On the latest episode of the Grilling JR podcast, Jim Ross spoke about the real-life animosity between Paul Heyman and Jerry ‘The King’ Lawler.
The two worked together during the invasion of ECW storyline in 1997. There was apparently a lot of heat between them during this time, which led to Lawler intentionally breaking the jaw of Heyman during a segment.
Here is what JR said about their relationship (h/t to 411 Mania for the quotes below);
“It was controlled animosity. I don’t think either guy liked the other very much. I think they both respected each other’s abilities as professionals, because they both knew how good the other was at doing their job. You’d have to be a recluse and have your head up your ass not to see the both of them were highly skilled. But just, they just didn’t get along culturally, personally. You know, we did one of those shows on WWE Network [the Legends of Wrestling “Heatseekers” episode] where we talked about things that happened in the ring. And I asked Lawler, he broke Paul Heyman’s jaw. And I asked him point blank, was it an accident or did you do it on purpose? ‘I did it on purpose,’ says Lawler.”
JR on why they didn’t get along:
“So there’s always some heat there, and it’s generally one of the two C’s. I don’t know which one it is, but I can promise you, if Heyman and Lawler didn’t exist well in that era, it was because of one of the two C’s. Cash or creative. But they also had a lot in common, in the fact that they could make you love ’em or hate ’em just by what they said and how they said it. So they were highly-skilled in all the right areas, but they just — and maybe it’s the fact that Heyman’s from Scarsdale, Westchester County, New York, father’s very successful and affluent attorney. And Lawler was raised in more of a blue collar atmosphere, growing up in Memphis, become the local hero there. They had different backgrounds, different routes to get where they’re going. So there was just no commonality there, other than some wrestling stuff. And some of the wrestling stuff was tainted because cash and creative.”
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On a related note, here are some backstage fight stories that happened in WWE.