WWE Hall of Famer Jerry "The King" Lawler infamously suffered a cardiac episode on "WWE Raw" in 2012. The Memphis wrestling star had wrestled in a match while also doing commentary at ringside during the broadcast. At one point, Lawler received 10 elbow drops from Dolph Ziggler, which Lawler says gave him a darkly ironic thought in hindsight.
"I remember after about the third or fourth [elbow drop], I thought to myself, 'Whatever happened to the days where we could do this and not kill each other?'" Lawler said on "Busted Open Radio" recently. "Made it through the match, and I went down and I went back on the commentary with Michael Cole...Guys get hit in the chest and it does something and it takes a while for it to affect your heartbeat."
Lawler suddenly suffered an arrhythmia at the commentary table, leaving Michael Cole alone to scramble for help, while also doing commentary on live television.
"I don't really remember it," Lawler said. "I didn't know anything. What happened was my heart stopped beating, and the doctor was right there at ringside, and they rushed me to the hospital...It's a weird deal. It wasn't a heart attack. It was just my heart stopped beating."
Lawler said that he was perfectly healthy, once his heart was beating again, but still needed to be looked after in the hospital. The former CWA World Heavyweight Champion has even said that, unless asked about it, he barely remembers the near-death experience because of how little his heart bothers him.
