Appeal
~Dina~
LAWLER'S SON HAS DONE IT HIS WAY CHRISTOPHER HAS FAN APPEAL
Date: TUESDAY, June 20, 2000
Source: By Josh Katzowitz The Commercial Appeal
You see his father everywhere around the city of Memphis. Whether he's hawking firecrackers and hubcaps on billboards or finishing third in last year's mayoral race, Jerry Lawler has made his name synonymous with Memphis wrestling.
But when the World Wrestling Federation comes to The Pyramid tonight at 7:30 to tape its weekly Thursday show Smackdown, the crowd will likely cheer as loudly for another Memphis native. What may be more surprising is that Brian Christopher, Lawler's 28-year-old son, hasn't ridden the coattails of his father into stardom.
And while local fans may be familiar with his work in the USWA (United States Wrestling Association), Christopher has made the successful transition from small-time grappler into mainstream fan favorite.
"I can't wait to get to Memphis and wrestle because I wrestled there for so many years," Christopher said from Nashville's Gaylord Entertainment Center, where RAW IS WAR was held Monday night. "I spent years traveling down the roads, doing about 1,500 miles a week. Now, things have really taken off for me, and I knew it was just a matter of time before it happened."
His story, though, isn't much different from those of the wrestling legends that came before him. While the tale continues tonight when the team of Too Cool, composed of Grandmaster Sexay (Christopher) and Scottie Too Hottie (Scott Taylor), makes its appearance with the WWF Tag Team Championships, it began when Christopher was a high school senior at Craigmont.
"When I started out in high school, I wrestled professionally with a mask," said Christopher, who currently lives in Cordova. "Then, I'd go to school on Monday morning, and people would be saying, `Man, did you see that guy in the mask wrestling this weekend?' I guess I was just moonlighting."
Christopher, though, soon took off the mask, making a name for himself locally. Eventually, the much-traveled roads led him to the WWF, where he was matched with Taylor as Too Much, a tag team that never took off with the fans.
"The thing with Too Much was that we were never (billed) as gay, but the whole deal was that everybody thought we were," said Taylor, whose real name is Scott Garland. "I think if Too Much had been given as much of a chance as Too Cool has, we could've gotten over as Too Much."
That gimmick broke up, however, when bookers proposed a gay marriage angle for the team. Both members rejected the idea, and last October, Too Cool, a spoof on the hip-hop music scene, made its debut.
"Just about everybody has to put in time with the company before they get a big push," Christopher said. "It's rare for a person to come in and take off with the first gimmick. It's a trial-and-error process."
But before the Too Cool moniker could rocket its way into fans' hearts, Christopher tore his ACL the night after the new team made its debut on camera. Although doctors told him he would never wrestle again, Christopher and Taylor were back in action three months later.
"I worked so hard to get back," Christopher said, "because I had a feeling that this gimmick would take off," It did, and tonight's show, which will air Thursday at 7 p.m. on WLMT-TV (Ch. 30), will be a celebration of Christopher's ability to fight off shoddy gimmicks and painful injuries - not to mention other teams - to make it to the apex of the tag-team world.
"This is a dream come true, because I've watched wrestling all my life," Christopher said. "To make it to the WWF - the biggest federation in the world - and be the tag-team champions, it just blows my mind."
To reach reporter Josh Katzowitz, call 529-2540; E-mail: [email protected]
(http://www.gomemphis.com)