MIGHTY MOUSE

Legendary Entertainer Andy Kaufman to Be Inducted Into the WWE Hall of Fame

The self-described “song and dance man” crowned himself the “Intergender Wrestling Champion of the World” and took a beating from Jerry “The King” Lawler for it.

Andy Kaufman, the performance artist and self-described “song and dance man” who eschewed good taste to pioneer surrealist “anti-comedy,” will be inducted into the WWE’s Hall of Fame Class of 2023, the franchise confirmed Monday. His impending induction alongside wrestlers Rey Mysterio and The Great Muta was first reported by Variety. Kaufman splashed down in the wrestling world in 1979, when he donned a bathrobe on Saturday Night Live and challenged a woman—Lacoste heiress Mimi Lambert—to a wrestling match. After three minutes of being booed by the audience, Kaufman pinned Lambert and crowned himself the “Intergender Wrestling Champion of the World.” To the fury of almost everyone, he then took the act on the road, wrestling any woman who agreed to challenge him. This kicked off a feud with Jerry “The King” Lawler, which culminated in two showdowns in 1982. In the first, a ring match, Lawler performed a piledriver on Kaufman, slamming him into the mat; in the second, an appearance on David Letterman, Lawler smacked Kaufman right out of his chair. It was only revealed a decade later that the feud had been entirely staged, and that the two men were actually friends.