Talk about it here.

It's official. Lawler has to take time off to heal a neck injury. The doctor would prefer 6 weeks off, but he's giving him 4 weeks off. Being able to do angles like this is something lost in the national expansion. If your own local doctor says a guy is hurt, then it makes the whole operation seem a little more legitimate.

A good segment that legitimizes the injury.

This was effective, with a little bit of guilt-tripping of the fans--YOU don't want to see Lawler in constant pain, do you?

Lawler with his personal doctor talking about his injuries. Doc has come down on Lawler to take time off. So they are continuing this on. They are talking it up that it is serious but he won’t have to retire. He’s only taking four weeks off!

I liked that we got a quick commercial for the Doctors practice spliced in. Lawler is forced to take 4 weeks off but he is not retiring because they Dr. is putting him on a regiment to recovery.

This may sound weird, but Lawler doing his own interview actually puts this over better than if Michael or whoever else did it. We get to see that Lawler is, however reluctantly, accepting the doctor's diagnosis, and also that the guy isn't some anonymous hack who's either an actor or somebody being paid off by the USWA to protect Lawler at the expense of guys like Embry and Prichard. He's an actual doctor with an actual office, and if someone in the audience has some orthopedic issues, they can get the same kind of care the King does.

 

The length of Lawler's time off is key. If Lawler takes six weeks off like the doctor says, that forces Jarrett to vacate the Unified title. By only taking four off, Lawler can just sneak in under the wire of the thirty-day rule, which keeps him as champion and Embry as the number one challenger as he (Jarrett) intended all along. Thus the title picture can be temporarily frozen while the rest of the promotion moves forward.

After the mention on-air a few weeks ago and this, Lawler's doctor had to see a pretty good uptick in business.