In the wake of Brian Christopher Lawler’s death, his peers from professional wrestling have flooded social media with thoughtful posts dedicated to charismatic WWE Superstar. And just a day after the 46-year old’s funeral, The Rock posted his own sincere message.
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Citing their days together as budding wrestlers, The Rock detailed he and Lawler’s relationship that continued to flourish after they became WWE Superstars.
*swipe left. RIP brother.
Spent all week trying to process the hard loss of my good bud, Brian Christopher Lawler.
He became a great friend the day I stepped foot in the small wrestling territory in the south known as the USWA to start my pro wrestling career.
We rode together daily (1500 miles per week) trained together at any gym we could find, ate together at any Waffle House off the highway, wrestled together in flea markets to state fairs, shared motel rooms together, and would always dream (and talk shit;) about what life would be like once we made it to the big leagues of the WWE.
Once we both finally made it to the big leagues of the WWE, nothing changedโฆ we still did everything together. Including having nightly Madden tournaments after our wrestling matches in our motel room and then we’d extend our competitive spirit to a rowdy game of Wiffle Ball. Imagine us acting like crazy Wiffle Ball idiots at 2am in the parking lot of the Motel 6.
Our jaws would hurt from laughing so hard.
Then we’d finally take our butts to bed, hit the gym in the morning, drive 200 miles to the next town to wrestle and start the night all over again.
I’ll miss these times now even more.
Hurts my heart to know how Brian decided to check out.
I never knew him to be suicidal, but I guess sometimes the pain just gets to be too much for one to take.
I’ll miss you man and the times we had.
Thanks for being a great friend.
Thanks for being my boy.
My love, light, support and strength to Brian’s father, Jerry Lawler and Brian’s mother, Kay as well as Brian’s family and friends. ~ DJ
While detained in a Hardeman County jail after a July 7 arrest for DUI, Lawler attempted suicide in his jail cell. The hanging severely injured Lawler and authorities rushed him to the hospital up in finding him. He was put on life support and his family decided to let him go on July 29.
Lawler’s funeral was held on August 3 just outside of his hometown of Memphis, TN. His father and WWE Hall of Famer Jerry “The King” Lawler shared the following quote ABC-24 Memphis the day of his son’s service.
“This has gotta be one of the toughest days of my life – if I heard it once, I heard it a thousand times – they say, ‘the toughest thing for anybody to do is have to bury a child’ and that’s what we’re going through today,” Jerry Lawler said. “My fiance Lauren and I are standing next to the casket and I keep looking down almost expecting Brian to sit up and start laughing. It’s just tough. He was an unforgettable character and everybody that met Brian, loved him,” he said.
Our condolences go to Jerry Lawler and the friends and family still grieving the loss of Brian Christopher.