Back in December, WWE began making a number of changes to its programming, which included shortening the Monday Night Raw and SmackDown Live pre-shows. These changes also included taking Jerry “The King” Lawler and Lita off of WWE television, but one of them is back. Lawler stated that he has indeed signed a new contract with the company and also revealed a very interesting piece of information about all-new deals.
Just this past week on SmackDown Live , Lawler returned to the show and brought back the segment known as “King’s Court.” As recapped by the official website of WWE, Dolph Ziggler was his guest and things didn’t go so well for Lawler as he ended up being superkicked and left laying on the mat.
On a recent episode of the Cerrito Live podcast, Lawler was a guest and talked about a number of different topics, including his presentation of “King’s Court” on SmackDown Live . From there, the conversation turned to him being back on WWE television, which is when Lawler revealed how his return came to be.
“Yeah, well, I re-signed another contract… so, everything’s cool.”
Last week, it was announced on the WWE Network’s Talking Smack that Lawler would actually return to the announce booth to call the 2017 Royal Rumble . According to Wrestling News Source , he will call the big Rumble match along with Corey Graves and Michael Cole of Monday Night Raw .
While it’s very cool that the legend is back with WWE, Lawler revealed that his contract with the company runs for just for one year. As such, Lawler’s current deal with the company will be up next January, but what he said about all-new deals is what is the most interesting.
Wrestling Inc. pointed out that Lawler said his new deal is an “open-ended contract” and that WWE is currently re-signing everyone for one year at a time. It isn’t entirely sure if “The King” meant that entertainment talent would be signed to only one-year deals or all talent.
Lawler went on to say that he isn’t the only one who has been given a one-year contract by the company.
“Well, it’s like now… they sign everybody for one year at a time. That’s the extent of all the contracts now, I think, in WWE. They sign everybody from year to year.”
It is kind of hard to believe that even in-ring talent would be signed to one-year deals and that Vince McMahon wouldn’t want to lock them up for longer amounts of time. Names like Brock Lesnar, Sasha Banks, John Cena, AJ Styles, Charlotte Flair, Seth Rollins, and Kevin Owens are not the types of stars you want to have to renegotiate with every single year.
As reported by 411 Mania back in December, Lawler still had a Legends Deal with WWE that would allow him to host special events such as the Hall of Fame celebration at WrestleMania . This new deal will allow him to appear more regularly. After his interaction with Dolph Ziggler, could a program be in the works?
Whatever Lawler is going to do in WWE, he is back for the next year. Additionally, it seems that others may only be around for the same length of time.
Jerry “The King” Lawler has been with WWE for decades, and it appears as if he is going to be with them for at least one more year. His new deal will be up next January, and he may be re-signed again. Otherwise, the company may see that his time has run its course. While having The King back is one thing, the information about all-new deals and contracts is something else entirely. If that one-year deal goes for in-ring talent as well, it will be interesting to see how superstars take to it.
[Featured Image by WWE]