through these original dirt sheets. Most of the wrestlers couldn’t stand the guy. The promoters hated him because they felt like he was bad for the business and I felt the same way. I don’t really know Dave Meltzer. I don’t know him enough to say I’m friends with him or dislike him or anything.”

Lawler elaborated on how he felt as a promoter when Meltzer leaked information to fans:

“You hated that. That’s part of the mystique, the fun of the wrestling business is fans not knowing what’s gonna happen next. What he was like is he would be like a movie critic that would go and watch the movie before it came out and then he would go and tell a story to everybody, ‘Hey here’s what happens in the movie. This guy gets killed at the end.’ And he would just spoil the fun and that’s why they call them spoilers. He was one of the guys that originated spoilers. They would spoil the fun of what was gonna happen in the wrestling business. That’s what these guys did with these dirt sheets. They were spoilers.”

On people wanting spoilers:

“You think they do and they think they do; but, in reality, if you’re a true wrestling fan, you still may think you do; but, it diminishes the enjoyment of the product if you do hear that stuff.”

When pressed by co-host Glenn Moore to clarify whether Lawler believed Dave Meltzer to be a “dweeb,” Lawler replied:

“Yeah, he’s still a dweeb. Doesn’t he still do it? He’s the kinda guy that is so out there fishing for any behind the scenes thing that he makes something out of nothing.”

Lawler takes issue with Meltzer’s reporting on Lawler’s Greatest Royal Rumble comment:

“I had no inside information to base that statement on. That statement was my own personal opinion. I said something about, ‘I would think Vince McMahon would give the females a pay day from the Saudi Arabia show they didn’t get to attend because of political reasons.’ That was just my own personal opinion; but, Dave Meltzer made it sound like an official statement that it was coming from the WWE. That’s the kind of stuff he’s always done. He’s a sensationalizer. He’s always looked for inside and dirt. That’s why we call them the dirt sheets because bad news sells better than good news. People always wanted to know the bad stuff that was going on in wrestler’s lives. Everybody felt like that was an invasion of privacy on his part to delve into their personal lives and then throw it all out there in front of the public.”

On Meltzer’s sources:

“There’s always these idiots, I say, that are backstabbers that are actually working for the WWE and I’m sure there are now and have always been, that were working and getting paid by the WWE and then would turn around and give him information. It was almost like a spy or a mole in the company that has always worked with him and given him the information he gets.”

On Dave Meltzer’s 1994 report that Lawler would win the WWE Championship from Bret Hart:

“I would say absolutely not. That was never even mentioned to me and I don’t think anybody. Back in that day when I came up and first started in the WWE, I really don’t think Bret liked working with me. I think Bret thought it was beneath him to work with me. He looked at the guys from Memphis as being inferior hillbilly type wrestlers. We had some classic matches; but, at the time Bret thought he was the champion and I don’t think he thought it was a program or an opponent that was worthy of him. That was never mentioned to me. I don’t think that was true at all. I think that’s something Dave Meltzer made up back in the day. Fake news.”

Readers interested in listening to Dinner with the King in its entirety may do so HERE.

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