– Jerry Jarrett, Jerry Lawler’s former business partner, took offense to WWE using the legendary grappler’s near-fatal heart attack as a “cheap heat” angle on Raw Monday.
Nine weeks following the ordeal, a tearful Lawler offered his gratitude for the amount of support he received. The WWE Hall of Famer was then interrupted by CM Punk, who continued their on-screen rivalry by mocking him. The segment included a crass imitation of a heart attack, courtesy of Paul Heyman.
“I watched WWE last night. Jerry Lawler was returning after surviving a life threatening heart attack. I sat watching the television with a feeling of pride that they were honoring the return of such a great wrestler. I sat thinking, “now this is real class”. Just when I was appreciating the class WWE was showing, it ended suddenly with a juvenile cheap heat angle,” wrote Jarrett on Facebook.
“I turned the television off and starting thinking about Linda McMahon’s hard work and great expense running for the Senate. It is exactly this kind of programming that prevented her from becoming a Senator. Wrestling should have some limits and boundaries. If you offend great portions of the audience, it is a bad angle.”
– According to SLAM! Wrestling, Pro Wrestling Illustrated has discontinued its sister publications, The Wrestler and Inside Wrestling (which had been combined into one large issue in recent years). The publications had been in circulation since 1968.
Pro Wrestling Illustrated will continue to be published. It is now the last remaining non-WWE publication in the United States.
The wrestling magazine industry has struggled mightily since last year, with WWE continuously posting decreasing revenue for its own publications.
