This past February, Jerry Lawler suffered a stroke in his home and was subsequently hospitalized. After undergoing surgery as well as regular ongoing speech therapy, the WWE Hall of Famer is thankfully nearing a full recovery though he has yet to return to his semi-regular position on the Kick-Off panel for WWE’s Premium Live Events. In fact, Lawler has only appeared once for WWE since the incident – returning to Raw during a dark segment with Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn in his hometown of Memphis.
However, it has now been announced that The King will make his first appearance on televised WWE programming for the first time since his stroke. During last night’s edition of NXT, it was announced that Lawler, as well as fellow WWE Hall of Famers Mick Foley, Lita, and JBL, are set to make appearances on the black and gold brand over the next month. The four legends will each select a set of matches, the winners of which will qualify to compete in an Iron Survivor match at NXT Deadline.
Foley was the first of the quartet to appear on the program, announcing Tiffany Stratton vs. Fallon Henley and Tyler Bate vs. Dijak as this week’s qualifying matches. Stratton managed to overcome Henley to qualify for the women’s match whilst Dijak defeated Bate to advance to the men’s. It was also revealed that Lita will announce her qualifying matches next week, meaning Lawler will return on either the November 22nd or 29th edition of NXT.
Jerry ‘The King’ Lawler made his last appearance on WWE programming during the Royal Rumble Kick-Off Show back on January 28th. Earlier that week, Lawler also made a special appearance on RAW Is XXX where he provided commentary for a six-man tag team match that pitted Imperium against Seth Rollins and The Street Profits. This marked Lawler’s first time on WWE commentary since being removed from the full-time Raw announce team in April 2020.