April 23, 2007 Observer Newsletter: WWE stops Lawler/Hogan Memphis match, TNA Lockdown recap

The two biggest players in the modern U.S. wrestling world, Hulk Hogan and Vince McMahon, and their love/hate relationship caught the Memphis Wrestling promotion in the crossfire this past week.

The promotion was planning the biggest non-Hispanic independent wrestling show in recent memory, a rematch some 26 years in the making between Hogan and local legend Jerry Lawler at the Fed Ex Forum on 4/27. The match had been talked about for months, but only in recent weeks did it seem like anything more than a local publicity stunt. Hogan somewhat surprisingly agreed to do it after VH-1 agreed to do a one-hour documentary on Hogan where his return to wrestling would be a focal point, plus he’s interested in making a farewell tour and currently he’s on the major outs with WWE.

But on 4/9, when Lawler was at Raw in Bridgeport, CT, he was told by WWE officials that they suggested he not appear on the show. Lawler’s actual contract with WWE is as an announcer and not as a wrestler, and he is free contractually to do any independent dates as long as he doesn’t work for TNA, which the company considers as direct competition.

Subscribers can read this newsletter here.