And somehow what Andy had said came into my mind and I just stood up, looked him in the eyes and hauled off and popped him, knocked him clear off the chair.” “I don’t even know what I was thinking, but I knew that was it, we’re gonna be gone after this. “It was like an out-of-body experience,” Lawler admitted. As their second segment was closing, he decided to act. Yet the concept sat in the back of Lawler’s mind during the Letterman taping. Lawler dismissed the idea, suggesting the network wouldn’t air such violence. Kaufman agreed and, after a long pause, pondered: “I wonder what would happen if you just hauled off and slugged me?”
“You gotta know that once you and I kiss and make up on network TV, that’s gonna be the end of you and I wrestling down in Memphis,” Lawler remembered telling Kaufman during a phone conversation before the Letterman appearance. “We had an outline of what Dave and his crew wanted us to do, but it went completely off the tracks,” Lawler told Mason, revealing the original idea was to have the two men apologize to one another. In truth, the antics on Letterman – much like their match in Memphis – had been planned, although the most memorable moment happened on the fly. “It was the talk of the – not just the wrestling world, but it was the talk of. “Everything blew up,” Lawler told Jere Mason during a podcast interview decades later. The feud became a massive pop-culture story, with many fans believing their bad blood was real. He then threw a cup of coffee on Lawler and fled the stage. “I will sue you for everything you have!” Kaufman yelled as part of a profanity-laced tirade. Lawler was once again seated, but Kaufman was pacing around the studio enraged. “I could have sued you for everything you’re worth – and I didn’t because I’m not that kind of a guy.” Lawler responded: “What kind of a guy are you?” As Letterman attempted to calm the two and go to a commercial, Lawler casually got up from his chair, turned and delivered a thunderous slap across Kaufman’s face.Īfter a break, the show returned. “I could have sued you,” Kaufman insisted. Watch Andy Kaufman and Jerry Lawler on 'The Late Show With David Letterman' Things escalated from there, with Kaufman even suggesting legal action over his injuries. That’s why he’s still wearing, I don’t know if it’s a neck brace or a flea collar.” Lawler scoffed in response, accusing Kaufman of being desperate for attention: “He did it all for publicity. At one point, Kaufman asked Lawler for an apology. “I think when Andy was born, his father wanted a boy and his mother wanted a girl, and they were both satisfied,” Lawler quipped, one of several barbs thrown Kaufman’s way.įor his part, Kaufman remained soft-spoken in the early parts of the interview, suggesting he was simply “playing bad-guy wrestler” before their infamous match. He was still wearing a neck brace when the two appeared on Letterman. The comedian was taken out in an ambulance, but it was all for show. Their famous Apmatch remains legendary – a wildly entertaining bout that saw Lawler pile-drive Kaufman to the mat twice. Behind the scenes, the two were friends and collaborators but to the public, they were rivals, with Kaufman regularly taunting the brawny wrestler and his Memphis hometown. Sure enough, Lawler was up for the challenge. Apter suggested Kaufman get in contact with Lawler, explaining that he and the Mid-Southern Wrestling promotion team would " do anything for shock value."Īpter later argued that this was the "start of what we know as sports entertainment today." Kaufman then sought the advice of Bill Apter, a wrestling journalist whom he’d befriended while performing the inter-gender wrestling routine. Kaufman approached Vince McMahon of the former World Wrestling Federation but was turned down. He wanted to bring the act to a mainstream wrestling circuit.