Thursday, March 8, 2012

Saturday Morning Ringside: Batman visits Memphis---sort of (1970's)

Just when we all thought Adam West was looking to get away from being typecast as Batman, it seems there was a time in the 70's, don't know exactly when, to be honest, when West would make the rounds in a modified Batsuit for personal appearances. As some of you might be aware, Jerry "The King" Lawler isn't just a wrestling icon in the Memphis area and color analyst for WWE Monday Night Raw, but he's also a comics fan. Lawler, in fact, recently drew a variant cover for Dynamite's recent dream-team-up miniseries pairing The Lone Ranger & Zorro. If you're lucky, you might still get your hands on a copy at cover price. I digress. Anyway, Lawler arranged for West to appear as Batman on the weekly wrestling show out of Channel 5 in Memphis. Rolochoshu offers this clip:



Lawler has alternated between being beloved and despised even in front of his hometown fans, but in recent years would be more inclined to be on the side of the angels in correlation with his WWE gig. If anyone has any further information on the above clip that they can share, please feel free.

2 comments:

R.A.M.'67 said...

Adam West with the cowl and gloves only? Wow. I didn't know he did appearances like that. That's like Clayton Moore doing appearances without his Lone Ranger mask. Odd.

Equally odd is the audio quality that makes it sound like West is lisping.

Thanks for posting this rarity!

hobbyfan said...

The only reason I went and hunted for this was because it's been reported that West will guest on one of WWE's new shows for their network, if/when it ever gets off the ground. He recently taped an episode.