WWE star Jerry Lawler pays 'ring gear' homage to son Brian

Jerry Lawler poses for a photograph with his son BrianJerry Lawler
Jerry Lawler (left) said his son's funeral was "the toughest day of my life"

WWE Hall of Famer Jerry "The King" Lawler has paid tribute to his deceased son by taking to the ring in his clothes.

Brian Christopher Lawler, known during his time in WWE as Grandmaster Sexay, died in July aged 46.

His funeral was held the following week, and two days later his father, 68, honoured his son by wearing his ring gear - a wrestler's trademark outfit - at a match.

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The bout was held in Jackson, Tennessee, about 70 miles east of the Lawler family's hometown of Memphis.

Despite his son's funeral being held on 3 August, Lawler chose to honour his commitment to wrestle two days later in an event which had been advertised six weeks before.

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Pictures emerged on social media of Lawler headlining the USA Championship Wrestling event with James Ellsworth whilst wearing part of his son's ring gear.

Ellsworth, his opponent, is known for his recent appearances in WWE alongside SmackDown Women's Champion Carmella.

He called his bout with Lawler "the most emotional match of my career" on Twitter and shared a picture of the pair embracing backstage.

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Elsewhere, further tributes have poured in for Lawler's son after Dwayne Johnson shared a picture of the pair together on Instagram.

Johnson, known during his time in WWE as The Rock, wrote an emotional message explaining that he "spent all week trying to process the hard loss of my good bud", recalling how he and Brian Christopher Lawler became friends "on the road".

*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 changed... 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

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And Dan McDevitt, a wrestling promoter who worked with Lawler, shared a story about the former WWE star returning "over half" of his pay to keep McDevitt from losing money after a show "absolutely bombed".

I try only to judge people on how they treated me. One of the first times I ever met "Grandmaster Sexay" Brian...

Posted by Dan McDevitt on Sunday, July 29, 2018
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By Tom Gerken, UGC & Social News

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