The legendary Jerry Lawler recently spoke with K & S WrestleFest about his removal from the Raw commentary team a couple of years ago, believing that an insensitive comment he made during an Akira Tozawa match was the reasoning. During said bout the King referred to Tozawa’s signature senton splash as the “Ramen Noodle Moonsault,” a call that sparked backlash online. Highlights are below.
Says he meant for the call to be a joke:
And so the next thing, he goes to the top of the rope and he flies off and I looked at Byron and I said ‘oh look, there’s a ramen noodle moonsault.’ What is racist about that? I thought it was funny. That’s a ridiculous name, right?
How he was removed from commentary due to the internet backlash:
And all of a sudden, the internet blows up. ‘Oh, King’s a racist.’ Even Tozawa, the next week comes back and says ‘it’s nothing racist. I eat ramen noodles every week.’ But the next week I wasn’t on RAW anymore. So I don’t know if that’s what happened but anyway, you got to be very careful.
(H/T and transcribed by Post Wrestling)
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