Holy headlock!
Lawler gets Batmobile (Bam!), Tunica museum (Pow!)
It has been a big week for Jerry “The King” Lawler. Wednesday, he took delivery of the Batmobile. Saturday, he’ll preside over the opening of the Jerry Lawler Museum at Resorts Casino in Tunica.
And in a crazy, roundabout way, yes, there is a connection between the two.
“It sort of all comes full circle,” Lawler explains. “I’ve always been a huge fan of Batman and Superman; I even sought out a girlfriend who had a color TV so I could watch ‘Batman’ in color in the ’60s.
“With my interest in art as a kid, I can remember drawing Superman and Batman, and my long-range plan was to work for DC Comics. But then I got sidetracked doing some drawings of wrestlers, and that led to my career in wrestling.
“In that role, I was at a fan expo signing autographs and met Matt Dollar, a guy from Johnson City, Tenn., who has built several replicas of the Batmobile. He makes the capes, cowls and other things that Adam West (TV’s Batman) still uses at appearances. So because of the wrestling, I met Matt and now have the Batmobile.”
Lawler prefers not to say how much he paid for his newest ride, only that it was “considerably less” than the $4.6 million that the original sold for to a private buyer at auction in January.
What he will say is that the full-size reproduction is drivable, so that’s what Lawler plans to do Saturday — drive it to Tunica for the opening of his museum.
The museum, filled with memorabilia from Lawler’s 43 years of professional wrestling, is in an open area on the second floor of the casino and will be free to visitors. Terms of the agreement call for Lawler to appear for two hours once a month to sign autographs.
For Saturday’s official opening, with a ribboncutting planned for 1:30 p.m., Lawler will appear from 2 to 4 p.m.
“It’s everything,” Lawler said of the display. “It’s my ring gear, robes, jackets, crowns, championship belts, my WWE Hall of Fame ring and tons of pictures.”
The display area, about 900 square feet, also will include Lawler’s artwork and other miscellaneous personal items — “I even have a tractor I got for Christmas when I was 5 years old and a drum set I got when I was 16.”
Tony Scudiero, vice president and general manager of Resorts, said Lawler was a perfect fit.
“We had all this open space and were trying to figure out, do we put in a coffee shop, a doughnut shop? Then Jerry came along, and it was a natural fit because most of our customers come from Memphis.”
It was a perfect fit as well for Lawler, who was looking for a new home for his memorabilia after the former Infiniti of Memphis showroom at Getwell and Interstate 240 closed and displaced the display he had there after doing some TV commercials for the dealership.
Steve Aulridge, senior director of hospitality at Resorts, said discussions about bringing a wrestling event to the casino led to Lawler getting word that space was available for his display there, and serendipity just brought the two together.
Sort of like wrestling and drawing put the King in the driver’s seat of the Batmobile.